GEORDIE/ WEE GEORDIE

UK, 1955, 93 minutes, Colour.
Bill Travers, Alistair Sim, Norah Gorsen, Doris Goddard,
Raymond Huntley, Duncan Macrae.
Directed by Frank Launder.

Geordie is a delightful British comedy full of Scottish humour and charm. Wee Geordie studies a body-building course by correspondence and succeeds so well that he grows up to the size of Bill Travers. He becomes a champion harmer thrower and goes to the Olympic Games in Melbourne, a boy from the heather lost in the huge world. Bill Travers is excellent as Geordie. Much of the humour comes in the Alistair Sim, bumbling, absentminded style and in witty dialogue. The film came out a year before the actual Olympics in Melbourne in 1956.

1. Could you pin-point the reasons why this film had such charm and delight? Why was it popular?

2. Did the film give a picture of real people, in a real Scottish setting?

3. How was the friendship of Geordie and Jean shown in their climbing to the eagle's nest? How did Geordie's shortness really become clear to the audience here and make us feel sorry for him?

4. Were you pleased that Geordie's correspondence course was such a success?

5. Why did Jean taunt Geordie with his exercises? Was he too self-centred with them?

6. How important was the sequence of Geordie's carrying his father after his heart attack? How did it help in the development of the film?

7. Did you enjoy the Laird? Why?

8. What kind of man was Geordie - too simple, too naive, too lost outside his own home territory?

9. Why did he join the Games - competition amongst men, Jean's help?

10. Was Helga merely a cardboard character to help plot complications? Why?

11. How did you feel when Geordie marched at the beginning of the Games in his kilt? Why was he so popular?

12. Was Geordie right in deciding to give up games after the Olympics? Did he deserve the village's ignoring him on his return? Was it right for this film that everything ended happily?