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SNAM Video Trailer Collection Alphabetical Listing
Video Trailers from picks on TVOntario's Saturday Night at the Movies
Entries in 1960s movies (13)
Georgy Girl (1966)
Before there was an “Ugly Betty”, there was “Georgy Girl” (1966). The film lights down in London town during those mad 1960s with the crazy new sounds coming out of bands like “The Seekers” and the even crazier new hairdos and mini skirts. We see Georgy girl (Lynn Redgrave) awkwardly sporting one of the new “dos” as the opening credits roll over top of the chart topping 
number by the Australian band. (I was surprised to learn that they weren’t a part of the British invasion.) The film is a lot like the title song in that it is a lighthearted romp with surprisingly serious undertones for those who are really listening.
The story line is a bit mixed up, much like Georgy herself. Georgy’s beautiful and free-spirited roommate, Meredith, leaves behind a boyfried and a baby as she gets on with her life after an ever so brief encounter with her own non-maternal nature. Georgy tries to pick up the pieces. After all, there is an adorable, helpless child involved. The make-shift domestic arrangements with Jos, the baby’s father, soon fall apart. A cast-off boyfriend doesn’t really fit any 
better than the ridiculous coiffure that Georgy tries on in the film’s introduction. In true improvisational style that fits the times and Georgy’s quirky personality, she tries on a completely different set of circumstances by accepting her family’s employer as stand-in dad. James Leamington (played by James Mason) is supposedly Georgy’s better in social standing - although one wonders if he isn’t actually her “worser” after he offers her an albeit “very proper” and attractive contractual arrangement for Georgy to be his mistress. Georgy passes up the offer. She’d like to think she can do better. She changes her mind (like a girl changes clothes) when the offer firms up a bit more and becomes a proposal of marriage after Leamington’s wife conveniently takes herself out of the way by dying.
In the end, it is a marriage of convenience that Georgy chooses as her best fit in the era of the sexual revolution. It is perhaps the best option afforded to someone like Georgy “who just missed being beautiful”. One wonders how well this arrangement is going to work out over time, as we watch the closing scene where the new bride repeatedly caresses her adopted infant. She seems oblivious to the groom sitting next to her in the get away car. It may well end up as just another failed experiment to be washed away down the drain along with the hair pins and mascara of Georgy’s “new look” in the opening scene.
Georgy’s pick of the best offer out of a limited range of options appears to be missing something: unconditional commitment and acceptance of people for who they really are. It’s what Georgy really wants; it’s what all of us want in the end –free love.
Don’t miss the SNAM Interviews on the subject of “Beauty -and Other Myths”. The Interviews deal extensively with another movie with a parallel theme shown in conjunction with “Georgy Girl” The second feature was “Dogfight”.
>>Real Life: Michelle participated in “The Biggest Loser” contest in order to lose weight. She found unexpected healing that led to a more permanent change in her life.
>>More to see: Looking for more out of life?
See the TVO video trailer for "Georgy Girl" (1966)
Catherine Savard
in 1960s movies, Alan Bates, British Films, Charlotte Rampling, Drama, James Mason, Lynn Redgrave, Saturday Night at the Movies 2010, Video Trailers
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Operation Crossbow (1965)
"Operation Crossbow (1965)" -INDb combines a good spy story and WWII military history with a pinch of the human interest angle thrown in for good measure. George Peppard is the British spy masquerading as a Dutch engineer in the pay of the Germans to help create the dreaded V2 rocket bombs (no explanation of his American accent). Sophia Loren makes a cameo appearance 
as the Italian wife of the Dutch engineer trying to escape the Nazi occupation with her (trilingual ?) children. It's all very confusing. You have to keep an eye on those German subtitles. Sophia is evidently there to prop up the galmour factor. If you like rockets a lot, wartime intrigue or Sophia Loren, this film may have some points of interest for you.
This movie was recently screened with two other wartime movies on TVO. See reviews for “The Man Who Never Was” 1956 and “Went the Day Well?” 1942 in the Midnight Oil video trailer section.
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See director, Michael Anderson interviewed in the video trailer of "Operation Crossbow" from TVO.
Catch the opening scenes video trailer of “Operation Crossbow” 1965
Catherine Savard
in 1960s movies, Action, Drama, Saturday Night at the Movies 2008, Video Trailers, War
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Shenandoah (1965)
“Shenandoah” (1965) IMDb with James Stewart playing the lead role provides a less than usual perspective on the American Civil War. The film tells the story of a well ensconced Virginian farming family caught up in the latter part of the Civil War. Stewart, as Charlie Anderson, vehiculates a pragmatic pacificism about a mean and dirty war that now encroaches on his land and his family. Anderson himself is not undergirded by a particularly robust morality about the war nor about his position on pacificism. He finds himself fighting a losing battle even though he technically remains “out of the war”.
The Uncivil War episode offered by Saturday Night at the Movies pairs “Ride with the Devil” (1995) IMDb with this movie classic from 1965. SNAM’s interviewed guests bring out the relationship of “Shenandoah” with American sentiments of the day concerning young American men snatched up into the war in Vietnam and the accompanying anger, confusion and sense of helplessness on the part of those at home.
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See the SNAM preview for The Uncivil War here. Dig in to the background for the films through the Interviews on The Uncivil War with experts on the period.
Catch the video trailer for “Shenandoah” (1965) here.
Catherine Savard
in 1960s movies, Drama, James Stewart, Jimmy Stewart, Saturday Night at the Movies 2008, Saturday Night at the Movies 2009, Video Trailers, War, Western
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Sweet Charity (1969)
Shirley MacLaine is “Sweet Charity” (1969) IMDb. A Broadway musical converted into a film vehicle, the plotline follows the misadventures of the hopeless romantic, Charity Hope Valentine as she seeks to escape her sleazy lifestyle as a taxi dancer at the Fandango Ballroom. Ms. MacLaine is a bright light in this film in her performance as the ingenuous Charity. But let’s all be honest and admit that the whole thing is just a big excuse to watch the incredible dance numbers put together by Bob Fosse. At least, that’s the way it is for me.
“Sweet Charity”(1969) has been shown in the past on SNAM and was most recently screened on a Friday night.
Not to be missed is the dance sequence, “The Rich Man’s Frug” by Bob Fosse. Remember that toy with the crazy plastic boxers slugging each other? Take a gander at this little number on the dance floor with “The Heavyweight”.
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Catch the video trailer for “Sweet Charity” (1969) here.
Catherine Savard
in 1960s movies, Musical, Saturday Night at the Movies 2008, Video Trailers
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The Deadly Affair (1966)
In “The Deadly Affair” (1966) IMDb, John le Carré’s spy novel turns into a cinematic adventure for everyday secret service man, Charles Dobbs (played by James Mason). Even though he has a nymphomaniac wife at home, Charles Dobbs’ career as a British intelligence officer is nothing like that of James Bond. A suspicious looking suicide after an apparently unfounded accusation of communist sympathies leads down a trail of cold war intrigue. As the plot thickens, Dobb’s finds the answers in places that strike close uncomfortably close to home.
See a very interesting SNAM “Interview” that includes material on John le Carré’s more famous spy novel, “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold”, a film starring Richard Burton, also screened on the same evening on Saturday Night at the Movies.
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Catch the opening credits and opening scene for “The Deadly Affair” (1966) here.
Catherine Savard
in 1960s movies, Mystery, SNAM 2009, Saturday Night at the Movies 2009, Suspense, Video Trailers, films from the 1960's, suspense
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