Conduct Unbecoming

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!)

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.

Based on play ,and it shows, a little talky, the movie can boast the creme de la creme of British actors: Attenborough, Howard, Plummer,both York et al and this is the main reason you should watch this overlooked work.

The scene in which the widow of a captain who would have been killed in action is awarded a medal is pivotal : the keywords to the movie are pride and honor.

When this widow is attacked by a rookie (a naive young man who thinks that his only punishment would be to be expelled from the army , a thing he ardently hopes -the very first scene is revealing- ) one attends a travesty of a trial ,where the court martial's purpose is less the search for truth (which might be really unbecoming) than to preserve the military values, to keep up appearances .A rotten microcosm where things better left unsaid happen .

"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.

This film is flat lifeless and dull.It t staged in one main set and it gives the feeling of having been filmed in the theatre.It is not so much a whodunit as a whocareswhodunnit.When the actual assailant is revealed the only feeling is of relief that this film is coming to a conclusion.Terence Rattigan was apparently paid £250000 for an unused screenplay.That was probably more than the test of the films budget.