Georgy Girl (1966) * * *

Directed by:  Silvio Narizzano

Starring:  Lynn Redgrave, Alan Bates, James Mason, Charlotte Rampling

Georgy Girl is an absorbing comedy about middle class Brits with an undercurrent of the characters' selfishness lurking underneath.     Each of the main players encounters a situation in which he or she decides to look out for number one.     This may even be human nature for all of us.     We become attached to these people only to have them break ours (and each other's) hearts.   

Georgy (Redgrave-in an Oscar-nominated performance) is slightly overweight, but plucky and mostly optimistic despite having plenty of issues to deal with.     Her father is a butler to wealthy businessman James Leamington (Mason) who proposes not marriage to Georgy, but for her to become his full-time mistress.     He even has contracts drawn up.     This is unacceptable to Georgy at first, since he is married to a sickly woman, but at some point rethinks her position because of the security he can provide.     One of the surprises of Mason's character is how he allows us to see that his proposal is not based on anything devious, but simply his own loneliness and his desire to connect to another person. 

If you want to see the genesis for Bridget Jones, look no further than Redgrave's Georgy, who inhabits many of the same characteristics as the British woman who would appear on screen 35 years later.     Both are lovable too.     Georgy is forever in awe of (and envious of) her roommate Meredith, who has an active social life while keeping a boyfriend named Jos (Bates) in tow.    She sees Meredith as glamorous and something to aspire to be.     When Meredith becomes pregnant, we soon see the real her, which is unpleasant and selfish.     The same goes for Jos, who falls for Georgy despite being the father to Meredith's baby.     He dramatically expresses his love for Georgy one night and chases her all over town declaring this fact loudly.     For Jos, this is a condition that soon wears off once reality intervenes.

Once the baby is born, we see the caring, nurturing side of Georgy towards the baby that neither Jos nor Meredith wants.     Georgy may not be good at much, but she is good at motherhood.     I don't know whether it is a curse or a blessing for her that James is probably the best person she knows.    The famed song of the same title advises her to keep her chin up.    After all, "you married a millionaire."    For her, there could we worse fates.    Like still being with Jos.   

Except perhaps for Georgy, the people in this film live "do your own thing" 24/7, even at the expense of others' happiness.     The Beatles were still in full bloom when the film was released on the heels of Darling, Billy Liar, and other British films which depicted the angst of the younger generation at the time.     The punk movement was still a decade away, but we feel why the youth of Britain took to it so well.     It gave voice to their inner rage.     I wonder how Georgy would have felt about it.