The Luck of Ginger Coffey (film)

Last updated
The Luck of Ginger Coffey
Gingercoffey.jpg
DVD cover
Directed by Irvin Kershner
Written by Brian Moore
Produced byLeon Roth
Starring Robert Shaw
Mary Ure
Cinematography Manny Wynn
Edited by Antony Gibbs
Music by Bernardo Segall
Production
company
Distributed by Continental Distributing Inc.
Release date
  • 1964 (1964)
Running time
100 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$500,000 [1]

The Luck of Ginger Coffey is a 1964 Canadian film directed by Irvin Kershner. It is based on the Governor General's Award-winning novel by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore, [2] published in 1960.

Contents

Plot

The Luck of Ginger Coffey is about James Francis Coffey, a 39-year-old Irishman who is called "Ginger" because of his reddish hair and moustache. He is unfulfilled career-wise, no matter which job he takes on. After his release from the Army, he and his wife Vera, together with their 14-year-old daughter Paulie, move to Montreal.

In Canada, Coffey still has trouble finding work. Vera gets very upset when she finds out that Ginger is still unemployed and has spent their ticket money home.

However broke and empty-hearted they may be, they do have one friend to count on in Canada: Joe McGlade, who helps Coffey get a job working as a proofreader at the newspaper where McGlade is employed as a sports reporter. Coffey is unimpressed once again and continues to tell Vera it will all get better, but she has her own plans for improving her life. She leaves Coffey for McGlade and takes Paulie with her. She also takes all of Coffey's money and most of his belongings. Coffey gets a small place at the YMCA, and during his stay there he accepts a job previously offered (and refused) as a diaper delivery driver.

Coffey finds this job even more repulsive than his current one but takes it anyway, with a plan in mind: To get back Paulie and impress Vera with his selflessness. Vera is still unconvinced, but Paulie turns to her father's side and they get a flat of their own. Coffey is obsessed with Vera and begins to get sick from lack of sleep and food and an excessive work schedule. He is also obsessed with being promoted to reporter so that Vera will take him back, but unfortunately she only brings up the topic of divorce.

After turning down a promising promotion at the diaper service, Ginger discovers that the reporter's job he believes he was offered never existed, and was vaguely promised to prevent his quitting and leaving the department short staffed. Enraged, Ginger engages in a scuffle in the editor's office, and is escorted from the premises, presumably fired. Later, after drinks with his former co-workers, Ginger relieves himself in an alley beside a hotel, and is arrested and charged with indecent exposure, the charges later dropped by a sympathetic judge, after a humiliating, albeit short trial, witnessed by Vera.

Vera and Ginger meet outside the courthouse, as she is preparing to leave on a skiing trip with Joe McGlade. In sympathy, Vera accepts Ginger's invitation to have a cup of coffee, and there Ginger admits his shortcomings, and that he considers himself and his life as a joke. Vera then becomes the optimist, and as Ginger walks her home, she assures Ginger his promotion at the diaper service will likely still be available. Vera enters her flat, leaving the door open, as an invitation for Ginger to enter as well. Ginger enters, as the closing credits roll.

Cast

Production

The film, which cost just over its budget of $500,000, was largely financed by executive producer Budge Crawley. [1]

Casting

British co-stars Robert Shaw and Mary Ure were real-life husband and wife. [3]

Filming

It was filmed in Montreal and Ottawa. [1]

Reception

Writing in The New York Times , Bosley Crowther said: "Brian Moore's screenplay, written from his novel, is firm in structure and dialogue and an air of reality is given to it by dandy location shooting in Montreal... there is a subtle, important relation between the temperature of [Irving Kershner, the director's] snowy streets and the piteous progression of coldness between the husband and the wife." [3]

Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote that The Luck of Ginger Coffey "has neither depth of character nor point". [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Shaw (actor)</span> English actor and novelist (1927–1978)

Robert Archibald Shaw was an English actor, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Beginning his career in theatre, Shaw joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre after the Second World War and appeared in productions of Macbeth, Henry VIII, Cymbeline, and other Shakespeare plays. With the Old Vic company (1951–52), he continued primarily in Shakespearean roles. In 1959 he starred in a West End production of The Long and the Short and the Tall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irvin Kershner</span> American film director (1923–2010)

Irvin Kershner was an American director for film and television.

<i>Im All Right Jack</i> 1959 British comedy film by John Boulting

I'm All Right Jack is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel Private Life by Alan Hackney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Ure</span> British actress

Eileen Mary Ure was a British actress. She was the second Scottish-born actress to be nominated for an Academy Award, for her role in the 1960 film Sons and Lovers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">F. R. Crawley</span> Canadian producer and director

Frank Radford "Budge" Crawley, was a Canadian film producer, cinematographer and director. Along with his wife Judith Crawley, he co-founded the production company Crawley Films in 1939.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bosley Crowther</span> American film critic (1905–1981)

Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews were criticized as unnecessarily harsh. Crowther was an advocate of foreign-language films in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly those of Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Ingmar Bergman, and Federico Fellini.

<i>The Young Lions</i> (film) 1958 film

The Young Lions is a 1958 American epic World War II drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk and starring Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Dean Martin. It was made in black-and-white and CinemaScope and was theatrically released by 20th Century-Fox. The film is based on the 1948 novel of the same name by Irwin Shaw.

<i>Rancho Notorious</i> 1952 Western film directed by Fritz Lang

Rancho Notorious is a 1952 American Western film directed by Fritz Lang and starring Marlene Dietrich as the matron of a criminal hideout called Chuck-a-Luck, named after the game of chance referenced in the film. Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer play rivals for her attention in this tale of frontier revenge.

<i>The Intruder</i> (1962 film) 1962 American film directed by Roger Corman

The Intruder, also known as I Hate Your Guts, Shame and The Stranger, is a 1962 American drama film directed and co-produced by Roger Corman and starring William Shatner. The story, adapted by Charles Beaumont from his own 1959 novel of the same name, depicts the machinations of a racist named Adam Cramer, who arrives in the fictitious small Southern town of Caxton in order to incite white townspeople to racial violence against black townspeople and court-ordered school integration.

<i>Were Not Married!</i> 1952 film by Edmund Goulding

We're Not Married! is a 1952 American anthology romantic comedy film directed by Edmund Goulding. It was released by 20th Century Fox.

<i>Kitty Foyle</i> (film) 1940 film by Sam Wood

Kitty Foyle, subtitled The Natural History of a Woman, is a 1940 drama film starring Ginger Rogers, Dennis Morgan, and James Craig, based on Christopher Morley's 1939 bestseller Kitty Foyle. Rogers won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of the title character, and the dress she wore in the film became known as a Kitty Foyle dress.

<i>Sons and Lovers</i> (film) 1960 British film

Sons and Lovers is a 1960 British period drama film directed by Jack Cardiff and adapted by Gavin Lambert and T. E. B. Clarke from the semi-autobiographical 1913 novel of the same name by D. H. Lawrence. It stars Trevor Howard, Dean Stockwell, Wendy Hiller, Mary Ure, and Heather Sears.

<i>Dreamboat</i> (film) 1952 film by Claude Binyon

Dreamboat is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Claude Binyon and starring Clifton Webb, Ginger Rogers, Anne Francis and Jeffrey Hunter.

<i>The Macomber Affair</i> 1947 film by Zoltan Korda

The Macomber Affair is a 1947 American adventure drama film starring Gregory Peck, Joan Bennett, and Robert Preston. Directed by Zoltan Korda and distributed by United Artists, it portrays a fatal love triangle set in British East Africa between a frustrated wife, a weak husband, and the professional hunter who comes between them.

<i>The Second Time Around</i> (1961 film) 1961 film by Vincent Sherman

The Second Time Around is a 1961 American CinemaScope Comedy Western film starring Debbie Reynolds as a widow who relocates her family from 1911 or 1912 New York to the Arizona Territory. It is based on the novel Star in the West by Richard Emery Roberts.

Home Movies: The Great Canadian Film Caper was a Canadian television documentary miniseries which aired on CBC Television in 1966.

<i>Lucky Partners</i> 1940 American film

Lucky Partners is a 1940 American romantic comedy film starring Ronald Colman and Ginger Rogers. Directed by Lewis Milestone for RKO Radio Pictures, it is based on the 1935 Sacha Guitry film Good Luck. The picture was the only film pairing of Colman and Rogers, and Rogers' eleventh and final film written by Allan Scott.

<i>The Luck of Ginger Coffey</i> (novel) 1960 novel by Brian Moore

The Luck of Ginger Coffey, a novel by Northern Irish-Canadian writer Brian Moore, was published in 1960, in the United States by The Atlantic Monthly and in the United Kingdom by Andre Deutsch. In Canada, it received a Governor General's Award. The book was made into a film, directed by Irvin Kershner, and released in 1964. Robert Shaw starred in the title role.

<i>Belle Le Grand</i> 1951 film by Allan Dwan

Belle Le Grand is a 1951 American Western film directed by Allan Dwan and written by D.D. Beauchamp. The film stars Vera Ralston, John Carroll, William Ching, Hope Emerson, Grant Withers, Stephen Chase, John Qualen and Harry Morgan. The film was released on January 27, 1951, by Republic Pictures.

The 17th Canadian Film Awards were held on May 15, 1965 to honour achievements in Canadian film.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Gardner, Paul A. (June 9, 1965). "Canada's First Feature Sale Made With Soviet Union By Crawley Duo". Variety . p. 4.
  2. ↑ The Luck of Ginger Coffey , retrieved 10 April 2019
  3. 1 2 Crowther, Bosley (22 September 1964). "Screen: A Hopeless Failure, Fashioned Honestly:Robert Shaw Portrays 'Ginger Coffey'". The New York Times . Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  4. ↑ Kauffmann, Stanley (1966). A world on Film. Delta Books. p. 129.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.