The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 film, based on the novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The novel was turned into a play by Jay Presson Allen, which opened on Broadway in 1968, with Zoe Caldwell in the title role, a performance for which she won a Tony Award. This production was a moderate success, running for just less than a year, but it has often been staged by both professional and amateur companies since then. However, although su... more

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a 1969 film, based on the novel of the same name by Muriel Spark. The novel was turned into a play by Jay Presson Allen, which opened on Broadway in 1968, with Zoe Caldwell in the title role, a performance for which she won a Tony Award. This production was a moderate success, running for just less than a year, but it has often been staged by both professional and amateur companies since then. However, although successful in its own terms, some have questioned whether it is a particularly faithful adaptation. It turned an experimental work into a realistic one, and removed some theological issues, turning it into a story of failed love. The number of girls in the Brodie Set is reduced from six to four (Mary, Sandy, Jenny, and Monica) and some of them are composites of girls in the novel. Mary is a composite of the original Mary and Joyce Emily; although mainly based on the original Mary, the episode of dying in the Spanish Civil War is given to her,... less