Geordie (1955)

Best movie ever!

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

I do not think it is necessary to put a shallow political spin on this charming film. The film basically follows two plots - one is the boy from a poor background who has a goal of changing himself for the better, and eventually represents his country in the Commonwealth Games in Australia. The other plot is the boy meets girl, falls in love, meets another in Australia - original girl hears about it - gets jealous - he comes home and makes up. All the while a great cast fleshes out some wonderful characters in the Highlands - and it is great to hear Highland accents for a change - against a backdrop of wonderful scenery and some fantastic gaelic choral singing; beautiful, too, for its rarity in film. Bill Travers, early in his career - and just under a decade away from Born Free - gives a spirited performance and is highly endearing in the part. All of this old world Highland Scots seems like a world away from now, but the basic story holds up, and, thank goodness, it was made in colour to show up the Highlands at their best.

First I will answer Irvin of Santa Monica who said "One curiosity: "Geordie" is a term of endearment of the name, George, in the city/district of Newcastle. I haven't been able to reckon out why a Scots lad should bear such an English name. --Any suggestions?" The Northumbrians are almost Scots - indeed Northumberland once belonged to Scotland. In Scotland, if your name is George, your friends will call your Geordie. Further south in England they will more likely call you Georgie.I read David Walker's novel many years before I saw the film. It is simply written, and has a great deal of charm. Central to the plot of the book is the romance between Geordie and Jean. In the book it is pretty intense. In the film it is all but glossed over.Another difference between the book and the film is that in the book Geordie is not a hammer thrower but a shot putter. I shall not feign outrage. I realise that the hammer throw will look more spectacular on film.But the way the central characters interact with one another in the book is not handled very well in this film.You would be better reading the book.

Just as with the other commentators, I too saw this film decades ago. It had already been in release for a couple of years, so there was a muzzy sense of age to it, even then.I'm taking a guess here, but I'd be willing to wager that those who remember this film best, are males. We remember the wee Scots lad with his wire-hanger-thin arms and his knobby knees; and then we remember the fine figure of a man that he grew into. Yet, in retrospect, it is Geordie's slightly puzzled reactions to the incidentals that happen as a young man that makes him an endearing character.While filmed in black and white, at the risk of a pun, this is one of the most colorful films ever made. What took it past a Cinderella-esque sort of movie, was Alistar Sim playing the foil. Who will forget the gorgeous old codger when he and Geordie are traipsing in the highlands, shooting for grouse. Feeling a call to nature, Sim discretely tells Geordie to go on ahead, and that he will join him momentarily. "Don't, if you please, shoot into the bushes," he warns Geordie. The young man wanders away, passing time - only to suddenly see a flock of grouse rush for the bush. Taking quick aim, he blasts away with both barrels. Not two seconds later, we see Sim, hobbled with his pants around his knees, thrusting his fist into the air and shouting, "Didn't I tell you to shoot anywhere but into the bushes!" The scene still makes me laugh.Bill Travers went on to achieve considerable star power with "Born Free", and unless I'm mistaken, became an environmental activist. One curiosity: "Geordie" is a term of endearment of the name, George, in the city/district of Newcastle. I haven't been able to reckon out why a Scots lad should bear such an English name. --Any suggestions?

Enjoyable fable with marvelous performances, especially by Bill Travers about the quintessential 98-pound weakling who through tutelage, transforms himself into a Charles-Atlas-type phenomenon. Some great moments are lost among a plethora of obvious sight gags. Overall, I consider it amusing, but it falls short of its potential to be memorable.