Main Cast: James Mason, Alan Bates, Lynn Redgrave, Charlotte Rampling, Rachel Kempson
Release Year: 1966
Country: UK
Run Time: 100 minutes
Plot
Georgy Girl is a bittersweet comedy drama about Georgy (Lynn Redgrave), a slightly overweight, working-class virgin in her early twenties who shares an apartment with the gorgeous, promiscuous Meredith (Charlotte Rampling). Georgy has never been the subject of the desire for any man until the wealthy, married employer of her family, James Leamington (James Mason) (for whom her parents work as servants) decides that he would like her for a mistress. Shortly afterward, the unmarried Meredith becomes pregnant and introduces Georgy to the father, Jos (Alan Bates). Georgy and Jos fall in love. Although Meredith initially wants to give the child up for adoption, she agrees to let Georgy act as surrogate mother. Meanwhile, James - whose wife unexpectedly dies -- has also indicated that he wants to marry her. As the film approaches its denouement, Georgy is faced with a tough call: should she stay single and keep the child, marry James and keep the baby, or marry Jos? We won't divulge the ending here, but the finale is a heartbreaker. Georgy Girl was a tremendously popular film upon its 1966 release, as was the Seekers' catchy title song. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Review
Considered fairly bold when it was released in 1966, Georgy Girl is a delightful comedy of sexual manners that does justice to its "Swinging London" setting. It celebrates the lusty principles of its time and place, even as it ultimately reaffirms more restrained, old-fashioned values. Although billed as a comedy, and containing some very funny moments, the film is surprisingly bleak at times, in its treatment of both its characters and the world in which they live. Georgy, high-spirited and strong-willed as she is, is displeased with herself and her perceived unattractiveness, while her gorgeous, promiscuous roommate (a divinely bitchy Charlotte Rampling) is a cold, calculating shrew, and James Mason's amorous sugar daddy is just plain oblivious. For his part, the ebullient, joyfully irresponsible Jos uses his carefree attitude as a thin mask to disguise his withering discontent. As played by Alan Bates, he doesn't so much personify the era's Angry Young Man -- he's too silly for that -- as embody the kind of attitude that would give voice to the hippie movement a couple of years later. Still, Georgy Girl is first and foremost a comic affair, and a very funny one at that. One of the more enjoyable romps of the 1960s, it made a star out of Lynn Redgrave (who took the part of Georgy after it was turned down by her sister Vanessa) and remains a winning portrait of an era and its shifting mentalities. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Bill Owen - Ted; Dorothy Alison - Health Visitor; Denise Coffey - Peg; Dandy Nichols - Hospital Nurse; Peggy Thorpe-Bates - Hospital Sister; Clare Kelly - Doris
Credit
Tony Woollard - Art Director, Marjory Sigley - Choreography, Mary Quant - Costume Designer, Silvio Narizzano - Director, John Bloom - Editor, Alexander Faris - Composer (Music Score), Brian Hunter - Composer (Music Score), Tom Springfield - Composer (Music Score), Jim Dale - Songwriter, Tom Springfield - Songwriter, Harold Fletcher - Makeup, Ken Higgins - Cinematographer, Clive Reed - Production Manager, Robert A. Goldstone - Producer, Otto Plaschkes - Producer, Peter Nichols - Screenwriter, Margaret Forster - Screenwriter, Margaret Forster - Book Author
The film was the basis for an unsuccessful musical stage adaptation called simply Georgy.
Synopsis
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 49 and has a loveless, childless marriage with Ellen (Rachel Kempson). He has watched with affection as "Georgy" grew up, and has treated her as if he were her second father. (He provided her excellent education and a studio for her in his own home, in which she teaches dance to children.) As Georgy has become a young woman, however, it is apparent that Leamington's feelings for her have become more than fatherly.
James offers Georgy 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". Georgy sidesteps his proposal by never giving him a direct response; Leamington's businesslike language and manner (and awkward inability to express any affection for her) leave her cold.
Georgy's flatmate is her so-called best friend, the beautiful Meredith (Charlotte Rampling), who works as a violinist in an orchestra, but is otherwise a shallow woman who lives for her own hedonistic pleasures. She treats the meekly compliant Georgy like an unpaid servant.
When Meredith discovers that she is pregnant by her boyfriend Jos Jones (Alan Bates), they get married. She had not bothered to tell him she had aborted twice before during their relationship. Jos moves in with the two young women. He becomes disillusioned with Meredith and begins to find himself attracted to Georgy (he suddenly kisses her in the midst of an argument with Meredith over her cavalier attitude to her pregnancy). Jos and Georgy begin a secret affair, after Jos admits to seeing Meredith as their lodger and loving Georgy.
Meredith gives birth to a daughter, whom they name Sara. Since she has no interest in the baby, and is tired of Jos, she announces that she plans to put the child up for adoption and divorce her husband.
Georgy and Jos set up home together in the flat, caring for the baby and living as a married couple. It soon becomes clear that Georgy cares more for the baby than having an adult relationship with Jos, though he had already confessed to being pleased he had a daughter on the basis that boys need more from their fathers. The relationship ends when Jos realises he is of no real importance to Georgy and has tired of a father's responsibilities. Now that Georgy 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 has died. (At Georgy's request he has provided for 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 Georgy and proposes marriage. Georgy accepts because this will allow her to keep Sara. The two marry despite the great difference in their backgrounds and ages.
