GEORGY GIRL

Not quite 'the kitchen sink' but very much in the same ballpark, Silvio Narizzano's "Georgy Girl" came late in the 'genre', (1966), and was a lot less downbeat and depressing than many of the films that came before it, (it's even got a happy ending). You could call it a 'dramedy', not quite a comedy and not quite a drama. In the title role of the frumpy heroine, relative newcomer Lynn Redgrave is quite magnificent. It's a star-making performance if I ever saw one. As her father's employer who asks Georgy to be his mistress and even draws up a contract, James Mason is equally superb; both he and Redgrave were Oscar-nominated for their performances and a young Charlotte Rampling is terrific as the bitch who shares a flat, (and a boyfriend), with Redgrave. He's Alan Bates and he's the blot on the picture; his is an annoying and unfunny 'comic' performance and when he's on screen, which is much too often, the film becomes a kind of surreal farce like a poor man's, or woman's, version of "The Knack". Nevertheless, it's well directed by Narizzano whose career never really went anywhere, (he did direct Tallulah Bankhead in "Fanatic" and made the highly unusual Terence Stamp western "Blue"), and is certainly worth seeing.