mandresgasa I remember when I saw for the first time this movie on Argentinian TV. I was only 10 y/o. About three days ago chatting with a friend we remembered this film. Thanks to Internet I had the chance to see it again."Melody" shows two kids (Melody and Daniel) that are dealing with school. Things happens and they became closest friends... and more. But their love is brilliantly exposed, focused on the "child" belief. Excellent songs of Bee Gees, stories that reminds our childhood, "love" as an "innocent" and good thing, you will not be disappointed with the locations, script, and the solid interaction between Daniel and Melody.A kind of movie that nowadays does not exist. What a beautiful piece of art.

moonspinner55 Youngsters from different British classes interact at school, with one precocious but sensitive lad falling in love with a female classmate, much to the consternation of his best friend, who is still awkward around girls. Screenwriter Alan Parker really did his homework here; he is very cognizant of the way little girls act together when a boy is in the room, or how one particular lass will act once her friends have left and she's alone with that boy. Producer David Puttnam made several fine decisions as well, most especially in reuniting Mark Lester and Jack Wild, the two boys from 1968's "Oliver!", as the chums from different parts of town. The lush, romantic soundtrack, featuring songs by the Bee Gees and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, is another plus, though the numerous montages highlighting the music do grow wearisome (and point up the screenplay's basic problem, that it's thin). Newcomer Tracy Hyde is lovely and natural as Melody, and the silly, self-infatuated adults (portrayed almost satirically) are amusing, but the plot is really incidental; Puttnam, Parker and director Waris Hussein are mostly delighted by just observing the children, often in an almost documentary-like manner. ** from ****

flowerboy I loved the songs in this film, especially the ones by the Bee Gees (To Love Somebody, Give Your Best To Your Friends, Melody Fair). The CSNY classic Teach Your Children I now appreciate, though I didn't when I saw the film way back in the 70s, when I was in school myself. In fact, I remember our teachers took the whole class to see it and they were quite mortified by the content, which has the school kids ripping off their teacher's clothes and chasing them down the street at the end ! What fun, we kids thought. 30 years later, as I write this, I must say Melody was one of the most memorable films I've seen (and I've seen many !). Who is this wonderful Waris Hussain (the director) and why didn't he make more memorable movies later on?

harryelsucio1212 I saw this film last night for the first time. It was shown in the original English with Spanish subtitles on a local station which must have got it very cheap if not gratis. I quite enjoyed it for various reasons. Firstly, because, although my own schooldays considerably predate the time it is set in (contemporary with the production date,1971), it seemed, apart from the literally riotous ending, to mirror faithfully what was going on in a "good" grammar school both in that era and mine - alas, difficult to find these days in a England which, regrettably, is generally considered to have the most ill-behaved and foulmouthed children in the whole of Europe. (As a former, normally expatriate, teacher who did odd stints in mainstream British secondary education, I know this from bitter experience).I was also interested to see James Cossins with whom I used to share a boarding house in Kingston-upon-Hull, when he was in repertory and I was a student. Even then he specialised in old bores who either were upper-class or pretending to be. His face, at age 25, was already distorted by the grimaces he constantly made to achieve this effect. A competent actor, his career never reached the higher echelons but at least he occasionally appeared with the greats of Hollywood and Elstree and in this opus ,which rather unjustly failed at the box office, they at least put him in charge as Headmaster Roy Kinnear, whose appearances in the satirical show of the 60's, "That was the week that was" with Sir David Frost, and as the fat British Army detainee in "The Hill" with Sean Connery are unforgettable, gives a very credible performance as the somewhat coarse but likable father of the young heroine. Did anybody else notice that his wife mentions he was "out on bail"? Kate Hallet, who plays his wife, is authentic as a loving working class Lambeth mum, which I can vouch for since I come from those parts, whilst Sheila Steafel is good as the slightly snobbish and rather distrait, but basically loving and well-meaning, middle-class mother of the young hero. Jack Wild is not as successful here as he was as the Artful Dodger in the musical "Oliver" but is convincing and interesting.The pure and naïve love affair between the main protagonists Mark Lester eponymous hero of "Oliver" and Tracy Hyde, a truly lovely child, is handled very well, and - they don't even kiss - would seem improbable today in an England with the European record for teenage pregnancies. Two points puzzle me, however: 1) Why should a boy get "six of the best" with a slipper(for younger and non-British readers, this refers to corporal punishment)for not preparing his Latin homework, whereas playing truant (Amer. hooky) and going down to the seaside for the day with his girlfriend goes unpunished despite being compounded by gross impertinence to the headmaster?2) How is it possible that such a crowd of normally well-behaved children should suddenly turn on their teachers who approach the truants on the legitimate task of herding them back to school, half undress the head, and even blow up one of their cars!? Some of the staff seem to be rather incompetent, but hardly deserving of such reprisals, and the head is a softy (perhaps there is a moral there). But as Clint Eastwood says to the injured sheriff Gene Hackman whose brains he is about to blow out in "Unforgiven" :"Deserving has got nothing to do with it". As a last, quite trivial point ,I was convinced that the man with the bandaged head on the black and white TV screen was Sir John Gielgud, and thought he could only have taken such a minor part for fun, but it appears to have been someone called Neil Hellett imitating him. A good idea because the upper-crust, dulcet tones from the telly contrast with and cleverly underline the mundane, Estuary English conversation of Melody's working-class family.