Taglines: …Love is The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie movie storyline. Jean Brodie (Dame Maggie Smith) is a dedicated, if eccentric, teacher at an all-girls school in Edinburgh in the 1930s. She has little time for the approved curriculum and rather teaches “her girls” her own romanticized, fantasist view of history, the arts, and the world in general. She is a strong supporter of Mussolini and with the on-set of the Spanish Civil War, Franco.
She pushes her girls to excel in what she perceives to be their strengths: Monica (Shirley Steedman) will act in plays; Mary McGregor (Jane Carr) will overcome her stutter and make them all proud; Jenny (Diane Grayson) will be painted many times and will be a great lover; and Sandy (Pamela Franklin) will use her intellect and and insight and be a great spy. Sandy realizes the dangerous game Miss Brodie is playing and after one of the other girls is killed, sets out to stop her.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 British drama film directed by Ronald Neame and written by Jay Presson Allen. It stars Maggie Smith in the title role as an unrestrained teacher at a girls’ school in Edinburgh. The screenplay was adapted by Jay Presson Allen from her own stage play, which was based in turn on the 1961 novel of the same name by Muriel Spark.
According to 20th Century Fox records the film required $5,400,000 in rentals to break even and by December 11, 1970 had made $6,650,000. In September 1970 the studio reported it had made a profit of $831,000 on the film.
Awards and Nominations
Winner Best Actress Academy Award (Maggie Smith)
Nominee Best Song Academy Award (“Jean”) (Rod McKuen)
Winner Best Song Golden Globe (Rod McKuen)
Nominee Best Picture Golden Globe (James Cresson, Robert Fryer)
Nominee Best Actress Golden Globe (Maggie Smith)
Winner Best Actress BAFTA (Maggie Smith)
Winner Best Supporting Actress BAFTA (Celia Johnson)
Nominee Best Supporting Actress BAFTA (Pamela Franklin)
Nominee Palme d’Or Cannes Film Festival (Ronald Neame)
Winner Best Supporting Actress National Board of Review (Pamela Franklin)
Selected One of the Year’s 10 Best Films National Board of Review
Nominee Best Actress National Society of Film Critics (Maggie Smith)
Nominee Best Supporting Actress National Society of Film Critics (Celia Johnson)
Nominee Best Adapted Screenplay Writers Guild of America (Jay Presson Allen)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)
Directed by: Ronald Neame
Starring: Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr, Lavinia Lang, Shirley Steedman, Antoinette Biggerstaff, Margo Cunningham
Screenplay by: Muriel Spark
Production Design by: John Howell
Cinematography by: Ted Moore
Film Editing by: Norman Savage
Costume Design by: Joan Bridge, Elizabeth Haffenden
Art Direction by: Brian Herbert
Music by: Rod McKuen
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: March 2, 1969
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