Conduct Unbecoming

Conduct Unbecoming (1975)

An unspeakable crime among officers and ladies.

A company of British soldiers in colonial India is shaken when the widow of their most honored hero is assaulted. A young officer must defend a fellow lieutenant from the charges in an unusual court-martial, while investigating the deepening mystery behind the attack.

Date of release
1975-10-04
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (24)
Runtime
1h 47m
Genres
Crime, Drama, Mystery
Director
Michael Anderson

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Awards: 1 · Nominations: 0. Including: National Board of Review: Top Ten Films

Conduct Unbecoming is a 1975 British period legal drama film directed by Michael Anderson and adapted by Robert Enders from Barry England's play of the same name. It features an ensemble cast, starring Michael York, Richard Attenborough, Trevor Howard, Stacy Keach, Christopher Plummer and Susannah York. Set in a British Indian Army barracks in the late 19th-century, the film centers on an impromptu court-martial following the assault of Captain John Scarlett's widow Marjorie.

Production

Barry England's play premiered in 1969 and had a short run on Broadway the following year. The film was greenlit by Michael Deeley and Barry Spikings who had recently become managing directors of British Lion Films and was part financed through a US tax deal. Deeley said there had been a number of screenplays written, including one by Terence Rattigan which Deeley says cost £250,000.

Deeley hired Michael Anderson to direct, in part because he was efficient, and the film was shot at Shepperton Studios over four weeks starting mid November 1974. This meant the filmmakers had five weeks before the studio shut down over Christmas. Deeley says "the picture ran like clockwork". The veteran Elizabeth Haffenden designed the costumes in her final film production.

A novelisation of the film was produced by the writer Rupert Croft-Cooke and published by W. H. Allen.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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