''Greenwich Village Story'', a 1963 feature film written and directed by

Jack O'Connell Jack O'Connell may refer to: * Jack O'Connell (actor) (born 1990), English actor * Jack O'Connell (Australian politician) (1903–1972), member of the Victorian Legislative Council * Jack O'Connell (diplomat) (1921–2010), American diplomat and C ...

, centres on the bohemian milieu of

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village ( , , ) is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street to the north, Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the south, and the Hudson River to the west. Greenwich Village ...

. The female protagonist, Genie (played by actress Melinda Cordell, credited here as Melinda Plank), a talented ballet dancer, is made pregnant out of wedlock by her underachieving boyfriend, Brian (played by

Robert Hogan (actor) Robert Joseph Hogan (September 28, 1933 – May 27, 2021) was an American actor. Hogan was best known to audiences for his career in American television which began in 1961. While he has never been a member of the main cast of a critically suc ...

), a would-be novelist. Rather than leave him in order to take up a professional dancing role she has been offered which involves touring, Genie stays in the flat they share, but Brian, after the damning rejection of his novel by a publisher upon whose patronage he was depending, absents himself for several days with an ex-girlfriend, Anne (played by Sunja Svensen), a society woman several years older who inhabits the periphery of bohemia, sometimes in the company of a genial young advertising copywriter, George (played by James Cresson). Not aware that Genie is pregnant, Brian has made their marriage conditional upon his success as a writer. Genie fears that Brian, who is emotionally immature (something noted by the publishers in their dismissal of his submitted novel), will reject her out of hand on learning about her pregnancy. One possible solution is for Genie to visit an illegal abortionist, having sold her late mother's brooch to raise the cash. Meanwhile, Brian is informally mentored in the ways of the world by a more cynical and experienced bohemian, Norman (played by

James Frawley James Joseph Frawley (September 29, 1936 – January 22, 2019) was an American director and actor. He was a member of the Actors Studio since around 1961. He was best known for directing ''The Muppet Movie'' (1979) and ''The Monkees'' television ...

), and tempted into the world of Madison Avenue by George, with whom he has struck up a friendship. While away in the Berkshires with Anne, whose advances he gently shuns, Brian, still unaware of Genie's true condition, comes to the realisation that he loves and wants to marry her. He hurriedly returns to Greenwich Village, but Genie proves difficult to trace there. The film was shot on location in Greenwich Village and

The Berkshires The Berkshires () are a highland geologic region located in the western parts of Massachusetts and northwest Connecticut. The term "Berkshires" is normally used by locals in reference to the portion of the Vermont-based Green Mountains that ex ...

, including a nude swimming scene filmed on Lake Garfield, Massachusetts. According to the director, the sounds of motorboat engines in this sequence threatened to take over the scene's audio and were replaced in the final soundtrack by pre-recorded crickets. The director himself had earlier worked as second assistant director on Michelangelo Antonioni's ''

L'Avventura ''L'Avventura'' ( en, "The Adventure") is a 1960 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Developed from a story by Antonioni with co-writers Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra, the film is about the disappearance of a young woman ...

'' (1960), while cinematographer Baird Bryant later worked as uncredited assistant to László Kovács on ''

Easy Rider ''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American independent drug culture road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern, produced by Fonda, and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American So ...

'' (1969), in which he was responsible for filming the LSD trip sequence in the cemetery in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

External links

* * 1963 films 1963 independent films 1963 romantic drama films American black-and-white films American independent films American romantic drama films Films set in Manhattan Films set in Massachusetts Films shot in Massachusetts Films shot in New York City American pregnancy films 1963 directorial debut films 1960s English-language films 1960s American films {{1960s-drama-film-stub