Conduct Unbecoming

Certainly excellent acting by an excellent cast. Its only boring if you don't understand the time, place and principles. This is hard to do in the 21st century. Honor, loyalty and comradeship are rare commodities today, not really highly valued or understood. That makes this film all the more worth watching and pondering. To be a common man in a position of such infallibility is beyond imagination today, but such were the colonial British in the Victorian era. I find this story absolutely fascinating and Stacy Keatch's performance as the only American in the film one of his best. Acting, writing, directing and beautiful color, I loved it. I'm grateful its finally on DVD.

Despite the pretty stellar cast list, I struggled a bit with this rather dreary story. It centres around James Faulkner's "Lt. Millington" who is being court-martialled in British India for a serious assault on the widow of a fallen colleague - "Mrs. Scarlett" (Susannah York). He is to be defended by the inexperienced "Drake" (Michael York) before a committee chaired by the openly hostile "Capt. Harper" (Stacey Keach). On the face of it, he is doomed - but some tenacious investigative work from his counsel gradually gets to the bottom of what happened. The ending is more of a sort of guess which of the other famous actors - Trevor Howard, Richard Attenborough or perhaps Christopher Plummer might have done it given we are pretty safe to assume that poor old "Millington" is being stitched up. Sadly, this moves at a glacial pace with none of the characters offering much by way of depth or interest. Colourful? Yes, that's true - and the costumes and settings all look great, but like so many of these latter-day tales of Empire, it is all faintly ridiculous and swings clumsily at the supposed honour of the "regiment" at all costs in quite a shallow fashion. I found the direction was much more suitable for a theatrical delivery, too. Disappointing.

If you're familiar with Fametracker and its 'Hey! It's that guy!' feature, you'll understand what I mean by an 'it's-him'. It's when you watch a film and all the way through you're pointing at second banana actors going 'Oh look, it's him'. One of the pleasures of this film is trying to work out exactly why so-and-so's face is familiar and then realising it's Prior Robert from TVs Cadfael, or something similar.

I read the play Conduct Unbecoming at school, and while this film does not go quite as deeply into the themes it throws up, ie moral bankruptcy in the British Raj/army and macho values in general, it remains a well-made, well acted period drama redolent of the distinctive spirit of the period.

Then again, I could be biased because I find Milington so dishy (he played Herod Agrippa in I, Claudius, in case you're stumped!)

Fans of court-martial stories will definitely want to rent Conduct Unbecoming, starring both Michael and Susannah York, Christopher Plummer, Stacy Keach, Trevor Howard, and Richard Attenborough. Set in British-occupied India, this mysterious story will keep you guessing until the end, and all the while you can look at the pretty costumes and beautiful sets.

Michael York arrives at his new post and is immediately befriended by James Faulkner, even though such an association might not be wise. James has a disrespectful attitude that frequently gets him in trouble. At an officer's ball, Susannah York rebuffs James's advances out in the garden. Minutes later, she's found with a torn gown and a rape accusation on her lips. Naturally, James is arrested and subjected to a court martial. It's supposed to be cut and dried, since Susannah is a beloved war hero's widow, and no one would dare question her word. But Michael takes on the position of advocate for the defense and threatens to open a messy can of worms. Stacy, Chris, and Trevor all warn him against it, but he believes in the honor of the army and the law so he tries hard to give James a fair trial.

This was an enjoyable drama with a great cast all giving their best. I didn't love the way it ended, but the rest of the journey was entertaining and full of great twists that kept me on the edge of my seat.

"Conduct Unbecoming" is a sort of thriller settled in a British regiment in colonial India. The widow of a heroic officer is assaulted by an unrevealed comrade in arms and an investigation takes place.

In my opinion, though not a classic and not even perhaps a great movie, this film is a most interesting product for those of us who enjoy "who did it?" movies. It takes place in a most original environment and its substance increases with subjects like military honor, loyalty, camaraderie and cowardice.

The cast is perfect and another highlight in the film with very convincing performances from Trevor Howard (as usual), Cristopher Plummer, Richard Attenborough, Michael York, Susanah York and always reliable James Donald in a minor role.

I'm sure that with a more imaginative and strong director than Michael Anderson (Stanley Kubrick, John Frankenheimer just to name a couple), this could have been a great film, nearly a classic).

But nonetheless, "Conduct Unbecoming" stands as a fine piece of entertainment in its genre and surely is worth a watch.