Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Much like its main character, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969) is deceptively dangerous. With a title and setting that suggests an inspirational ode to the wonders of a private school education, director Ronald Neame’s film (adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark) is instead a frightening profile of a woman whose abuse of power and politics in the classroom is a corrupting influence on all those around her. All the more shocking is the culprit behind this scandalous state-of-affairs: one Maggie Smith, currently the Dowager Countess of Grantham on Downton Abbey.

Once the viewer adapts to the idea of Smith as the haughty, desirable Jean Brodie, a well-traveled connoisseur of the arts who passes on her love of culture to her students often at the expense of other academic pursuits, the story becomes a tragedy in the making…but exactly whose tragedy is the real question.

Brodie, as a character, is a fascinating mix of contradictions, professing her commitment to her students without reservation yet using them as camouflage for her own sinful vanity. As a strong woman “in her prime” she attracts a number of romantic admirers who compete for her attention, resulting in a love triangle between herself and two fellow teachers. A situation which doesn’t go unnoticed by the school headmistress (Celia Johnson) or her own students led by the equally headstrong Sandy (Pamela Franklin), part of a core group of “Brodie’s Girls” who buy into their instructor’s contradictory loose moral code and high ethical standards.

The push-pull relationship between Sandy and Miss Brodie becomes a struggle for the very soul of the students at Marcia Blaine School for Girls. And Neame’s film becomes an ingenious poke in the eye at the disingenuous goals of the naïve counter-culture set…a pretty neat trick for a film set in 1930s Edinburgh. Dissected from a political standpoint, the film becomes even more multi-faceted. But removed from any ulterior motives whatsoever, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is still a fascinating piece of work thanks to Smith’s whirlwind performance, matched note for note by young Franklin who pulls it off with about 20 years less experience.

Twilight Time’s 3000-copy limited edition Blu-ray includes an isolated music and effects track, trailer, liner notes and an audio commentary with Neame and Franklin, who retired from acting around 1980. Somebody get that girl on Downton for a rematch!