Geordie (1955)

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Frank Launder

Writers:

Sidney Gilliat (screenplay)
Frank Launder (screenplay)

Release Date:

September 1955 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Sport

Tagline:

A Giant Among Comedies

Plot:

Geordie is a Scots lad sent to the Melbourne Olympics to represent Britain in Hammer-Throwing. He insists on wearing his kilt...

Plot Keywords:

Olympics | Australia | Scotland | Based On Novel | Character Name In Title

Cast

Alastair Sim	...	The Laird
Bill Travers	...	Geordie
Norah Gorsen	...	Jean
Molly Urquhart	...	Geordie's Mother
Francis De Wolff	...	Samson
Jack Radcliffe	...	The Minister
Brian Reece	...	Olympic selector
Raymond Huntley	...	Olympic selector
Miles Malleson	...	Lord Paunceton
Jameson Clark	...	Georgie's Father
Doris Goddard	...	Helga
Stanley Baxter	...	Postman
Duncan Macrae	...	Schoolmaster
Paul Young	...	Young Geordie
Anna Ferguson	...	Young Jean

Also Known As:

Wee Geordie (USA)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono | Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:U

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company:

Individual Pictures

Trivia:

Geordie's mail order Mentor/Physical Culture Instructor, Henry Samson ('Francis DeWolff') is a spoof of real life Mail Order Muscle Building entrepreneur, Charles Atlas.

Quotes:

The Laird: Never shoot Kestrels, George. They're wonderful birds and do a power of good.

A nice wee film but nothing more than that

Little Geordie is the smallest boy in the glen, barely able to reach the blackboard at school and as weak as watery broth with it. Fed up with the situation he begins a course of body building despite being just a bairn and continues it into his teens and adulthood. By the time he is 21 he has turned into a fine body of a man. It seems only natural that he will work with his father on the Laird's land and his life seems marked out before him. However should he be making more use of the wonderful physic that he has built?

There was a time when Celtic flavour was all the rage – particularly around the time of The Quiet Man, Trouble in the Glen and many other films of the period that cashed in on it. With that in mind it may be that this film was put together faster than it should have been because, while enjoyable, it is not quite as good in depth as it should have been. The plot starts being about body building, then works around it for a while before taking the story to the Olympics; it is enough of a narrative flow to keep things moving but it wasn't the slight story that gave me pause. No, it was the fact that much of the film was close to a character piece on Geordie but yet the character wasn't there.

He is a simple character and, although that may be the point, I still think that more could have been made of the person. As it was the film was amiable enough, amusing without ever being funny, engaging without ever being considered a great tale. The cast are not great but do the job reasonably well. Bill Travers has always been a strange leading man for my money and this is not one of his finer hours – he overdoes the simple Scottish cliché and forgets to give Geordie much of a personality. Sim is enjoyable enough but the film was there for the dominating and he didn't do it – although in fairness this may have been a deliberate decision. Gorsen is OK – a bonnie lass but no more although support is generally good.

Overall this is an OK film but hardly anything beyond the Celtic flavour film that it is. The central character is not good enough to carry the whole film, a problem given that the plot actually relies on that heavily at times. It distracts and is pleasing enough but expect more than that at your peril.