A millionaire past his prime and his young wife arrive in Kenya circa 1940 to find that the other affluent British expatriates are living large as the homefront gears up for war. They are busy swapping partners, doing drugs, and attending lavish parties and horse races. She begins a torrid affair with one of the bon vivants, and her husband finds out and confronts them. The husband and wife decide to break up peacefully, but the bon vivant is murdered and all the evidence points to the husband.
Cinematography
Kenya looks impossibly golden, making the decadence almost edible.
Costume
Linen suits and safari chic as armor against nothing.
Director
Michael Radford
Greta Scacchi
Diana, Lady Broughton
Charles Dance
Josslyn Hay
Joss Ackland
'Jock' Delves Broughton
Sarah Miles
Alice de Janzé
John Hurt
Gilbert Colville
Trevor Howard
Jack Soames
Geraldine Chaplin
Nina Soames
Murray Head
Lizzie
Ray McAnally
Morris
Susan Fleetwood
Gladys, Lady Delamer
Catherine Neilson
Lady June Carberry
Alan Dobie
Sir Walter Harrigan
Hugh Grant
Hugh
Gregor Fisher
McPherson
Jacqueline Pearce
Idina Soltau
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The real Happy Valley murder inspired the novel; the actual case remains officially unsolved.
The film captures the last gasp of British colonial fantasy before Kenya's independence movements made this lifestyle impossible.
GB
