Seeing this film after 40-years reminded me how good Peter Finch was – just about the most worldly, in control guy you could hope to see on the screen. He seemed to get better looking as he got older, although he showed every one of his years.Rita Tushingham got all the raves at the time, and she was a unique presence around the early 60's; it's easy to see why she had an impact on the critics, she had a look with those big eyes and mobile features – she seemed to literally devour life in her early roles.Set in Ireland, Kate Brady (Rita Tushingham), a young country girl experiencing life for the first time in the city, has an affair with a much older man: a writer, Eugene Gaillard (Peter Finch). However, there are problems; he doesn't want to get too involved after a failed marriage, and she has inhibitions due to a suspicious father and her upbringing as a strict Roman Catholic.This was Desmond Davis first film as director, and possibly he was influenced by the French New Wave where everything had the feeling it was photographed by accident with plenty of sharp cutting. Some of the mood changes in the film are also a bit sudden as well. When Kate's father and friends arrive from the village to save her from Eugene, the film gets an attack of the John Fords with the whole sequence treated as broad comedy with even broader Irish characters.However there is assurance with the way the scenes of Kate and Eugene are handled. Kate although sensitive, is outspoken and often at odds with the older Eugene, she is a strong character and not as naive as he seems to think she is. Eugene makes allowances for Kate's youth, but is inclined to avoid confrontation – their exchanges are often intense, but also breezy and witty, with the odd insight thrown in.The bedroom scenes were quite frank for the times, even if they are of the sheets around the shoulders variety. John Addison's score has a wistfulness that portends the end of the affair, a sentiment echoed in the script. At one point Eugene observes, "There's no always in human relations … people die, change, outgrow their best friends, nothing's permanent".Awkward touches aside, this is still an engaging film. It has two charismatic stars; a touch of sadness and a life-goes-on ending that feels about right.

Girl With Green Eyes is directed by Desmond Davis, has a screenplay by Edna O'Brien based on her own novel and stars Peter Finch, Rita Tushingham and Lynn Redgrave.In 1960's Dublin shy Kate Brady (Rita Tushingham)lives with her best friend Baba (Lynn Redgrave). Baba is an outgoing party girl, whereas Kate is looking for one man to share her heart, soul and life with. She soon finds a man she feels a strong connection to, this man is Eugene Gallard(Peter Finch)a middle aged local landowner. He is attracted to her and the pair tentatively begin a friendship which later turns to romance.Gallard is a practical man however, he knows that the difference in their age may present problems at a later date. He also knows that what seems certain today isn't always certain tomorrow. He tries to tell Kate that what they have may not last but she insists it will. Their relationship soon suffers the wrath of her father who is shocked that she is living with this man unmarried. Will they stay together or not?Finch is excellent as a quiet man who knows his current happiness may not last but will enjoy every second that he can. Tushingham is all wide eyed innocence and soul, she's such a brilliant actress and always conveys so much just through a look.Redgrave is a riot as the boisterous Baba and provides a great deal of comic relief. One of her best early roles.The scenes between Gallard and Kate are tender and moving, you can see in his eyes the love he has for her and in hers the love and affection she has for him.There is nothing disgusting about the couples age gap, you believe their love and I like how they don't instantly become romantically involved, that happens much later and we see how shy and nervous Kate is about their first time together(as any inexperienced woman would be).A beautiful story of love and how it's not always as straightforward as some may think it to be.

Desmond Davis, who had worked closely with Tony Richardson, decided to try his hand directing films. For his first effort he decided to use Edna O'Brien's novella "The Lonely Girl", which we read a long while ago, and frankly, we don't remember it well. The result was a movie that has that "English Look" of what came out of England during those years."Girl with Green Eyes" owes its success to Rita Tushingham, an actress that was the darling of English movie makers. She had a certain waif look that she used to her advantage in films such as this one, and in others of the same period. She holds the movie together as it's hard to take one's eyes from hers. Ms. Tushingham was not a spectacular beauty, yet she had a certain look that was appealing in her work.Peter Finch appears as Eugene Gaillard, a man who is divorced with a child, and whose estranged wife has moved overseas. His attraction for Kate Brennan is quite understandable, yet, Eugene can't get Kate to be more than a platonic admirer, never being able to consume the passion she feels for him, and vice versa.Also in the movie, a young and fresh Lynn Redgrave, who went to make bigger and better things on her own in the British cinema and on the stage and films in America, her adoptive country."Girl with Green Eyes" is worth a look for what Desmond Davis was able to accomplish in his first feature. The copy we watched recently was sadly in need of restoration.

Long into watching this studiously "small," slice-of-life portrait of a naive young woman, I was still wondering if the film would turn out, in the end, to have been worth watching. Earnest in its desire to be grittily true-to-life, in the neo-realist manner of the Angry Young Men, it is also clearly intoxicated with the quotidian lyricism and plain-spoken poetry of la nouvelle vague. It attempts to be charming and brutally frank at the same time, and manages, to some extent, to carry it off.But will we end up caring about Tushingham's somewhat obtuse small town escapee, or Finch's sophisticated cold fish? Or will we be left with the rather sodden sensation that we've wasted our time eavesdropping on bores? For my part, I was pleasantly surprised. The story ends with the palpable sense that Kate has grown up a bit, and Eugene has grown a little older and sadder. We've looked on as two people have lived their bittersweet lives, much as we live our own -- and we're a little sad to bid them adieu.To sum up: not as fresh and appealing today as it probably seemed in its time, but still rewarding and worthwhile.