Gutter Girls (1963)

A clique of girls in an English school wear a small yellow teddy bear on their uniform to signify that they have lost their virginity. Linda, the girls' leader, fears she may be pregnant ... See full summary »

Director:

Robert Hartford-Davis

Writers:

Derek Ford (original screenplay), Donald Ford (original screenplay)

Stars:

Jacqueline Ellis, Annette Whiteley, Georgina Patterson

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jacqueline Ellis	...	Anne Mason (Teacher)
Annette Whiteley	...	Linda Donaghue
Georgina Patterson	...	Pat Lang
Anne Kettle	...	Sally Marshall
Margaret Vieler	...	Marsha
Noel Dyson	...	Muriel Donaghue
Victor Brooks	...	George Donaghue
Richard Bebb	...	Frank Lang
Ann Castle	...	Eileen Lang
Douglas Sheldon	...	Mike Griffin (as Doug Sheldon)
Lesley Dudley	...	Joan
Iain Gregory	...	Kenneth 'Kinky' Carson
Jill Adams	...	June Wilson
John Bonney	...	Paul Brimmer
Lucette Marimar	...	Susie (as Lucette Miramar)

Storyline

A clique of girls in an English school wear a small yellow teddy bear on their uniform to signify that they have lost their virginity. Linda, the girls' leader, fears she may be pregnant from her window cleaner boyfriend, "Kinky", an aspiring pop singer. Desperate, and unable to confide in her parents, she must wrestle with her conscience and decide what course of action to take. Meanwhile, a concerned teacher learns the significance of the yellow teddy bears, and in trying to help the girls in question, puts her own career in jeopardy.

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Plot Keywords:

window cleaner | pop singer | female nudity | pregnancy | abortion | 

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Taglines:

TEENAGE SCHOOL DOLLS...

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1964 (USA)

Also Known As:

Gutter Girls

Filming Locations:

Shepperton Studios, Shepperton, Surrey, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Animated Motion Pictures, Tekli British Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Black and White

Did You Know?

Trivia

Writers Derek Ford and Donald Ford took the idea for their screenplay from a British newspaper story about a group of schoolgirls who advertised the loss of their virginity by wearing the gollywog brooches given away by Robertson's Jam. The change to teddy bears was made when the jam company refused to let their trademark be used.

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Connections

Featured in Sex in the 70s: Blue Movies (2005)

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Soundtracks

A Lover And His Lass
Music by Roger Quilter
Words by William Shakespeare
Sung by The Wimbledon Girls Choir

User Reviews

Not what you expect! But interesting.

'The Yellow Teddybears' is misleadingly packaged as a "saucy" 60s sexploitation movie, which is nowhere near the truth! It's actually a serious message movie about teenage pre-marital sex. Dated as all hell, it's almost like a Smiths fan's wet dream.

The movie concerns a girl's school where a group of "bad girls" wear a small yellow teddybear on their uniforms to symbolize their loss of virginity. The ringleader of these girls, Linda, fears she is pregnant by her boyfriend Kinky, who is a window washer by day, and wanna be pop singer by night. Desperate, and unable to confide in her uptight parents she seeks the help of a local woman of the world who suggest an abortion. However she has no money and the price she must have to pay could be even worse than the prospect of shame as a single mother. Meanwhile, Linda's concerned biology teacher gets wind of the meaning of her students yellow teddybears and when she confronts them about it she ends up being accused of leading the girls astray.

While dated and corny in many ways 'The Yellow Teddybears' is interesting as a snapshot of pre-"Swinging Sixties" England before The Beatles and The Pill changed young people's lives forever.