Review of Girl with Green Eyes (1964) by Eric B — 10 Mar 2012

"Girl with Green Eyes" doesn't quite qualify as one of Britain's "kitchen sink" films -- it's closer to a traditional romance. Yes, it's in black and white, but it would have been more affecting in color. Certainly, the title would have been better served.

The story opens with buddies Kate (Rita Tushingham) and Baba (Lynn Redgrave) giggling around the city, but this is just exposition. What matters are their chance encounters with Eugene (Peter Finch), a well-off, handsome writer who's freshly separated from his wife. Kate is immediately infatuated with him, and an unlikely love grows between them. Emphasize "unlikely," because he is twice her age and the two actors have little chemistry.

Baba has no problem with Eugene, but everyone else does. Kate's boorish Irish-Catholic family is furious, and Eugene's sophisticated friends look down upon Kate in return. Meanwhile, Eugene's estranged wife and daughter never appear on camera but remain prominent in his thoughts. Can the relationship survive these obstacles? Perhaps we should ask the melancholy oboist who dominates the score.

The story eventually verges on soap opera, but this is a nice little movie. But director Desmond Davis must have realized Redgrave was a more interesting partner for Tushingham than Finch, because he reunited the gals in "Smashing Time" three years later.