A Handful of Dust (1988) on Netflix
Tony Last's life centers on Hetton Abbey, the ancestral English estate he loves. His wife Brenda begins an affair with John Beaver, a social climber, and Tony notices nothing.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb6.5/102,747 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes83%
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Plot summary
In the 1930s, Tony Last lives at Hetton Abbey, the Victorian Gothic estate he inherited, and keeps up the ways of an English gentleman with his wife Brenda and their young son John Andrew. Brenda is discontented with quiet country life. John Beaver, a well-connected friend of modest means, invites himself for a weekend, and the Lasts receive him. Beaver and Brenda begin an affair. Beaver's mother, Mrs. Beaver, who makes her money renting property, sees Brenda as a source of revenue and rents them an apartment in London. Tony pays for the apartment without understanding what it is used for, and he stays unaware of the affair.
Cast
- Jeanne Wattsas Nanny
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Handful of Dust (1988)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Carlton Towers doubled for Hetton Abbey; its owner the Duke of Norfolk cameoed as a gardener when Mrs Rattery lands her plane on the lawn, and his daughter Marsha Fitzalan and other family members also took small roles.
- Charles Sturridge insisted that Kristin Scott Thomas screen-test for the part of Brenda, as she was then unknown and most of her acting jobs had been in French; she was four months pregnant when filming began.
- Originally conceived as a television project, A Handful of Dust became the first feature film financed by London Weekend Television.
- The break-up of Tony and Brenda Last's marriage in A Handful of Dust was inspired by the collapse of Evelyn Waugh's own marriage, and Tony's jungle ordeal by Waugh's time in British Guiana.
- Screenwriters Tim Sullivan and Derek Granger removed Jenny Abdul Akbar, the princess Brenda tries to set Tony up with in Evelyn Waugh's novel, from their screenplay.
- George Fenton's score for A Handful of Dust foreshadows the film's Amazonian ending by using indigenous flute music during the English scenes.
