I lived in Kenya for some years and visited most of the places shown in the movie, except that Happy Valley was long gone but the Diana and Joss (Lord Erroll) love story was still debated.
Diana - probably a sexy gold-digger - married as her second husband the much older Sir Broughton, "Jock" Delves, and moved happily to Kenya just as WWII started. Who can blame her? Given the chance, would you have stayed in war-torn Europe or moved with a millionaire to a beautiful country?
Unfortunately, once there Diana was immediately in the middle of a sexual scandal, becoming in record time the lover of the notorious Lord Josslyn Erroll, the womanizer of Happy Valley. Married and divorced twice, Joss is shown to have fallen in love with Diana (and vice-versa), but their liaison lasted a month, so it's difficult to say if it was true love or a hot flirt. Joss's life was cut short by a few bullets and the guilty party was never officially found.
One of Joss's discarded lovers was the eccentric American heiress Alice de Janzé, notorious for having shot her lover (in Paris - and in his genitals - according to Diana's friend June). Being trigger-happy Alice was a suspect in the murder, but she had no motive since the two were not involved at the time. Alice committed suicide shortly after Joss's death, but she had uterine cancer, and, being over 40, she was also upset about getting old in a social scene where only beauty was important. One of the the lines of the movie is indeed "Do you know what happens to a girl when she gets over 40? Nothing"
Therefore, as pointed out also in the James Fox book, on which the movie is based, the only possible suspect as the one with a motive was Diana's husband, even if he was acquitted. In the movie, he's shown shooting himself in Kenya, after having shot Joss's dog - as if he wasn't a despicable enough character. In real life, he died in Liverpool in 1942, of a morphine overdose.
Diana went on marrying the rich Colvile, she divorced again and with her fourth marriage, she became Lady Delamere, of the once famous (in Kenya) Delamere Dairy.
I don't know how it was in Diana's time, but in the movie is too sanitized and civilized a background. Kenya is beautiful, but rough, dusty, and dangerous. Roads are treacherous even for modern Land Rover and I don't know how they could manage to speed on dirt roads with the vehicles of the 40s, as shown in a few scenes.
Diana - probably a sexy gold-digger - married as her second husband the much older Sir Broughton, "Jock" Delves, and moved happily to Kenya just as WWII started. Who can blame her? Given the chance, would you have stayed in war-torn Europe or moved with a millionaire to a beautiful country?
Unfortunately, once there Diana was immediately in the middle of a sexual scandal, becoming in record time the lover of the notorious Lord Josslyn Erroll, the womanizer of Happy Valley. Married and divorced twice, Joss is shown to have fallen in love with Diana (and vice-versa), but their liaison lasted a month, so it's difficult to say if it was true love or a hot flirt. Joss's life was cut short by a few bullets and the guilty party was never officially found.
One of Joss's discarded lovers was the eccentric American heiress Alice de Janzé, notorious for having shot her lover (in Paris - and in his genitals - according to Diana's friend June). Being trigger-happy Alice was a suspect in the murder, but she had no motive since the two were not involved at the time. Alice committed suicide shortly after Joss's death, but she had uterine cancer, and, being over 40, she was also upset about getting old in a social scene where only beauty was important. One of the the lines of the movie is indeed "Do you know what happens to a girl when she gets over 40? Nothing"
Therefore, as pointed out also in the James Fox book, on which the movie is based, the only possible suspect as the one with a motive was Diana's husband, even if he was acquitted. In the movie, he's shown shooting himself in Kenya, after having shot Joss's dog - as if he wasn't a despicable enough character. In real life, he died in Liverpool in 1942, of a morphine overdose.
Diana went on marrying the rich Colvile, she divorced again and with her fourth marriage, she became Lady Delamere, of the once famous (in Kenya) Delamere Dairy.
I don't know how it was in Diana's time, but in the movie is too sanitized and civilized a background. Kenya is beautiful, but rough, dusty, and dangerous. Roads are treacherous even for modern Land Rover and I don't know how they could manage to speed on dirt roads with the vehicles of the 40s, as shown in a few scenes.