Scandal **** (1989, John Hurt, Joanne Whalley, Bridget Fonda, Ian McKellen, Leslie Phillips, Britt Ekland, Daniel Massey) – Classic Movie Review 10,821

The 1989 drama Scandal is a major British film about the 1963 Profumo sex, spies and politics scandal, with superb performances by John Hurt as bon-viveur osteopath Dr Stephen Ward and Joanne Whalley as exotic dancer Christine Keeler.

Director Michael Caton-Jones’s 1989 historical drama Scandal is a major British film about the 1963 Profumo sex, spies and politics scandal, with superb, sympathetic performances by John Hurt as the English bon-viveur osteopath Dr Stephen Ward and Joanne Whalley as the young exotic dancer Christine Keeler.

It also stars Ian McKellen as the Conservative Party Cabinet Minister of War John Profumo, Bridget Fonda as Mandy Rice-Davies, Jeroen Krabbé as the Russian spy Eugene Ivanov, Leslie Phillips as Lord Astor, Britt Ekland as Mariella Novotny, and Daniel Massey as Mervyn Griffith-Jones.

Ward meets Keeler and invites her to live with him, and, through his contacts and swinging parties, she and her showgirl friend Mandy Rice-Davies (Bridget Fonda) become high society escorts and get to meet and date members of the Conservative Party, notably the Conservative Party Minister of War John Profumo (Ian McKellen), prompting a huge scandal when their affair becomes public knowledge. The scandal is so big that it nearly topples the Government of British prime minister Harold Macmillan.

It is a thoroughly enjoyable film, and there is an intelligent, informative and clever script by Michael Thomas campaigning against sexual hypocrisy and a contemptible establishment that closes ranks under threat.

Director Caton-Jones painstakingly evokes the seedy, hypocritical early Sixties atmosphere of shoddy, ‘never had it so good’, or ‘never been had so good’.

Scandal has a sensational story to tell and it tells it sensational well. It is quite scandalously good.

The theme song ‘Nothing Has Been Proved’ was written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys and sung by Dusty Springfield.

Also in the cast are Roland Gift, Jean Alexander, Alex Norton, Ronald Fraser, Paul Brooke, Keith Allen, Ralph Brown, Ken Campbell, Iain Cuthbertson, Susannah Doyle, Joanna Dunham, Trevor Eve, Oliver Ford Davies, Deborah Grant, Valerie Griffiths, Leon Herbert, Richard Morant, Terence Rigby, Joan Turner and James Villiers.

Trevor Eve is billed as Matinee Idol, though his character is named David Fairfax Jr, a reference to Douglas Fairbanks Jr, who could not be named for legal reasons for his real-life role in the Profumo affair.

Deborah Grant plays Profumo’s wife, the actress Valerie Hobson, but in the end credits she is identified only as Mrs Profumo.

Fonda was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

According to Whalley, a body double was used when her husband (Val Kilmer) objected to the nude scenes.

For the theatrical release poster, Whalley re-creates Keeler’s famous 1963 publicity shoot pose straddling the chair.

Three versions of the film are available for home viewing: the complete 114 minute unrated version, a slightly edited 111 minute unrated version and the heavily cut 105 minute R-rated version.

It was planned as a TV mini-series, but as the BBC pulled out and Channel 4 was not interested on grounds of taste, Palace Pictures turned it into a feature film with an estimated budget of £3.2 million. The story’s controversial nature and its sexual content appealed to Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s independent film company Miramax and the Weinsteins agreed to pay $2.35 million for the North American distribution rights.

The film was a hit, and made £3,705,065 in the UK.

But, talking of the pain felt by his parents on the film’s release, David Profumo said: ‘I never felt sorrier for them in my life.’

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 10,821

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