Scandal (1989, UK)

In first-time feature director Michael Caton-Jones' historical docu-melodrama - the fictionalized tale was set in the swinging Sixties, and told about the British government tabloid scandal in 1963 (aka the Profumo Scandal). Two young exotic dancers were being pimped out to very powerful members of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government (and simultaneously to a Soviet KGB agent). The whole debacle led to the end of Macmillan's reign in late 1964.

Oddy, it was originally rated X for its notorious after-dinner orgy scene (since re-edited), although it didn't warrant a hard-core rating. On a budget of $7 million, it took in revenue of $8.8 million (worldwide).

• the drama opened in London in the year 1959, and began with the introduction of:Christine Keeler (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), from a British working-class family, a 17 year-old model-showgirl - an underaged performer in a burlesque nightclub show, at first a peroxide blonde, and then a brunette
• Christine Keeler had relocated to London from the countryside, and had begun performing as a chorus girl in a respectable topless revue show at Murray's Club
• in the course of her work in the nightclub while Christine was performing in the chorus line, she was spotted and then closely befriended by Dr. Stephen Ward (John Hurt), a social-climbing, well-meaning, liberated bon-vivant hedonist, artist and osteopath

Dr. Stephen Ward (John Hurt)
	Christine Keeler (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) - Originally as a Peroxide Blonde

• shortly after meeting her at Murray's Club, but unable to obtain her phone number, Stephen persistently drove up to Christine's lower-class country home where she was living with her mother (Jean Alexander), picked her up in his luxurious sports car, and drove her to Lord William Astor's (Leslie Phillips) large estate at Cliveden, where he dazzled her by pulling up to a large Tudor style cottage on the grounds; he also toured the immense estate with its outdoor swimming pool and beautiful gardens; his ultimate objective was to groom and mentor her to mingle with the wealthy and powerful, and to introduce her to his high-class mostly-male political friends - described while sketching her: "God gave you beauty, Christine. You're lucky. You should enjoy it. You move like a racehorse. You walk like a Derby winner. You must let me help you. Introduce you to some friends of mine, some photographers, film people, television people. It's my vocation, you see. My vice. When I see beauty like yours - wild, untutored, elemental beauty. I long to liberate it. It's my life's work, in a way. I could do wonders with you, little baby. Could shock the world"
• Stephen pursued her further, and soon after, Keeler moved in to live with him in his row-house, where he insisted that their relationship as "very good friends" was simply platonic; she transformed herself into a brunette, and then participated in a party at his apartment with some of his elite friends to celebrate the Conservative Party's victory in Britain's general election; the table was decorated with a giant ice sculpture of an erect phallus; Christine was introduced to a swingers' party, and after a moment's hesitation, she joined in by stripping off her clothes
• the next morning, Stephen claimed that it was only harmless fun: "There's nothing to be afraid of. We're all flesh. There's no harm in it, so long as nobody gets hurt. Trouble with this world is everybody's afraid to enjoy themselves, or they're too ashamed to admit it"
• back at the burlesque show, a cool blonde was threatening to take Christine's "place" - by sitting in her backstage dressing room makeup chair; it was Mandy Rice-Davies (Bridget Fonda), a teenaged 16 year-old blonde - a calculating personality who was lying to her mother on the phone about what she was doing

Mandy Rice-Davies (Bridget Fonda) - Backstage Usurping Christine's "Place"

Christine Keeler - the Burlesque Show's Headliner

Mandy Rice-Davies - Appearing Topless to Upstage Christine

• on her first dance appearance, Mandy upstaged the fully-costumed Keeler, playing a topless American Indian maiden (with a long, black pig-tailed wig) in a kitschy stage number with the repetitive chorus of "Ooga! Ooga! Ooga!"; shortly later, Keeler became friends with Mandy, and Mndy moved in with Christine and Stephen at his house; they were soon being mentored and pimped out by Stephen as bed-hopping call girls to wealthy clients
• in one of the film's most memorable scenes, to the sounds of Apache by The Shadows, the two beautiful playthings (in a series of extreme closeups) prepared and dressed for a night on the town at "Club 21":
  • they attached their garters
  • applied eye makeup
  • fastened their bustiers
  • put on nail polish
  • used glossy lipstick

Christine (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer) and Mandy (Bridget Fonda) - Preparing For a Night on the Town

• later after an abrupt cut, they were seen in a bed embracing each other on gold-colored silk sheets, and making very vocal, orgasmic sounds together; it was revealed that they were faking - pretending to be lesbian, when they burst into laughter to tease their male pick-up or john in the same room - American "Matinee Idol" (Trevor Eve) (loosely based on actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), who was watching their arousing performance; afterwards, they engaged in a menage-a-trois with him
• meanwhile in his doctor's office, Stephen was seducing one of his attractive patients, Mariella Novotny (Britt Ekland) (described by Stephen as "the best-bred harlot in town"), who begged: "Tie me down"
• due to Stephen Ward's miscalculation (and the reason for the eventual 'Profumo Scandal'), Keeler provided sexual favors to two opposing government officials in mid-1961:
  • Eugene Ivanov (Jeroen Krabbe), a high-ranking, Soviet military-navy diplomat
  • John ("Jack") Profumo (Ian McKellen) - the rising 46-year-old Conservative Party politician, the British War Minister (Secretary of State for War), and a suspected Russian spy

		Christine with Soviet Diplomat Ivanov (Jeroen Krabbe)
Christine with John "Jack" Profumo (Ian McKellen)

• the 'scandal' developed from a scene set in 1961 at Cliveden (Lord Astor's estate), where Christine was swimming in the pool one night; to entertain Stephen Ward and Ivanov, and at their urging, she stripped down to perform a naked fan-dance with palm fronds next to the swimming pool; embarrassed, when she tried to escape and run into the house, she fled directly into the arms of Lord Astor's bald-headed dinner guest John Profumo (who exclaimed: "Got you!"), and thus sparked his personal interest in her
• while sleeping regularly with both Ivanov and Profumo, Christine (with Stephen) also attended an after-dinner orgy (originally an X-rated scene that was re-edited down to R-rated); while Stephen dallied with Mariella again (calling her "the best-bred harlot in town"), a clothed Christine watched as various couples had intercourse all around her; Mandy was also in attendance - she encountered a masked man offering glasses of champagne on a tray with a sign around his neck reading: "PLEASE BEAT ME IF I FAIL TO SATISFY."

The Notorious After-Dinner Orgy Party

• as their affair heated up, Profumo insisted that Christine acquire a flat of her own, so that his paranoia of being discovered or watched could be better controlled; she refused to move out and give up Stephen; Christine told Profumo that Stephen couldn't live without her and ended the affair with Profumo; however, she was becoming increasingly frustrated with having sex with old men: "I want to go out dancing.... I feel like - I want to have some fun for a change!"
• in late 1962, after a night out that turned violent (between two Jamaicans - gangster Johnnie Edgecombe (Roland Gift) and Lucky Gordon (Leon Herbert)) - she returned to Stephen's flat and was amused to find Mandy in his bedroom!
• later in the film's most dramatic turning point, Christine blamed Stephen for getting her involved in a risky and wild lifestyle, mixing with violence-prone individuals ("around Westbourne Grove") and urging her to be a prostitute: "I'd never have met any of those people. It was all your idea....'Be a devil, ' you said. 'Never say no to a dare,' you said. You took me to all the parties. You introduced me to everybody I know. I'm yours, Stephen. You pull the strings. I'm what you made me"
• Stephen decided to let Christine go: "It's over, little baby. It's over," and left her standing in the rain; that same evening, Keeler confessed her notorious associations to Sunday Pictorial reporter Kevin (Keith Allen) that she had been sexually involved with Profumo, and had been pimped out by Stephen: ("It's all Stephen's fault. It's all his idea")
• it soon became public knowledge after the news was printed in every London newspaper - with the proposed heading: "The War Minister, the Model, and the Russian Spy"; to downplay the story and provide cover-up, Stephen proposed to hide Christine away somewhere outside England: "I dreamt her up. I can make her vanish." Predictably, Profumo denied the affair to Stephen: "I never touched her....Never laid a finger on her"
• meanwhile, Christine signed an exclusive with the Sunday Pictorial for a 1,000 pounds to sell her tabloid story, and provide for her living expenses outside of England where she was hiding; shortly later, in January of 1963, Ivanov was recalled to the Soviet Union for being sexually-involved with Christine; the Soviet spy and Stephen knew there would have to be a scapegoat: ("They will be looking for someone to take the blame").
• in March of 1963, Profumo lied about his affair with Keeler to Parliament (House of Commons), stating that there was 'no impropriety whatsoever' in his relationship with her; it would become a major scandal and "breach of security" - when it was learned that she had bedded both the British Defense Minister and a Russian military attache at the same time
• when Profumo's duplicity was exposed shortly later in June, he was forced to resign and admit in a written statement that he had lied; Christine had already returned to England and tried to argue that she and Stephen were innocent; she confessed that she wasn't pimped out by Stephen and that they shared as friends, and loved each other: "We were friends, we shared...He didn't keep me....I love Stephen. He's the only man I've ever loved." When they were able to visit together one last time, Stephen told Christine: "Dreaded it. Nightmares. Always been afraid that the day would come when they'd throw me to the dogs"

Both on the Witness Stand During Highly Publicized Trial

• Stephen was arrested for procurement and brought before a highly publicized trial; both Mandy and Christine were pressured to testify against Stephen - who was accused by the prosecutors of being their pimp (or "ponce"), and that they had received money in exchange for sex; although Mandy hadn't met or ever had sexual relations with Ivanov or Profumo, she basked in the publicity of the moment
• a month later, as a result of the scandal and public trial, Stephen suicidally killed himself with a drug-overdose of Nembutal; in his suicide note, he stated (in voice-over): "It's really more than I can stand, the horror day after day in the court and in the street. It's not only fear, it's the wish not to let them get me. I'd rather get myself. I do hope I haven't let people down too much. I tried to do my stuff. But after Marshall's summing-up, I've given up all hope"; Stephen (who never regained consciousness after the overdose) died in a hospital four days after the trial judged him as guilty for living off the immoral earnings of prostitution
• in the film's postscript composed of title cards, Keeler was also found guilty of perjury and conspiracy and was imprisoned for a few months; Mandy took advantage of her notoriety and became a cabaret singer and film actress, and opened a string of nightclubs in Israel; in mid-October 1963, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigned, and the following year, his Conservative government lost power