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''Scandal'' is a 1989 British historical drama film, directed by Michael Caton-Jones. It is a fictionalised account of the
Profumo affair The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler be ...
that rocked the government of British prime minister Harold Macmillan. It stars
Joanne Whalley Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Scandal'' ( ...
as Christine Keeler and
John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...
as
Stephen Ward Stephen Thomas Ward (19 October 1912 – 3 August 1963) was an English osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair, a British political scandal which brought about the resignation of John Profumo, the Sec ...
, personalities at the heart of the affair. ''Scandal'' was screened in competition at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. Its theme song "
Nothing Has Been Proved "Nothing Has Been Proved" is a song and a single release by British singer Dusty Springfield, written and produced by the Pet Shop Boys. The song was the second collaboration between Springfield and the Pet Shop Boys, following their UK #2 and ...
" was written and produced by Pet Shop Boys and sung by
Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dram ...
.


Plot

An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young
exotic dancer A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at a bachelor party or other private event. M ...
and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his wide range of contacts and his parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. A scandal develops when her affair with the
Minister of War A defence minister or minister of defence is a cabinet official position in charge of a ministry of defense, which regulates the armed forces in sovereign states. The role of a defence minister varies considerably from country to country; in som ...
comes to public attention.


Cast

*
John Hurt Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors. Director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in t ...
as
Stephen Ward Stephen Thomas Ward (19 October 1912 – 3 August 1963) was an English osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair, a British political scandal which brought about the resignation of John Profumo, the Sec ...
*
Joanne Whalley Joanne Whalley (born 25 August 1961) is an English actress who began her career in 1974. She has appeared primarily on television, but also in nearly 30 feature films, including '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985), ''Willow'' (1988), ''Scandal'' ( ...
as Christine Keeler * Bridget Fonda as
Mandy Rice-Davies Marilyn Rice-Davies (21 October 1944 – 18 December 2014) was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Mi ...
* Ian McKellen as
John Profumo John Dennis Profumo, CBE,( ; 30 January 1915 – 9 March 2006) was a British politician whose career ended in 1963 after a sexual relationship with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler in 1961. The scandal, which became known as the Profumo ...
*
Leslie Phillips Leslie Samuel Phillips (20 April 1924 – 7 November 2022) was an English actor, director, producer and author. He achieved prominence in the 1950s, playing smooth, upper-class comic roles utilising his "Ding dong" and "Hello" catchphrases. ...
as Lord Astor *
Britt Ekland Britt Ekland (; born Britt-Marie Eklund; 6 October 1942) is a Swedish actress, model and singer. She appeared in numerous films in her heyday throughout the 1960s and 1970s, including roles in '' The Double Man'' (1967), '' The Night They Raided ...
as
Mariella Novotny Mariella Novotny (born Stella Marie Capes, 9 May 1941 – 1 February 1983) was an English socialite and prostitute who was part of Christine Keeler's social circle and mixed extensively with British establishment figures in the events leading up t ...
* Daniel Massey as Mervyn Griffith-Jones * Roland Gift as Johnny Edgecombe * Jeroen Krabbé as Eugene Ivanov *
Jean Alexander Jean Margaret Hodgkinson (11 October 1926 – 14 October 2016), known by the stage name Jean Alexander, was a British television actress. She was best known to television viewers for her long running role of Hilda Ogden in the soap opera ''Co ...
as Mrs. Keeler * Deborah Grant as Valerie Hobson *
Alex Norton Alexander Hugh Norton (born 27 January 1950) is a Scottish actor. He is known for his roles as DCI Matt Burke in the STV detective drama series '' Taggart'', Eric Baird in BBC Two sitcom '' Two Doors Down'', DCS Wallace in '' Extremely Dangerou ...
as Detective Inspector * Ronald Fraser as Justice Marshall *
Paul Brooke Paul Brooke (born 22 November 1944) is a retired English actor of film, television and radio. He made his film debut in 1972 in the Hammer film '' Straight on till Morning'', followed by performances in '' For Your Eyes Only'' (1981), ''Return o ...
as John, Detective Sgt. * Keith Allen as Kevin, Reporter Sunday Pictorial *
Ralph Brown Ralph William John Brown (born 18 June 1957) is an English actor and writer, known for playing Danny the drug dealer in ''Withnail and I'', the security guard Aaron (a.k.a. "85") in ''Alien 3'', DJ Bob Silver in ''The Boat That Rocked'' aka ' ...
as Paul Mann *
Iain Cuthbertson Iain Cuthbertson (4 January 1930 – 4 September 2009) was a Scottish character actor and theatre director. He was known for his tall imposing build and also his distinctive gravelly, heavily accented voice. He had lead roles in ''The Border ...
as
Lord Hailsham Viscount Hailsham, of Hailsham in the County of Sussex, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1929 for the lawyer and Conservative politician Douglas Hogg, 1st Baron Hailsham, who twice served as Lord High Chancello ...
*
Johnny Shannon Johnny Shannon (born 29 July 1932) is an English actor who appeared in numerous television and film productions over a 40-year period, often playing policemen or crooks in crime dramas. Shannon's most memorable roles include the crime lord Harry ...
as
Peter Rachman Perec "Peter" Rachman (16 August 1919 – 29 November 1962) was a Polish-born landlord who operated in Notting Hill, London, England in the 1950s and early 1960s. He became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, with the word "Rachmanism" ...
* Leon Herbert as Lucky Gordon


Production


Development

Australian screenwriter Michael Thomas and prospective producer
Joe Boyd Joe Boyd (born August 5, 1942) is an American record producer and writer. He formerly owned Hannibal Records. Boyd has worked on recordings of Pink Floyd, Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, The Incredible String Ba ...
approached the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
with the idea of a three-part mini-series on the
Profumo affair The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government, had an extramarital affair with 19-year-old model Christine Keeler be ...
. The BBC agreed to finance scripts for two of the 90-minute episodes, but support dried up when internal memos were found that forbade their production.
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...
turned them down on grounds of taste. Boyd and Thomas joined forces with Palace Pictures who invested nearly £200,000 by 1985; a further £184,319 of development funding was raised from
Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from ...
. As the prospects for a television mini-series began to fade, Palace Pictures became increasingly interested in making a feature film and estimated the budget requirements at £3.2 million. Co-founders Stephen Woolley and Nik Powell signed up first time director Michael Caton-Jones on a
pay-or-play In filmmaking Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through scre ...
contract and began a marketing campaign to raise the finance. The controversial nature of the story, as well as its sexual content, appealed to
Bob Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...
and
Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...
's independent film company, Miramax. The Weinsteins agreed to pay $2.35 million for the North American distribution rights. The original screenplay was written as a historically detailed mini-series running four to five hours. When it was pared down to film length, it became more of a docudrama, with a chronology that is sometimes unclear. Producer Woolley arranged discreet meetings between
Mandy Rice-Davies Marilyn Rice-Davies (21 October 1944 – 18 December 2014) was a Welsh model and showgirl best known for her association with Christine Keeler and her role in the Profumo affair, which discredited the Conservative government of British Prime Mi ...
and Bridget Fonda to help the American actress with her portrayal.


Filming

Filming began in June 1988. Part of ''Scandal'' was filmed at Bathurst Mews in Bayswater, London, although Ward's house was actually at Wimpole Mews in
Marylebone Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary. An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
. The exterior of 29 Francis Street, Victoria, SW1 was used as the Police Station.


Poster

Christine Keeler took part in a publicity shoot with photographer
Lewis Morley Lewis Frederick Morley (16 June 1925 – 3 September 2013) was a photographer. Biography Morley was born in Hong Kong to English and Chinese parents and interned in Stanley Internment Camp during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong between 1941 ...
for a 1963 film about the Profumo Affair, ''The Keeler Affair''. Under pressure to pose nude, Keeler agreed to sit straddling the chair with just the back of the chair as a screen. The film was never released in the United Kingdom, but the image became "one of the most famous and most imitated photographs ever published". Joanne Whalley-Kilmer recreated the pose for the theatrical release poster.


US classification

The Weinsteins had been impressed by the amount of free publicity generated for
Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English filmmaker. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts ...
's ''
Angel Heart ''Angel Heart'' is a 1987 American neo-noir psychological horror film, an adaptation of William Hjortsberg's 1978 novel ''Falling Angel''. The film was written and directed by Alan Parker, and stars Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro, Lisa Bonet, an ...
'' in 1987 when it was initially given an "X" rating in the United States. Beginning with ''Scandal'', Harvey Weinstein would routinely help publicise Miramax's films by attacking the integrity of the Classification and Rating Administration (CARA) and X ratings. They encouraged Woolley and Powell to deliver an X rated movie, and in particular to include nude shots of Whalley-Kilmer. The film was awarded an X rating for its orgy scene, but after two appeals and three seconds of edits, it was released with an "R" rating.


Soundtrack

The soundtrack, and soundtrack album, included a specially written song by the Pet Shop Boys "Nothing Has Been Proved" for
Dusty Springfield Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien (16 April 1939 – 2 March 1999), known professionally as Dusty Springfield, was an English singer. With her distinctive mezzo-soprano sound, she was a popular singer of blue-eyed soul, pop and dram ...
.


Reception

The film received positive reviews. At the movie review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, ''Scandal'' received an overall approval rating of 91% based on 32 reviews. Roger Ebert awarded it four stars out of four and said the film was "surprisingly wise about the complexities of the human heart". He praised the performance of John Hurt. Following Hurt's death, ''The Guardian'' film critic
Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdasher ...
said the performance was Hurt's masterpiece. The film made a comfortable profit. In the UK it made £3,705,065. Commenting on the pain felt by his parents when the film was released, David Profumo said, "I never felt sorrier for them in my life".


References


Notes


Citations


External links

* * {{Michael Caton-Jones 1989 films 1980s political drama films 1980s historical drama films British historical drama films British political drama films 1980s English-language films Films about adultery in the United Kingdom British films based on actual events Films directed by Michael Caton-Jones Films scored by Carl Davis Films set in 1963 Films set in London Palace Pictures films Cultural depictions of John Profumo Cultural depictions of Christine Keeler 1989 directorial debut films 1980s British films