Gypsy Girl (1966) [better known by its British title Sky West and Crooked] was based on the Mary Hayley Bell story Bats with Baby Faces, about a teenage girl who is traumatized by the accidental death of a friend and runs off with a gypsy boy (played by a young Ian McShane). Although he had produced several films, this was the only movie directed by the actor John Mills and his wife, Mary, was the author. It became a family affair with their youngest daughter, Hayley Mills, (who had already become a star in Hollywood thanks to films like Pollyanna (1960) and The Parent Trap (1961)) taking the lead role. Even the Mills' family dog was in Gypsy Girl.

In his autobiography, Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen, Please, John Mills remembered the difficulties and pleasures of making the film. "The story concerned children; it was emotional and at times verged on the sentimental. For this reason I was determined to get a writer or writers on the script who were up-to-date, modern, down-to-earth and tough. Keith Waterhouse and Willis Hall, who had written such a great script from Mary's last marvelous story Whistle Down the Wind [which had also starred Hayley Mills], would be perfect. They read it, liked it, but were too tied up on another script to take it on. With hindsight I realize I made a mistake: I allowed myself to get locked in to studio space on a specific date, which meant that I had a restricted time for preparation. I tried several other script writers with no success. Time was running out. I finally engaged an excellent writer, John Prebble who, after he delivered the first draft, I knew was not right for the film. By this time the production was rolling too fast downhill to stop. The result was that I started shooting with a script that I was not entirely happy about, which anyone who has any knowledge of the film business will know to be a worrying and unsatisfactory state of affairs. "

Despite his trouble with the script, Mills had better luck with his crew, "I had a wonderful team with me – Jack Hanbury, producer, Carmen Dillon, designer, Arthur Ibbetson, cameraman, and a hand-picked crew, every one of whom I had worked with many times over the past twenty years. We toured England and Wales searching for exactly the right village with all the necessary qualifications – church, churchyard, village green, pub and cottages clustered together that I could frame in one long shot. We finally found it – Badminton. It was perfect, except for one thing – the church had no tower. So we built one out of steel scaffolding and fiberglass."

"Hayley was superb and a joy to direct. The only member of the cast I had any problem with at all was Hamlet. Our spaniel had the reputation of being the best pee-er in the business; no tree, lamppost or gatepost in the Richmond area was left unchristened. As soon as he knew the camera was turning on him, however, he dried up. I needed a very important shot: Hamlet was supposed to show his disapproval of a preceding scene by peeing on the churchyard gate as he made his exit with Hayley. Just to make sure he would be in the right mood and well primed for his performance, I kept him in my caravan for a couple of hours before the shot with a large bowl of water; and to make absolutely sure, we primed the gatepost as well. On action Hamlet, as ordered, trotted along beside Hayley through the churchyard; he approached the gatepost, glanced at it disdainfully, and passed it by. He then proceeded to pee on the camera legs, the sound truck, the catering wagon and the make-up table. I tried for an hour to get the shot, but Hamlet just wouldn't come through. A month later, back in the studios, I got the props [property department] to erect a gate in the studio grounds. Hamlet made it in Take One. In fact, if the gate hadn't been very firmly built, he would have flattened it."

Mills' only directorial project received lukewarm reviews from the critics. Variety in its January , 1966 edition, said "This naive yarn is rescued from bathos by the evident sincerity of both star and director and by a very convincing portrayal of village life, highlighted by some excellent photography by Arthur Ibbetson. John Mills has played safe in his first directing experiment and the result, while often stodgy, suggests that he knows his way around a directorial chair."

The box office results were not spectacular, but as Mills wrote, "Although Sky West [Gypsy Girl] didn't succeed in breaking any box-office records we shall never regret making it. The whole unit was terrific – no strikes, no problems, everybody mucked [pitched] in. Union rules about who did what job and when were brushed under the table. Before the picture started I asked the production department to see that every member of the crew, including the sparks [electricians] and chippies [carpenters] were given scripts. The result was they all felt they were part of it and became personally concerned with making the picture. At the end of shooting the crew presented me with a super movie-editing machine; the inscription on it read: Bats with Baby Faces rechristened Sky West and Crooked: 1965. To Johnnie, with thanks for a very happy picture."

Producer: Jack Hanbury
Director: John Mills
Screenplay: John Prebble, Mary Hayley Bell (and story)
Cinematography: Arthur Ibbetson
Art Direction: Carmen Dillon
Music: Malcolm Arnold
Film Editing: Gordon Hales
Cast: Hayley Mills (Brydie White), Ian McShane (Roibin), Annette Crosbie (Mrs. White), Laurence Naismith (Edwin Dacres), Geoffrey Bayldon (Phillip Moss), Pauline Jameson (Mrs. Moss), Norman Bird (Cheeseman), June Ellis (Mrs. Cheeseman), Hamilton Dyce (Bill Slim)
C-105m. Letterboxed.

by Lorraine LoBianco

SOURCES:
Up in the Clouds, Gentlemen, Please: The Unabashed Autobiography of Britain's Best-Loved Actor by John Mills
The Internet Movie Database
Variety January 1, 1966