Conduct Unbecoming

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 an officer's widow. Conduct Unbecoming was released by British Lion Films on October 5, 1975, to generally positive reviews. The American National Board of Review ranked the film in its Top Ten Films of 1975. Plot In 1880, two young British officers arrive to join a regiment in India. One, 2nd Lieutenant Arthur Drake, from a middle-class background, is extremely eager to fit in while the other, 2nd Lieutenant Edward Millington, the son of a general, is keen to get out as soon as possible and deliberately antagonizes his fellow officers. The two newcomers learn the traditions of the regiment, one of which is a mess game in which they chase a wooden pig on wheels, attempting to pierce its anus with their swords. Mrs. Marjorie Scarlett, the flirtatious and attractive widow of a captain who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, is a constant presence in the regiment. One night at a mess dance, Millington gets drunk and tries to seduce Mrs. Scarlett in the garden. She repels him, but moments later runs back into the mess wounded and in shock, claiming the culprit was Millington. An informal court martial – more a mock trial than anything else – is organised with Drake ordered to be Millington's defending officer.