''Take a Girl Like You'' is a 1970 British romantic comedy drama film directed by

Jonathan Miller Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller CBE (21 July 1934 – 27 November 2019) was an English theatre and opera director, actor, author, television presenter, humourist and physician. After training in medicine and specialising in neurology in the late 1 ...

and starring Hayley Mills,

Oliver Reed Robert Oliver Reed (13 February 1938 – 2 May 1999) was an English actor known for his well-to-do, macho image and "hellraiser" lifestyle. After making his first significant screen appearances in Hammer Horror films in the early 1960s, his ...

and

Noel Harrison Noel John Christopher Harrison (29 January 1934 – 19 October 2013) was an English actor and singer who had a hit singing " The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, and was a member of the British Olympic skiing team in the 1950s. He was the son of ...

. Based on the 1960 novel ''

Take a Girl Like You ''Take a Girl Like You'' is a comic novel by Kingsley Amis. The narrative follows the progress of twenty-year-old Jenny Bunn, who has moved from her family home in the North of England to a small town not far from London to teach primary school ...

'' by

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social a ...

, it was adapted by

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an ...

Synopsis

Northerner Jenny arrives in a town near London, where she has taken lodgings with a Labour candidate in order to take up a job as a teacher. She quickly meets Patrick, who knows another girl at the lodging house but shares the goal, along with his friend Julian, of having sex with as many women as possible. After a first date which ends at Patrick's flat for coffee, Patrick is shocked when Jenny tells him she is a

virgin Virginity is the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. The term ''virgin'' originally only referred to sexually inexperienced women, but has evolved to encompass a range of definitions, as found in traditional, modern ...

and intends to stay that way until she meets the right man. Jenny is attracted to Patrick, so they get into a volatile relationship as Patrick tries to change Jenny's mind, without giving up his

bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

status.

Cast

Production

Amis' novel was published in 1960. In April 1961,

Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker (born Roy Horace Baker; 19 December 1916 – 5 October 2010) was an English film director. His best known film is ''A Night to Remember (1958 film), A Night to Remember'' (1958) which won a Golden Globe for Golden Globe Award for ...

announced he would make a film of the novel after he finished ''

Flame in the Streets ''Flame in the Streets'' is a 1961 film directed by Roy Ward Baker and based on the 1958 play '' Hot Summer Night'' by Ted Willis. It opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 22 June 1961. The film depicts an interracial rom ...

'' but the project did not happen. In April 1968, it was announced that producer Hal Chester would make a version of the novel under his new contract with

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...

. George Melly was writing the script and the director would be Jonathan Miller. Miller had directed for TV before, notably '' Alice in Wonderland'' and '' Whistle and I'll Come to You'', but this was his first feature. Miller admitted his "motives were slightly at fault in accepting the project to begin with. I was thinking that... well,

Mike Nichols Mike Nichols (born Michael Igor Peschkowsky; November 6, 1931 – November 19, 2014) was an American film and theater director, producer, actor, and comedian. He was noted for his ability to work across a range of genres and for his aptitude fo ...

can make a lot of money, why shouldn't I? I accepted the project probably too eagerly. I think it was probably one of Amis' best novels but there were a lot of things to be said against filming it." Miller says "the difficulties began to double" during scripting "because rather than let the script happen spontaneously, the producer sat in on its manufacture at almost every stage. I'm not saying he didn't work very hard and have the best intentions; it's just that his conception and our conception of the intentions were hopelessly at odds." Miller says the story was "old fashioned" and that he and writer Melly "were forced into making" the story "even more old fashioned by making it more sentimental. Gradually I found myself boxed in to a very conventional, almost 1950s studio situation and the final cut was beyond my control." Miller admitted "perhaps what we were doing was something quite dishonest in trying to steal in a realistic film inside the shell of a commercial enterprise. I don't think the two can be done." In December 1968, Hayley Mills signed to star. Filming started March 1969 in London.

Reception

The film was a commercial and critical flop. It was the last film produced by Hal Chester and the only feature directed by Miller.

References

External links

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''Take a Girl Like You''
at Letterbox DVD
Review of film
at Variety {{Kingsley Amis 1970 films 1970 romantic comedy films British romantic comedy films Columbia Pictures films Films based on British novels Films set in England Films shot in Surrey Films based on works by Kingsley Amis Films scored by Stanley Myers 1970s English-language films Films directed by Jonathan Miller 1970s British films