The Greengage Summer


The Greengage Summer is a 1961 British drama film directed by Lewis Gilbert and starring Kenneth More and Susannah York. It was based on the novel The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden. Set in Épernay, in the Champagne region of France, it is the story of the transition of a teenage girl into womanhood.
More later named it as his favourite film, stating, " was just twenty-one and an adorable creature...it was one of the happiest films on which I have ever worked."

Plot

Joss Grey, a 16-year-old English girl, finds herself responsible for the care of her three younger siblings on a summer vacation in France when their mother is suddenly taken ill and rushed to the hospital. When they go to the Hotel Oeillets, proprietress Mademoiselle Zisi does not want the responsibility of unchaperoned children, but her enigmatic English lover Eliot persuades her to accept them. As the days pass, she wishes she had stuck to her original answer; she is increasingly jealous of the attention Eliot pays to the children—especially to Joss.
Meanwhile, hotel employee Paul becomes suspicious of Eliot, snoops in his room, and finds a pistol. Eliot catches Paul and gets Zisi to fire him, but Joss's 13-year-old sister Hester has taken a liking to Paul and begs Joss to get Eliot to reconsider, which he does. But later he becomes angry when shutterbug Hester takes his picture. Then he rushes out of a tour of caves where champagne is stored to avoid famous guest Monsieur Renard, the best policeman in France. He also insists on turning away potential guests.
Tensions come to a boiling point when Zisi throws a glass of champagne in her rival's face. Eliot chases after her, saying—within Joss's hearing—that she is only a child. Learning from a newspaper article that Eliot is a notorious jewel thief, the outraged Joss mails Hester's photo of him to the police.
Eliot has already decided to leave. He sneaks out late at night, but, on hearing a drunken Paul attack Joss in her bedroom on the second floor, he rushes up to her room. He punches Paul, who then tries to climb down a drainpipe. The pipe breaks and he falls to his death. He tells everyone not to call the police. A remorseful Joss confesses to Eliot that she has denounced him to the police. At her request, he gives her a grownup kiss. Then he disposes of Paul's body and disappears.
While Renard is questioning the uncooperative children the next morning, their solicitor uncle, Mr. Bullock, arrives. He has been summoned by an unsigned telegram to extricate them. From the source of the message, Renard realizes that it is from Eliot and that he is trying to escape across the border to Germany on a river barge. However, an innocent picture which hester took of an off-guard Eliot inadvertently provides the authorities of the their first picture of him.

Cast

Production

The film was a co-production between Victor Saville and Edward Small for United Artists. It was meant to be one of several the two made together, a never-filmed adaptation of The Mousetrap intending to be another, with the third being Legacy of a Spy. Cary Grant was the original choice for the male lead. However, the film was eventually set up at Columbia.
More later wrote that Lewis Gilbert insisted he go on a diet before making the film in order that he might be more believable as a romantic lead. More did so as he very badly wanted to make the movie.

Reception

The film premiered on 5 April 1961 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End. Reviews were positive.
Lewis Gilbert thought Kenneth More was miscast. "He was somehow too normal, it didn't quite work; that's a role Dirk Bogarde|Dirk should have played because you could well imagine a girl of fifteen or sixteen falling in love with Dirk."
Susannah York also felt that, though she "loved" the movie "I didn't think that was a totally successful film. I always felt that Dirk Bogarde was the person for the Kenneth More role. It needed someone with a touch of dark mystery and Dirk would have been perfect."