Georgy Girl
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| Georgy Girl | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Silvio Narizzano |
| Produced by | Robert A. Goldston Otto Plaschkes George Pitcher (assoc. producer) |
| Written by | Margaret Forster (also novel) Peter Nichols |
| Starring | Lynn Redgrave James Mason Alan Bates Charlotte Rampling |
| Music by | Tom Springfield |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Georgy Girl is a 1966 British film based on a novel by Margaret Forster. The film was directed by Silvio Narizzano and starred Lynn Redgrave as Georgy, Alan Bates, James Mason, and Charlotte Rampling.
The title song, performed by Australian band The Seekers, became a hit single and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song (music by Tom Springfield, lyrics by Jim Dale).
[edit] Plot
Georgina (Lynn Redgrave) is a 22-year-old, working-class Londoner. She has considerable musical talent, is well-educated, and has a rather charming if shameless manner. On the other hand, she believes herself to be plain, dresses haphazardly, and is incredibly naïve on the subjects of love and flirtation; she has never had a boyfriend. She has an inventive imagination and loves children.
Her parents are the live-in employees of successful businessman James Leamington (James Mason). Leamington is fiftyish and has a loveless, childless marriage. He has watched with affection as "George" grew up, and has treated her as if he were a second father. (He provided her excellent education and a studio for her in his own home, in which she teaches dance to children.) As George has become a young woman, however, it is apparent that Leamington's feelings for her have become more than fatherly.
James offers George a legal contract, proposing to supply her with the luxuries of life in return for her becoming his mistress. He also promises to provide for any "fruit of the union". George refuses his offer; Leamington's businesslike language and manner (and awkward inability to express any affection for her) leave her cold.
George's flatmate is her so-called best friend Meredith (Charlotte Rampling), a beautiful but shallow woman who lives for her own hedonistic pleasures. She treats the meekly compliant George like an unpaid servant.
When Meredith discovers that she is pregnant by her boyfriend Jos Jones (Alan Bates), they get married. Jos moves in with the two girls. He becomes disillusioned with Meredith and begins to find himself attracted to George (he suddenly kisses her in the midst of an argument with Meredith over her cavalier attitude to her pregnancy). Jos and George soon begin a secret affair.
Meredith gives birth to a daughter. She tires of Jos and has no interest in the baby, refusing to have anything to do with her. She announces her plans to put the child up for adoption and divorce her husband.
George and Jos set up home together in the flat, caring for the baby (whom they name Sara) and living as a married couple. It soon becomes clear that George cares more for the baby than an adult relationship with Jos. The relationship ends when Jos realises he is of no real importance to George and has tired of a father's responsibilities. Now that George is the sole caretaker of a baby to whom she has no blood ties, Social Services wish to remove baby Sara from her care.
In the meantime, Leamington's wife dies. (At George's request he has provided all of the baby's needs, even while she was still living with Meredith and Jos.) Leamington, who was unable to express his true feelings while his wife lived, now finds himself free to express his love for George and proposes marriage. George accepts, but only because this will allow her to keep Sara. The two are wed despite the great difference in their backgrounds and ages.
[edit] Music
The title song was a #2 U.S. and Australian hit, and a #3 British hit in 1966.
In 1970, the film was adapted for a short-lived Broadway musical of the same name.
