THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE (1969) C widescreen 116m dir: Ronald Neame

w/Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr, Shirley Steedman, Lavinia Lang, Antoinette Biggerstaff

Don't miss Smith's Academy Award-winning performance as the irrepressible, irresistible, and thoroughly mad teacher at an exclusive girls' school. She mesmerizes you at every turn, as her wide-eyed charges raptly listen to her speak of her affairs, her misguided allegiances to Mussolini and Franco, and her dedication to love, art, and truth.

From Variety's review of the film: "Maggie Smith's tour-de-force performance as a schoolteacher slipping into spinsterhood is one of several notable achievements in this sentimental and macabre personal tragedy.

"Jay Presson Allen adapted her own play [based on a novel by Muriel Spark]. The story, set in 1930s Edinburgh, treats in a tenderly savage way the decline of an age-resisting schoolmarm who lives too vicariously through a select group of prodigy-stooges. The telling involves elements of warm humor, biting sarcasm, pity, contempt, betrayal, and despair.

"Smith's performance is a triumph. Other cast principals, all of whom project excellent performances, include Robert Stephens, the art teacher, Pamela Franklin, cast as a mysteriously adult child and the eventual betrayer of Smith, and Gordon Jackson is impressive as the pitiable, gutless music teacher. Celia Johnson's key adversary role as the school head-mistress comes off magnificently."

The film was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Song ("Jean," written by Rod McKuen).