In the movie Gregory’s Girl, following an 8-game losing streak, a desperate (and sexist) Glasgow school soccer team coach reluctantly accepts hotshot female player Dee Hepburn (who trained six weeks for the role). Although demoted to goalie, teenage knucklehead John Gordon Sinclair falls hard for his new teammate. Prodded by the advice of his smart-mouthed 10-year-old sister Allison Forster, he does make his move, but there are behind-the-scenes feminine conspiracies en route.
One of the biggest sleeper hits of the 1980s, Gregory’s Girl was made on a shoestring budget, but turned a 64,000 percent profit, with Forsyth’s screenplay winning the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay in 1982. It would later be voted #30 in the BFI’s list of 100 greatest British films of the 20th century. The film was released in the United States in 1982.
Gregory’s Girl was Glasgow-born Forsyth’s second feature film, following his 1979 independent debut comedy That Sinking Feeling (made with a budget of only £5,000), which jump-started a then-non-existent Scottish film industry. Gregory’s Girl would be followed by Comfort and Joy, Local Hero (starring Burt Lancaster and Peter Riegert), and one of the best movies of 1987, Housekeeping, starring Christine Lahti (and based on the novel of the same name, which was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize in fiction). Forsyth later directed films starring Burt Reynolds (Breaking In) and Robin Williams (Being Human).
The poster from the film’s original release in 1982 is featured below.
