Peter Viney's Blog

Georgy Girl 
1966

Directed by Silvio Narizzano
Screenplay by Margaret Forster and Peter Nichols
Based on the novel by Margaret Forster
Theme song by Tom Springfield and Jim Dale
Music by Alexander Faris

CAST

Lynn Redgrave – Georgy
Alan Bates – Jos Jones
James Mason – James Leamington
Charlotte Rampling – Meredith
Bill Owen – Ted
Clare Kelly – Doris
Rachel Kempson – Ellen Leamington
Denise Coffey – Peg
Dorothy Alison – health visitor
Dandy Nichols – midwife

 

Current blu-ray, which has original UK poster

The 60s retrospective series …

 

It’s that song that comes to mind first. As well as being a major international hit for The Seekers, it came with three versions of lyrics … opening, closing and 45 single release, written by comic actor Jim “Carry On films” Dale. The tune defines “catchy” and “earworm” – a gift Tom Springfield displayed in writing for The Seekers, but never more than here. Say ‘Georgy Girl’ and my mental picture is Judith Durham singing it, not Lynn Redgrave acting in it.

It may be because of the song that I was unfamiliar with the film in the 60s. The Seekers were so far from cool (it was only years later that I discovered they were actually pretty cool and hanging out and co-writing with Paul Simon). The film was released in October 1966. I was in my first term at university, and didn’t have a girlfriend at the time (Say “Aah! sympathetically). In 60s terms, it’s the sort of film you might have gone to see with a girlfriend, but not with a bunch of lads from the hall of residence after a couple of beers. So I didn’t see it then.

It’s always classed as a “Swinging 60s London” film along with Darling, Blow-up, Morgan, Alfie. Mainly it’s a “not swinging 60s London” experience, except for Meredith (Charlotte Rampling). I’m afraid Alan Bates’ jaunty cap doesn’t count. Musically it doesn’t connect either, apart from the theme song.

The casting puzzles me in that it’s said Vanessa Redgrave declined the role, and passed it to her sister, Lynn. Both got Academy Award nominations that year, Vanessa for Morgan and Lynn for Georgy Girl. The Redgraves also got their mum, Rachel Kempson, a part as the hypochondriac wife of the wealthy James Leamington (James Mason). Having just seen Vanessa Redgrave in Blow-up and Morgan it’s impossible to see how she would have fitted the basic requirement, to be a “big girl.” That must be the origin of the story … that Georgy is large, quite plain and unattractive BUT has personality – lively, caring and with a sense of humour. In the script she’s referred to as Georgy Porgy which is the nursery rhyme, Georgy Porgy, pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry. She is described in the script as fish face, fat face and big and ugly. The Swinging 60s aspect for women who remember it at the time, was the COUNTER Swinging 60s, in starring a character who was not the Jean Shrimpton / Twiggy / Kings Road / Mini-skirt / perfect legs template but who WAS interesting. The character of Meredith, who fitted the template, was an absolute bitch.

 

Margaret Forster’s novel was only recently published, and they added Peter Nichols for the screenplay. He had been in the original Combined Forces Entertainment unit in the Far East (which inspired It Ain’t Half Hot Mum) and was in a unit with John Schlesinger, Stanley Baxter and Kenneth Williams.  Playwrights were getting the lion’s share of screenwriting in the UK in the mid-60s.  Peter Nichols scripted Georgy Girl a year after Catch Us If You Can for the Dave Clark Five, and a year before his first stage success with A Day In The Death of Joe Egg. Margaret Forster did the initial screenplay, but couldn’t cut any of her story. Peter Nichols came in and totally re-did the dialogue. The director had to sort it out.

Silvio Narizzano was a Canadian director, working extensively in British TV, and in 1966 film, having a fashionably Italian name AND being a native English speaker was a huge advantage. Nevertheless all he got for directing it was £5000 and added, ‘Even then, that was low money.’

The blu-ray essay by Howard Maxford quotes Silvio Narizzano:

Silvio Narizzano: We always had Vanessa Redgrave down as the leading lady … I had only one question to ask her: how was she going to play this girl who looked like the back of a bus? Vanessa was the beautiful Greta Garbo of the sixties  … I wanted to know on what terms Vanessa was going to do the part so that we could alter the script accordingly. And we did … we took out all the stuff about her looking like the back end of a bus because it didn’t make sense anymore.

Vanessa Redgrave pulled out just a week before production and had asked them to consider her sister for the cameo of Peg. Narizzano met with Lynn and instantly knew he’d found his Georgy.

It was a budget production, shot in black and white … as was Morgan. Lynn Redgrave says it only got made because of James Mason:

Lynn Redgrave: They kept pulling the plug on the film because they said that James and I and Alan Bates didn’t add up to much at the box-office, but in the end, we got it made because of James’ enthusiasm for the quirkiness of the story, and the chance it gave him to go back to his Yorkshire accent. He took very little money for it, and we all thought it was just going to be a low-budget release, so when it became such a huge success, it was all the more lovely for those of us who’d always had faith in it.
Quoted in Sheridan Morley, James Mason: Odd Man Out, biography, 1989

She added that because of James Mason’s schedule, they filmed all his scenes in the first three weeks, which she described as like ‘making a mini-film.’

Lynn Redgrave (who was indeed the essential, tall, but neither”fat” nor “ugly”) acted it so well (you can do a lot with unflattering clothes and messy hair), that it blighted her career, forever described as ‘an ugly duckling,’ in spite of an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win.

Lynn Redgrave: All I got sent for a while were scripts about an ungainly character bumbling about and getting tangled in peoples lives.

It’s hard to see that the themes … pre-marital sex, promiscuity, sleeping with your pregnant friend’s husband, discussing abortion casually, i.e. three times this week, and that’s just on Eastenders,  were considered cutting edge and scandalous at the time. The British Board of Film Censors said ‘it was the most immoral script they’d ever read.’ But I suspect those prigs said that to a lot of producers.

PLOT

Georgy is short for Georgina, and she’s sometimes called George … I never fail to notice references to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five …

The opening shows her coming out of a shop with an elaborate hair do, looking at in a shop window and washing it off. Georgy is not a fashion victim. She’s never had a boyfriend either.

Georgy teaches a class of small kids dance, and plays the piano. She’s great with kids, a natural primary teacher.  The studio she uses is provided by her father’s employer, James Leavington (James Mason). Georgy’s dad, Ted, (Bill Owen) and mum (Clare Kelly) are live-in domestic staff. Her sycophantic dad is highly critical of Georgy’s lack of grooming, and says she looks like a tramp (British meaning, i.e. hobo).

Ted: She’s like some great enormous lorry driver.

Ted is devoted to his master:

Bill Owen:  James Mason was very good to act with, and of course (Ted) was a delightful part. It was written with this slight tendency to homosexual touches. It may be my imagination, but this old basket (Ted) was prepared to exist with his guv’nor rather than his daughter. Leamington was like a form of idol to Ted.

We learn that “Mr James” sent Georgy to a Swiss Finishing School, and installed the studio in his house for her. He has taken an interest in her all her life. His wife is bedridden, and a hypochondriac.

Meredith (Charlotte Rampling) in Mary Quant dress

Georgy shares a flat with Meredith (Charlotte Rampling) who treats her like dirt. Meredith has the Mary Quant dresses and boyfriends. Her main boyfriend is Jos Jones (Alan Bates). He thinks he’s her exclusive partner, but she’s always off with other blokes. I noted that as the story progresses they get steadily richer …  Lambretta mod scooter, then Triumph Spitfire sport car, up a level to a Sunbeam Alpine then finally a Mercedes. Georgy gets on well with Jos. When Meredith is late back, she prepares a meal for them both, but just gets dismissed when Meredith returns and takes it over. Meredith thinks nothing of pushing Georgy out of the way into the kitchen, and then leaping on to the sofa to have it off with Jos.

Georgy has been given a party dress for Mr James’ party but doesn’t want to wear it. She turns up at the party unannounced and sings a would-be lascivious version of Whole Lotta Woman.

It’s a black tie party, but note the old-fashioned band.

‘Mr James’ takes her into his study.  She thinks of him as a surrogate father. He’s cold, clipped, formal. He says:

James: I’m 49. Notice that: not 50 yet. When I first met your dad, I was 27 and just got married. Your dad was unemployed and couldn’t afford to marry your mother. I took him on. She came along as housekeeper, and they got married. Ellen and I have never been blessed with children. As a result, I’ve tended to look upon you as my daughter. I’ve always been sorry that you weren’t. But now I’m glad.

She thinks he wants to adopt her, but  he produces a legal contract and announces that he wants her to become his mistress, and all the legal conditions are in the contract.

Georgy: I haven’t got to wear gymslips or suck lollipops …

James Leavington, aka ‘Mr James’ (James Mason)

(The 49 is odd – James Mason was 57 when they made it, and because of the way he acts in the role, looks it and a bit more. That reflects on men trying to look older and serious in that era, a tendency which soon went).

Georgy avoids the issue. Back at the flat, Meredith has discovered she is pregnant. She instructs Jos to marry her, not because she loves him, but because she’s bored and it might make a change. She announces that’s she’s already “destroyed two of yours” (aborted them … illegal in 1966). Jos moves in. They marry, with Meredith saying Georgy can’t be a bridesmaid, but ‘the best man.’

Georgy, Jos (Alan Bates), Meredith (Charlotte Rampling)

Georgy gets James to buy expensive baby stuff … Mr James has a Rolls Royce, driven by Ted.

‘Your wife’s dead,’ Doris (Clare Kelly), Ted (Bill Owen), Mr Leavington (James Mason). Both Mr Leavington and Jos Jones have cigars on all possible occasions.

They get back to discover that Mrs Leavington is dead. Ted says of course he’ll deal with everything. Ted’s attitude to Georgy’s attractiveness is unchanging:

Ted: Who’d want to try it on with old George … I mean, look at her!

James decides to redo the bedroom, and Ted reports back to Doris on the interior designers:

Ted: It’s gonna be a Bessarabian brothel up there … there’s a couple of Nancy boys dancing about …

Not a happy pregnancy. Meredith (Charlotte Rampling) and Jos Jones (Alan Bates)

As the pregnancy continues, Jos and Georgy spend more and more time together. Jos is arguing with Meredith about her attitude to the unborn baby, and suddenly kisses Georgy and tells her he loves her. She flees the flat and he chases, threatening to disrobe unless she reciprocates.

Let’s get it on … Georgy & Jos

They get back to the flat, Meredith isn’t there, and they have sex, it’s Georgy’s first time. The door is knocked and Peg announces that Meredith is in hospital about to give birth. The midwife is the wonderful Dandy Nicholls.

After giving birth, Meredith won’t touch the baby, Sara, and announces that she wants it adopted.

Meredith (Charlotte Ramplin) in hospital with Jos (Alan Bates) – who hasn’t taken his hat off, I note!

Meredith (to Jos): Well? Aren’t you going to look at it? This is your marvellous child you couldn’t bear being destroyed, remember? It’s hideous. I hate it… It gave me hell … I want it adopted. Now.

Being 1966, no one in the open ward suggests that she has postnatal depression nor expresses any sympathy or concern. They just stare in horror. Meredith departs with a bloke in a Mercedes.

Georgy and Jos move in together with the baby. The baby is her main focus. A health visitor arrives, and Georgy suggests she’s a nanny, sleeps on the sofa and tells her that ‘the father’ Mr Jones has a responsible job in a bank. Enter Jos stripping off as he comes in the door and it becomes clear.

Jos: Georgina! George, where are you? You great, sexy beast! I’m free! Hey. I’ve chucked in that god-awful job at the bank and I’m free. Now we can spend all day in bed together. Hey, where are you? Hey, where are you hiding that great, seraphic body of yours, eh? Come out! Come out. Come out. Come out.
Health visitor: Mr Jones?

Social Services will intervene and take the baby (note for Cathy Come Home.)

The end of the affair. They’re standing outside what is now the Tate Modern, right where the Millenium Bridge ends.

Georgy and Jos go for a long river trip (fascinating to see what used to be where  Shakespeare’s Globe now is)- and she leaves him at (I think) Greenwich. She decides to marry James Leavington. We see an elaborate wedding. They get in the car … she is only interested in the baby.

Genuinely very distressed baby. Unacceptable cruelty. The director should be deeply ashamed of himself. So should the parents.

(The baby was EXTREMELY distressed in this scene which makes Karen so angry, that the director and its parents are lucky they are not around! Had this been the premiere and we’d all been present, they would have been in deep trouble!)

Overall

We had a problem with the casting of Alan Bates as the cheerful cheeky chappie, It might be the serious roles he’s normally played, and he gurned and grinned to abandon, but we kept thinking, ‘This was a part for Michael Caine … or even our song lyricist, Jim Dale.’ He also didn’t come across as a great lady killer even though he gets a lot of screen time rolling about on beds. In the end, wrong guy for the part.

A friend mentioned how bleak London looks in these 60s Black & white films. London in 1966 was pretty bleak. Clean air laws came in the late 1950s, but every public building was still soot blackened. It took decades to clean up and reveal the stone and brick – they were still cleaning bits of St Pauls Cathedral a few years ago – and in Georgy Girl you can see the dome is covered with scaffolding, so they’d probably just started in 1966. Then the boat guide points out Christopher Wren’s house, next door to what is now Shakespeare’s Globe, and then it was dark gloomy warehouses along what is now one of the most vibrant areas.  Partly it’s climate change. No cafés had outside tables then. But I suspect it’s accentuated by the cinematographers. They like cloud cover or no cloud at all. They hate days with patchy cloud and alternating sunshine, which is so often the UK climate.

The enduring figure is Georgy. Lynn Redgrave admitted that the censors were right in suggesting the character was immoral. She added ‘ruthless’ but in the end the appeal is that she’s a survivor.

Soundtrack

Silvio Narizzano hated the theme song … he’d wanted Funny Girl, sing by Barbra Streisand. It pushed the film to greater success though … US #1 in Cash Box, US #2 in Billboard, Canada #1, Australia #1, UK #2 or #3 (depending on which chart).,

THE 60s REVISITED REVIEWS …

A Taste of Honey (1961)
Sparrows Can’t Sing (1963)
Tom Jones (1963)
The Fast Lady (1963)
Cat Ballou (1965)
The Ipcress File (1965)
Darling (1965)
The Knack (1965)
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Morgan – A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966)
Alfie (1966)
Harper (aka The Moving Target) 1966
The Chase (1966)
The Trap (1966)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Modesty Blaise (1966)
The Family Way (1967)
Privilege (1967)
Blow-up (1967)
Accident (1967)
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
I’ll Never Forget What’s ‘Is Name (1967)
How I Won The War (1967)
Far From The Madding Crowd (1967)
Poor Cow (1967)
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1968)
The Magus (1968)
If …. (1968)
The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride) (1968)
Work Is A Four Letter Word (1968)
The Party (1968)
Petulia (1968)
Barbarella (1968)
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Bullitt (1968)
Deadfall (1968)
The Swimmer (1968)
Theorem (Teorema) (1968)
The Magic Christian (1969)
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970)
Performance (1970)