Themes: Innocence Lost, Dangerous Attraction, Boarding School Life
Main Cast: Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson
Release Year: 1969
Country: UK
Run Time: 116 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Based on the novel by Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie stars Maggie Smith in the title role. Smith won an Academy Award for her delicately textured portrayal of an eccentric teacher at an exclusive Scottish girl's school. Miss Jean exhorts her "gels" to follow their hearts and never lose their youthful idealism. Unfortunately for her, she also stumps for her favorite political figures: Mussolini and Franco. In addition, she can't keep the innermost details of her private life a secret, and in fact boasts about her sex life to her students. Her prize pupil (Pamela Franklin) becomes so much a clone of Miss Jean that she ends up a threat to the teacher. Ultimately, Miss Jean loses her position, but not the hearts of her students. The box-office success of Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was due in great part to the popularity of the title song, as recorded by Rod McKuen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Maggie Smith won an Oscar in 1969 for her lead role as a free-thinking Scottish schoolteacher between the two world wars. The film was based on a stage play, itself based on a novel by Muriel Spark. Miss Brodie exhorts her charges to be true to themselves, but she's an outspoken admirer of fascism, as well as something of a libertine. The politics were confusing, but Miss Brodie's eccentricity was mesmerizing. Veteran British cinematographer-turned-director Ronald Neame had the reins, turning out one of the biggest surprise hits of the era, a time when character studies could win both audiences and critical acclaim. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
Jane Carr - Mary McGregor; Diane Grayson - Jenny; Shirley Steedman - Monica; Margo Cunningham - Miss Campbell; Ann Way - Miss Gaunt; Isla Cameron - Miss McKenzie; Helena Gloag - Miss Kerr; Molly Weir - Miss Alison Kerr; Rona Anderson - Miss Lockhart; John Dunbar - Mr. Burrage; Kristin Hatfield
Credit
Brian Herbert - Art Director, James Cresson - Co-producer, Joan Bridge - Costume Designer, Elizabeth Haffenden - Costume Designer, Ted Sturgis - First Assistant Director, Ronald Neame - Director, Norman Savage - Editor, Rod McKuen - Composer (Music Score), Arthur Greenslade - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jean McKuen - Songwriter, Ernest Gasser - Makeup, John Howell - Production Designer, Ted Moore - Cinematographer, Robert Fryer - Producer, James Gesson - Producer, Pamela Cornell - Set Designer, Gordon K. McCallum - Sound/Sound Designer, Winston Ryder - Sound/Sound Designer, Jay Presson Allen - Screenwriter, Muriel Spark - Book Author, Jay Presson Allen - Play Author
The novel was turned into a play by Jay Presson Allen, which opened on Broadway in 1968, with Zoe Caldwell in the title role, a performance for which she won a Tony Award. This production was a moderate success, running for just less than a year, but it has often been staged by both professional and amateur companies since then.
However, although successful in its own terms, some have questioned whether it is a particularly faithful adaptation. It turned an experimental work into a realistic one, and removed some theological issues, turning it into a story of failed love.[1]
The number of girls in the Brodie Set is reduced from six to four (Mary, Sandy, Jenny, and Monica) and some of them are composites of girls in the novel. Mary is a composite of the original Mary and Joyce Emily; although mainly based on the original Mary, the episode of dying in the Spanish Civil War is given to her, and rather more is made of this incident than in the novel. Jenny is a composite of the original Jenny and Rose; in spite of her name she has more in common with Rose, since it is she who Miss Brodie tries to manoeuvre into having an affair with Mr Lloyd.
Gordon Jackson played Gordon Lowther, and Rona Anderson, who was married to Jackson in real life, played chemistry teacher Miss Lockhart, whom Lowther married in the film. Robert Stephens, then Maggie Smith's real life husband, played Miss Brodie's married artist lover, who was having an affair with student Sandy (Pamela Franklin) (posing nude and looking like Miss Brodie in the painting); Teddy Lloyd, singer Isla Cameron played the stern librarian, Miss MacKenzie; Celia Johnson played the austere and antagonistic school headmistress, Miss Emmeline MacKay, and Jane Carr played Mary McGregor. Rod McKuen was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song for "Jean", which became a huge hit for the singers Oliver with Rod McKuen's melodious ballad "Jean", in autumn 1969. The play also underwent modification for the film; it cut out a few scenes showing Sandy in later life as a nun.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was adapted by Scottish Television into a seven episode television serial in 1978, also written by Jay Presson Allen, and starring Geraldine McEwan. Rather than recapitulate the plot of the novel, the series imagined episodes in the lives of the characters in the novel, such as conflict between Jean Brodie and the father of an Italian refugee student, who fled Mussolini's Italy because the father was persecuted as a Communist.
