Gregory’s Girl ***** (1980, John Gordon Sinclair, Dee Hepburn, Clare Grogan) – Classic Movie Review 568

The 19-year-old John Gordon Sinclair (confusingly billed as Gordon John Sinclair) stars in Gregory’s Girl (1980) as gangly, spotty, day-dreaming 15-year-old Scottish New Town schoolboy with a passion for a schoolgirl soccer star Dorothy (Dee Hepburn), who joins the boys’ team and is a better player than he is. He finally asks her out, but it is the women who are in control of these matters.

Made in June 1980, premiered at the London Film Festival on 29 November 1980, and released in the UK on 23 April 1981, writer-director Bill Forsyth’s second movie is wittily and appealingly written, adroitly and sympathetically directed, delightfully played, and, in short, just an enchanting little Scottish comedy.

Forsyth’s charming, naturalistic script conjures up winningly quirky jokes and endearing romantic complications, and it is perfectly played by the fresh, appealing young actors, with Sinclair outstanding. It is filmed on fresh locations at Abronhill, Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, including Abronhill High School.

Also notable in the cast are Chic Murray as the headmaster and Clare Grogan as Susan. Grogan was lead singer of the pop band Altered Images and enjoyed the hits Happy Birthday and I Could Be Happy.

It was a mammoth hit in both the UK and US, and Bill Forsyth won the 1982 BAFTA Film Award for Best Screenplay. The London Film Critics preferred his 1979 first film That Sinking Feeling and gave Forsyth their Special Achievement Award as Most Promising Director in 1982.

To hone her football skills, Hepburn trained with Partick Thistle football club. The film had to be dubbed for the US, with milder Scots accents.

Sequel: Gregory’s 2 Girls in 1999, again by writer-director Bill Forsyth and with John Gordon Sinclair.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 568

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