By Richard Harland Smith
Loss of Innocence
Brief Synopsis
A European vacation turns a teenaged girl into a woman.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Lewis Gilbert
Director
Kenneth More
Eliot
Danielle Darrieux
Madame Zizi
Susannah York
Joss Grey
Claude Nollier
Madame Corbet
Jane Asher
Hester Grey
Film Details
Also Known As
The Greengage Summer
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1961
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: 20 Sep 1961
Production Company
P. K. L. Pictures
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures
Country
United Kingdom
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden (London, 1958).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Synopsis
While on holiday in the champagne country of France, four English children are stranded when their mother becomes ill and is hospitalized. The oldest child, 16-year-old Joss, takes her sisters, Hester and Vicky, and brother Willmouse, to the château-hotel on the River Marne where their mother had reservations. At first the proprietor, Madame Zizi, and the receptionist, Madame Corbet, are reluctant to take the children in, but Zizi's lover, a dashing Englishman named Eliot, insists that they be received. The next few days are filled with delight for the children as Eliot takes them sightseeing and dining. Zizi, however, resents sharing Eliot and becomes suspicious of his attentions to the rapidly-maturing Joss. One night Zizi creates a scene in the dining room by throwing a glass of champagne into Joss's face; but when Eliot follows Zizi to her bedroom, the outraged Joss gets drunk with the scullery boy, Paul, and has to be carried to her room. The next day, in a fit of adolescent jealousy, Joss sends Eliot's photograph to the Paris police, having correctly concluded that he is a wanted jewel thief. That night Paul comes into Joss's bedroom and attempts to rape her; and as Eliot, roused by the terrified girl's screams, rushes into the room, Paul falls from a window to his death. Ashamed of her actions, Joss confesses to having mailed the photograph. Though Eliot makes his escape, his concern for the children is such that he sends a wire to their uncle, summoning him to the château, thus divulging to the police his whereabouts. Before leaving the château, a much wiser Joss recalls Eliot's parting words: "Little Joss, in this summer you grew up. You've become a woman."
Director
Lewis Gilbert
Director
Cast
Kenneth More
Eliot
Danielle Darrieux
Madame Zizi
Susannah York
Joss Grey
Claude Nollier
Madame Corbet
Jane Asher
Hester Grey
Elizabeth Dear
Vicky Grey
Richard Williams
Willmouse Grey
David Saire
Paul
Raymond Gérôme
Inspector Renard
Maurice Denham
Uncle William Bullock
André Maranne
Monsieur Dufour
Harold Kasket
Monsieur Prideaux
Jacques Brunius
Monsieur Foubert
Joy Shelton
Mrs. Grey
Balbina
Mauricette
Will Stampe
Monsieur Armand
Jean Ozenne
Champagne director
Jacques Dhéry
Bargée
Bessie Love
Fred Johnson
American tourists
Crew
Richard Addinsell
Music Composition
Shirley Barnes
Cont
John Dark
Production Manager
Frank Ernst
Assistant Director
Harry Gillam
Camera Operator
Betty Glasow
Hairdresser
Irene Haas
Title Designer
Julie Harris
Costumes
Peter Hunt
Film Editor
Howard Koch
Screenwriter
Muir Mathieson
Conductor
George Partleton
Makeup
Bert Ross
Sound Recording
Victor Saville
Company
Victor Saville
Producer
Edward Small
Company
Herbert Smith
Assistant Prod Designer
John Stoll
Prod Designer
F. A. Young
Director of Photography
Photo Collections
1 Photo
Loss of Innocence - Movie Poster
Loss of Innocence - Movie Poster
Videos
Movie Clip
Hosted Intro
Film Details
Also Known As
The Greengage Summer
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1961
Premiere Information
Los Angeles opening: 20 Sep 1961
Production Company
P. K. L. Pictures
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures
Country
United Kingdom
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden (London, 1958).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono
Color
Color (Technicolor)
Articles
Loss of Innocence (1961) -
Producer Victor Saville had wanted Cary Grant to play a bachelor jewel thief cooling his heels in France's champagne country and entering into an unexpected love affair with an English girl on the cusp of womanhood in Loss of Innocence (1961). An adaptation of the 1958 Rumer Godden novel The Greengage Summer (also the film's UK title), the film went into production without Grant's participation, his place occupied by British leading man Kenneth More. Charming to a fault and ten years younger than Grant but sturdily built and more accustomed to wearing military uniforms than open-necked shirts, More was instructed by director Lewis Gilbert to go on a crash diet to make him a more tenable potential lover for his 21 year-old costar, Susannah York (playing a 16 year-old). With the rise of the British New Wave and the vogue for working class film heroes such as Richard Harris and Albert Finney, the middle class and middle aged More's days were numbered as an A-list actor. While he contented himself with character parts, York enjoyed prominent casting in Freud (1962), Tom Jones (1963) and Superman (1978). By the end of the decade, she had earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and would go on to claim the Best Actress award at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival for Images (1972).
By Richard Harland Smith
By Richard Harland Smith
Loss of Innocence (1961) -
Producer Victor Saville had wanted Cary Grant to play a bachelor jewel thief cooling his heels in France's champagne country and entering into an unexpected love affair with an English girl on the cusp of womanhood in Loss of Innocence (1961). An adaptation of the 1958 Rumer Godden novel The Greengage Summer (also the film's UK title), the film went into production without Grant's participation, his place occupied by British leading man Kenneth More. Charming to a fault and ten years younger than Grant but sturdily built and more accustomed to wearing military uniforms than open-necked shirts, More was instructed by director Lewis Gilbert to go on a crash diet to make him a more tenable potential lover for his 21 year-old costar, Susannah York (playing a 16 year-old). With the rise of the British New Wave and the vogue for working class film heroes such as Richard Harris and Albert Finney, the middle class and middle aged More's days were numbered as an A-list actor. While he contented himself with character parts, York enjoyed prominent casting in Freud (1962), Tom Jones (1963) and Superman (1978). By the end of the decade, she had earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) and would go on to claim the Best Actress award at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival for Images (1972).
By Richard Harland Smith
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Location scenes filmed in the Marne River Valley of France. Opened in London in April 1961 as The Greengage Summer.
