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• Miss Jean - Excellent

  • Bruce Reber
  • 8/23/13

  My parents, brother and I went to our local drive-in theater (anyone else out there old enough to remember those?) one night to see a double feature - it was "The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie" and, believe it or not "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid"! Both films are from 20th Century Fox, and it was common back in the day for studios to release two of their major films together on a double bill. Maggis Smith gives an excellent, Oscar-winning performance as Jean Brodie, a teacher at a girls school in Edinburgh, Scotland during the early 1930's. She imparts her romantic view of the world and all the possibilities that life has to offer to her very impressionable students. She carries on love affairs with two of her fellow teachers, Lowther and Lloyd, and because of her attitudes and teaching methods she is constantly clashing with the headmistress, who's trying to have her dismissed from the school. Finally, Jean realizes the negative, instead of positive effect of her teachings when one of her former students is killed, and also when another student confesses to Jean her affair with Lloyd. The beautiful theme song "Jean", composed by Rod McKuen and sung by Oliver, was heard on the radio throughout the summer of '69, and was a top 10 hit.

• Maggie Smith - what an actress!

  • RedRain
  • 7/1/13

  This has always been one of my favorite films and it is Maggie Smith's acting that makes it so intriguing. She is at her best here, although I must say I would have loved to have seen Vanessa Redgrave in the part, as she played Miss Brodie in the original London stage play and is every bit the actress Miss Smith is. Pamela Franklin, as Sandy, the "creme de la creme" party of Miss Brodie's girls, is wonderful as the turncoat who sees Miss Brodie's radical teachings for what they are and the damage they do. Robert Stephens as Teddy Lloyd has just the right touch of lasciviousness needed to play both the man in love with Miss Brodie (and Maggie Smith's real life husband at the time) and the man who is seduced by Sandy. I really liked him in this role! The musical score by Rod McKuen is exceptional and greatly adds to the film. Just a great film in every way!

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

  • Dashiell Barnes
  • 7/27/12

  The only reason one might see this film is for Smith's portrayal of an eccentric school teacher. Smith gives an Oscar-winning performance as a relucant spinster who teaches radical ideals to her students, Franklin steals the show as one of her pupils. The story is engaging but slips into occasional melodrama. A good English drama that has a haunting performance from Smith. I give it a 4/5.

• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

  • Robert
  • 12/9/10

  A Dame of the British Empire, Ms. Smith gives a tour-de-force top-5-in-filmdom female performance in "Brodie". From "Othello" opposite Olivier to the Harry Potter films and a Tony on Broadway, "Maggie", a patrician in spite of the name, is up there with Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn as one of our greatest screen actresses, and few if any match her stage credits. A spirited sexy woman is hard to resist, supported by flawless ensemble acting. Edinburgh itself is one of the stars...a must-see, again and again, and not just for her Oscar-winning performance.--Robert Ozerov

• "Miss Brodie"comes to the screen and enchants us.

  • Kevin4Butler
  • 7/4/10

  This screen version of the hit play and novel..tells the story of a 1930's school teacher.Whose free thinking methiods..upsets the morals of the conseritive school board and most of the students.The plot is strong and at times chilling..as Ms.Smith's "Ms.Brodie"tries to subert her students with her manipulative and dangerous suggestions,the other cast members..are delightful.Especially Ms.Franklin as the sexy and vengeful "Sandy".

• A Must See

  • gregg
  • 11/12/09

  Most younger audiences will probably only know Maggie Smith from the Harry Potter movies, or perhaps Sister Act II or Travels with my Aunt, or much earlier in Clash of the Titans, but she is absolutely riveting in her Oscar winning performance as Jean Brodie, a middle aged spinster-ish school teacher at the exclusive Marcia Blaine School for Girls in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie". Smith is electrifying as the over-the-top, outrageous, manipulative school mistress, whose attempts to control the lives and loves of those in her orbit go awry. A classic!!

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