The Greengage Summer [Loss of Innocence] *** (1961, Kenneth More, Danielle Darrieux, Susannah York) – Classic Movie Review 7765

Director Lewis Gilbert’s 1961 The Greengage Summer [Loss of Innocence] is an engagingly old-fashioned romantic rites-of-passage tale by Rumer (Black Narcissus) Godden about an English teenage girl called Joss Grey (Susannah York) who falls in love with 40-year- old Eliot, a hotelier’s lover and jewel thief (Kenneth More), in France’s champagne country one summer. Old-fashioned romantic it may be, but the story of the very young English woman in France coming to sexual maturity was very much in keeping with the flowering spirit of its Sixties times.

More’s niceness is a drawback to the film’s credibility, but the 20-year-old English beauty York, in her third film, gives a tender, poignant performance in a touching film, and the iconic Danielle Darrieux alluringly plays Madame Zizi, manager of the hotel where Joss’s family are staying. And there is very decent, conscientious direction by Gilbert, unsentimental scripting by Howard Koch, as well as marvellous French scenery shot in gorgeous Eastmancolor by a master cinematographer, Freddie Young.

Also in the cast are Claude Nollier, Jane Asher, Elizabeth Dear, Maurice Denham, Bessie Love, Richard Williams, David Saire, Raymond Gerome, André Maranne, Harold Kasket, Jacques B Brunuis, Joy Shelton and Balbina.

The Greengage Summer [Loss of Innocence] is directed by Lewis Gilbert, runs 100 minutes, is made by Columbia Pictures Corporation, Victor Saville-Edward Small Productions and PKL, is released by Columbia, is written by Howard Koch, based on a story by Rumer Godden, is shot by Freddie Young, is produced by Victor Saville and Edward Small, and is scored by Richard Addinsell.

Gilbert asked More to diet to be credible as a teenage girl’s idea of a romantic partner.

RIP Susannah York (1939–2011). She made her debut as Alec Guinness’s daughter in 1960’s Tunes of Glory.

RIP Danielle Darrieux (1917–2017).  She died on 17 October 2017 in Bois-le-Roi, Eure, France, aged 100.

RIP Lewis Gilbert (1920–2018). He was Oscar nominated for Best Picture for Alfie (1966) and won a Bafta for Best Film for Educating Rita (1983). He also directed More in The Admirable Crichton [Paradise Lagoon] and Sink the Bismarck!

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7765

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