Melody is a 1971British film about 'puppy love'. A 'tween-age' boy falls in love with a 'tween-age' girl. It is 1970. The expression 'tween' is not in vogue yet, but corporal punishment is.
Two ten-year-olds (Mark Lester, Tracy Hyde) meet at school, become fast friends and decide to marry soon after. However, they face the wrath of both their parents and an old friend (Jack Wild). Although Serge Gainsbourg and love Jane Birkin had appeared in a string of films since their magnetic collision in Pierre Grimblat’s Slogan (1969), Melody was a bit of diversion from their feature and music collaborations, since it’s a series of interwoven videos inspired by Gainsbourg’s album Histoire de Melody Nelson (1971).
Directed by Waris Hussein. Written by Andrew Berkin and Alan Parker.
Dialogue[edit]
Maureen: Do you kiss boys, Muriel?
Muriel: Sometimes, if I like him enough.
Melody: Aren't you frightened?
Muriel: Oh, why should I be frightened? It's quite nice when you get used to it.
[Daniel wants to dance with Melody]
Daniel: I've got to dance with her.
Ornshaw: You're mad! What do you want to do that for? She'll only say 'Buzz off!' or something. She's a bit stuck up that one. This whole girl-nonsense is rubbish. Girls are a load of snotty-nosed little so-and-so's.
Ornshaw: Some people are winners and some people are losers.
Daniel: Who says who's gonna be what?
Ornshaw: Don't ask me, that's all done before we get on this earth. I mean, it's him up there. He says, 'You, you're gonna be red-hot at the triple jump, and you, you're gonna be bloody useless!'
[in the school office about to get 'slippered']
Mr. Dicks: Now, why are you here, Ornshaw?
Ornshaw: Because you invited me, sir.
Mr. Dicks: And why did I invite you, Ornshaw?
Ornshaw: Well, because I couldn't translate the Latin, sir.
Mr. Dicks: Why, Ornshaw? Why?
Ornshaw: Because it's a bloody silly out-of-date language do you mean, sir?
Mr. Dicks: Two was it, Ornshaw... I think we'll make it four... [trying to hold his temper] ...And why do you think it's a... silly out-of-date language, Ornshaw?
Ornshaw: Well, because I couldn't speak to a dead Roman even if I knew the bloody lingo, sir!
Melody: [reading from a tombstone] 'Fifty years' happiness.' How long's fifty years?
Daniel: A hundred and fifty school terms, not including holidays.
Melody: Will you love me that long?
Daniel: [nods] Mmm-hmmm.
Melody: I don't think you will.
Daniel: Of course. I've loved you a whole week already, haven't I?
Cast[edit]
Tracy Hyde as Melody Perkins
Mark Lester as Daniel Latimer
Jack Wild as Ornshaw
Sheila Steafel as Mrs. Latimer
Keith Barron as Mr. Latimer
Roy Kinnear as Mr. Perkins
Hilda Barry as Grandma Perkins
Peter Walton as Fensham
Kay Skinner as Peggy
William Vanderpuye as O'Leary
Camille Davies as Muriel
Craig Marriott as Dadds
Billy Franks as Burgess
Tim Wylton as Mr. Fellows
June Jago as Miss Fairfax
Ken Jones as Mr. Dicks
External links[edit]
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