lotusgdess-1 Never cared very much for Rita Tushingham. I remember her being tagged for the role of the daughter of Lara & Yuri in Dr. Zhivago. Seriously? That face was not created by the DNA of the likes of Julie Christie and Omar Sharif. I find her acting mannerisms irritating and her face reminiscent of a ferret. I realize that not every movie actor needs to be a great beauty, but swear to god I don't see how she ever got a career in movies. It's just hard to see her for 2 hours in a film. Thankfully I didn't watch it on a huge screen.The movie seems dated. Lynn Redgrave was pretty good and Peter Finch played his usual cold & distant personality which reminded me of his Jake Armitage character in The Pumpkin Eater.

tomsview 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.

Charles Herold (cherold) There's not a lot to this movie, which details the relationship of a young woman who sets her cap for a much older man. Not a lot happens, and while the actors are skilled, they are given little to work with. Rita Tushingham seems a bit dim, and Peter Finch is given a series of world- weary lines that are too stylized to fit with the movie's naturalistic pretensions. Those looking for something akin to a story will be disappointed.As a middle-aged man, I see the movie mainly as a warning against dating young women. The girl's conflicted emotions and crazy family are exactly the sort of things a middle-aged man shouldn't have to deal with. I'd be curious to know what moral a young woman would take from the movie though.

harry-76 Poor Rita Tushingham--she did seem to inherit some strangely frustrating parts.In "A Taste of Honey" she was a young pregnant girl, first abandoned by her itinerant sailor, then landing in a "relationship" with a sadly confused chap. In "Girl with Green Hair," she's another adolescent who falls for a man twice her age. Won't she ever learn?Director Desmond Davis' work resembles Tony Richardson's so much that their styles are almost interchangeable. It may be because Composer John Addison also scored Richardson's "A Taste of Honey," and "Loneliness of the Long Distant Runner." It's remarkable how Addison's bleakly dissonant style so greatly influences the moods of these dramas.With Davis employing a lot of contrapuntal passages played by a thin woodwind ensemble--often featuring a solo oboe--one does feel the emptiness and loneliness of character emotions. There was no one who embodied the "Cockney Kitchen Sink" dramas of the 60s like Tushingham. She was perfect for her parts. Here ably supported by Peter Finch as a blase older man and Lynn Redgrave as a daftly talkative friend, Tushingham plays her role to the hilt.By the end, the viewer has come to experience a limited encounter--rather doomed from the start--between a worldly wise Dublin land owner and working class Brit girl . . . the latter of whom is finally able to move on with her education and find acquaintances more her age.The viewer during this visit has experienced some telling scenes of Irish-English life, and an interesting adolescent/mature fling at a brief encounter.