In many ways, Georgy Girl is the female flip side of Alfie, with Lynn Redgrave enjoying a star-making turn as gawky, ungainly ‘plain Jane,’ frequently overwhelming her co-stars by sheer force of personality.
Vivacious but homely Georgy (an irrepressible Redgrave in her Oscar-nominated performance) splits her time between the home of her father’s wealthy middle-aged employer James Leamington, and a flat she shares with pathologically shallow beauty Meredith (Charlotte Rampling). Georgy strives to capture some of the glamorous life of her swinging roommate, but as shown in the hilarious opening sequence when she leaves a hair salon with a fashionable new ‘do’ and promptly goes to the nearest public convenience to rinse it down the plug-hole, Georgy marches to the beat of her own drum. So when she’s suddenly caught in a love triangle between two men, she’s flummoxed as to what to do.
Four-time Oscar-nominated, including a Best Song nomination for The Seekers’ enduring hit of the same name, the film embraces the options that newly emancipated women were becoming less afraid to take – it’s an irresistible mod piece and well overdue for a second look.
