Melody

Melody (1971)

A tender love story for everyone who was ever ten years old.

Two youngsters declare to their parents that they want to get married. Not sometime in the future but as soon as possible.

Date of release
1971-03-28
TMDB
7.0 / 10 (68)
Runtime
1h 43m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director
Waris Hussein

Casting

Interesting facts

Melody is a 1971 British children's romantic comedy-drama film directed by Waris Hussein, centered on the theme of puppy love. The film stars Jack Wild, Mark Lester, and Tracy Hyde.

Production

The film was based on an idea by David Puttnam. At the time, he was working on film projects with Alan Parker, whom he knew from the advertising industry. Puttnam suggested that Parker write a love story involving children and mentioned that he had the rights to use seven Bee Gees songs. Parker was inspired by a line in the song "First of May," and the title came from the song "Melody Fair."

Parker stated that the script was based on his own experiences growing up in Islington, combined with some of Puttnam's experiences. "It's a combination of Puttnam's young life and my young life," Parker said. He also mentioned that his involvement in the film sparked his interest in filmmaking and influenced his work on Bugsy Malone.

Mark Lester (Daniel Latimer) and Jack Wild (Ornshaw) had previously co-starred in the 1968 musical film Oliver!. They were joined by child model Tracy Hyde in the title role. Other cast members included Kate Williams and Roy Kinnear as Melody's parents, and Sheila Steafel and Keith Barron as Daniel's parents, although Barron was uncredited in the cast list.

Melody marked the feature film debut of Tracy Hyde, who was 11 years old at the time. Writer/director Andrew Birkin recommended Hyde for the role of Melody Perkins to director Waris Hussein, after screening and auditioning more than 100 other girls. Jack Wild was actually 17 years old during the filming, during which co-star Lester turned 13.

Parker stated, "The film was mostly financed by Edgar Bronfman. Apparently, his 15-year-old son, Edgar Bronfman Jr., read the script and recommended that his father make the movie. Edgar Jr. was also a production runner on the film." Ron Kass was the one who sent the script to Bronfman, who provided £400,000 of the budget, while Hemdale contributed £200,000. At the time, Hemdale represented both Mark Lester and Jack Wild.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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