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I first saw this film in the early '80s on WBBM-TV Channel 2 Chicago. They were showing it at 2 AM on a Saturday (insomnia). I was familiar with it because I remember the TV ads from '71, Mark Lester sets his dad's newspaper on fire. A friend of mine saw it at the time and said he loved it. What did he know? he was only 14, I was 10 at the time. Anyway when I finally saw it I had to agree. It was like a magical trip to childhood, or in most of our cases a trip back. Although the movie was shot an ocean away from me, I felt like I was reliving my own childhood; the pain of first love, the joy of finding friendship despite social barrier (Middle class vs. lower class), and the wonder of experiencing the world for the first time without your parents. And of course that wonderful soundtrack, when the Bee Gees sang good songs: "To love somebody" and the sadly forgotten "First of May", not Disco. Also, Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young's "Teach Your Children". WBBM used to show this movie about twice a year(They had a rather poor film library), usually at 2 in the morning. But then they got crazy with infomercials and the parent company, CBS, decide to have its own all night news program so 'Melody' virtually disappeared. Sadly I didn't tape the film when I had the chance. I thought I'd just buy a copy, WRONG! Hey! maybe we could get Redford to show it in his Sundance channel. How about it? you overage pretty boy.

What can I say? I love this film! I saw it when I was 8 and living in Argentina. I was later disappointed to find that it was hard to find in the US, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet I was able to find it and own it and noticed it has quite a following. It may not be for everyone, especially if you like action packed, fast paced films.

However, if you like a simple love story, good 'Bee Gees' and 'Crosby, Stills & Nash and Young' music, and a happy feeling, watch this

What to say about this gem that has not been said before?

That it was written by Alan Parker, before he was recognized as a world famous screenwriter/director? And that even then, it is a movie that has unjustly remained without being re-released.

No, that's just theory. It is the feelings evoked that matter.

I watched this movie once, as it played in an Argentinian TV channel at a time when there were only 4 TV channels. I probably watched it because of a recommendation from my father, who during my forming years, had gained my respect for introducing me to Spielberg in films such as Close Encounters and Raider of the Lost Ark. My guess is that I was probably about the same age of the main characters when I sat in front of the set.

I remember also the following day at school, as all the boys and girls that had watched it would whisper about it. Girls would probably whisper if it could happen to them, too... if those stupid boys would wise up one day. We boys... we were not willing to admit we had seen and liked a "love" story -- a chick film. As such, we had to make fun of it. But deep down, all of us could tell... we could tell when we looked at each others' eyes that we were lying. That this movie had told perhaps our own story of first love and touched us in a way perhaps no one else had before, in a way we would not forget, we could not forget.

I am 33 now, I grew to work in the TV and film industry both in Argentina and abroad and have watched literally thousands of films since. It is a testament to this film that after watching it only once, I not only remember the film fondly, but that some scenes are still etched in my mind: The Frere Jacques scene as the two main characters talk about how they feel.... a scene that has no dialog, and it is just played with music and visual narration. The farcical view on authority and that funny ending, which could be called a teenage The Graduate.

I have since been looking in vain for a copy of this movie or for the chance to watch it again and again and again.

--- Update: I found it. In Argentina, this movie is now finally being redistributed, by a small private company. Alas, albeit it is on DVD, the copy is not a very good one, with muted colors and a somewhat jittery transfer.

I am 32 years old now and have not had the opportunity to see this movie since I was 10 years old. Lucky for the few that have. If anyone knows where to find this movie for purchase, please let us know. My heart beats faster by knowing that there are other's out there that were touched and also felt the same warm feelings that these young actors were able to share on the screen. I will still consider this my favorite movie and I am just glad that after several movie searches, I was able to get more details...a 10 year old child's memory is not very good. May we all keep our sweet and tender melody of childhood! Danny

I saw this film when I was eleven. That was 27 years ago, and I still love it. That's unique because I haven't seen it for 27 years. It was not long after my sister's wedding. I remember this because I went to see it at half term, and I went to see it 5 times that week. I couldn't afford popcorn that many times, so I took a piece of my sisters left-over wedding cake with me each day. It is a gentle story of young love, which ends happily. Simple. What made it so good for me was the way I could identify with the two young lovers (or wanted to). I had a crush on a girl, and this film portrayed for me the fairy tale I wanted to live. And it has a score by the Bee Gees. I still sing "In the morning" (I think that's what the song was called) to myself, a song worth seeing the film just to hear. I've never seen this film on video or TV, and I don't want to. It's one of those films that I know if I see it again, I'll probably be disappointed. To paraphrase Stephen King: I've never seen films like this since, but when you're eleven, who has?

Mark Lester and Jack Wilde reunite for this rather engaging, and quite telling, coming of age story. The former is in love with "Melody" (Tracy Hyde) and declaring their intention to be together forever, their fellow school pupils and their teachers must try to manage these determined youngsters. The film starts off with Lester setting fire to his dad's morning newspaper, and that gives us indication that what will follow is not one of these procedural love stories - and it isn't. Helped along by some dialogue from Alan Parker that very much presents the child's perspective (and frequently ridicules the adult rebuttals) and helped along by a grand soundtrack of songs from the Bee Gees it's a solidly entertaining drama that questions so many accepted norms about age and what constitutes "maturity". Amongst the adults, James Cossins is good as their increasingly out-of-his-depth headmaster as are Shiela Staefel and Roy Kinnear, but it's essentially a story of young love that the adults learn to treat with disdain at their peril... I didn't love the ending, it was a bit too ridiculous, but told from a child's eyes it's really quite an eye opener!

i was fortunate enough to play the part of peggy in this film, it was alan parkers first screenplay and david puttnams first film, i had previously worked with alan on several advertisments and continued to work with him after melody on a few more adverts, i count myself so very lucky to have appeared in alan and davids first big project, i am amazed that this film still has a big following 33 years later, my original vhs copy of melody broke many years ago, but i managed to track down a copy as well as a dvd, i had no idea it was readily available to buy in hongkong,japan, america and even argentina! since checking out the websites for melody/swalk i have been amazed by the wonderful emails sent to me from people all around the world, i would like to thank everybody who has taken time out to enter their comments and feelings etc and to wish everybody a very happy and healthy 2004 kay (nee skinner)

I was a senior in high school in 1971 and on vacation in London with my mother. We were having a theatre tour taking in every show we could. We had a spot (a matinée) on our schedule that was empty. I loved OLIVER! and its stars and we decided on this film still in its first run. I was enchanted. My mother was, also. The characters were kids I knew ( maybe even kids I have been at that time in my life!) It is a movie that anyone who has been in love, but especially those who fell in love when they were younger, will identify with. It is not a perfect movie. But it still works. It is too bad that there hasn't been a major re-release with a quality video format for the US and Canada. The print available is scratchy and of poor quality. This is a delightful movie.

this movie is freely available in google video. You can stream it o just download it.

Stream: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3578692700171397566

Dwnld: http://vp02.video.l.google.com/videodownload?version=0&secureurl= sAAAAIufTPwZZhpzjq5EL2fiOHiax-vrdamYHM0R5PV6FVC8x6w1IgZ-Erfffxv0Uy -PDKcLmL60CbxO3WSuMMNENPF1Q7akGbmO2NcU2lP2DVC8AVYFWmc-3VRUxUs36c8v xpMK59xqml2-TiVKD6DY87q3QbF6pDSubTeA9PVJpIktjX5pFf6Z5qHUM5ZLUw8qXK KMpvZj5egBMEECLxR-qMXhJWtVnmv4taZdR73qJjhDET-d3h8wR3umvTSNsuw81w& sigh=TAJpJ0uO3v1dVzkzC7QHtZniHr8&rdc=1

Cheers and enjoy

I adored this film back in 1971, and played truant regularly to see it! As I was roughly the same age I identified with it very strongly. I learnt every word to every track and bought the album for £2.50 and relived the film through the record for years. I loved it so much I wrote to Clapperboard and begged them to see a clip. Months later they showed the clip where Mark and Jack were being caned in the Headmasters office,and I was over the moon.I tracked Mark Lester down after months of trying to find him. When my friend and I saw him come to the door we almost fainted. His mum made us drinks etc, and then Mark spent the rest of the afternoon teasing us and squirting paint at us!!We got a signed photo and to this day I still watch the film on tape.I've been to most of the locations where it was filmed, the trough where Melody set her fish free, the cemetery where they sat in the rain, and best of all I have a photo of me and my boyfriend ducking underneath the railings at the point where Daniel and Melody left the cemetery while the "First of May" was playing!! Sad or what??!! I saw this when I was 11, and it has remained firmly etched in my memory as the best childhood film I have ever seen, maybe because I had a huge crush on Mark Lester!!Anyhow, I'm Julie and if anyone has more to add you can be sure I'll be interested. Bye now. S.W.A.L.K

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.

My School took part in making this film, (Archbishop Temples). I remember like it was yesterday, We spent 5 Days away from normal school lessons and were paid 5 POUNDS a day, just to take part. Believe it or not I played football (soccer) with Jack Wild & Mark Lester when they were not filming. Our entire school went to see the premiere of the film before it was released to the public, that was great fun. Like everyone else I saw this film again many years later on sattelite, God, that brought back memories, not so much about the contents of the film but about those wonderful days of no school lessons and getting paid for it. If there is anybody out there who also took part or even went to my school, drop me a line, I would love to hear from you.

Bas.

I recently unearthed a school art project of a LP album cover I had made at the tender age of 16. It was a cover made for the soundtrack to the film 'Melody (S.W.A.L.K.)'. This prompted an internet search for a copy of the album. I was overjoyed to find one and paid a fortune to get it. The original was given to my girlfriend at the time and cost only a couple of pounds. When I first saw the film that prompted the original purchase, I was 16. I was in love. And I had turned my every waking moment to my girlfriend. In short, this film mirrored my life at the time. Listening to the tracks has recaptured 'Love's Young Dream' and I would love to be able to get a VHS copy. I don't think I would be disappointed to see it again as this film is timeless.

I saw this movie when I was 10 years old or so, I had a crush for a girl in my neighborhood and this movie took me by storm. I have not been able to find it in video format. But the story is so simple yet very touching for everybody I know has seen this movie.

I saw this film a month ago and I feel very sorry for all the people who will never be able to see it, because it does not exist in video editions.

The plot is original, and the performance of all the kids is completely surprising. It has several comedy touches, but it is mainly a romantic story. I recommend it to those who have the possibility of seeing it in a cinema, as I had.

I seldom take time to comment on the Internet. However, this movie deserves much more than my time since I have such wonderful memories of it. Maybe this is because I watched it at the right time in my life. I must have been about 11 years old. I loved the movie so much and I think you will too. If you have kids, or are a kid, you (they) will enjoy it all the more. I believe that we all experience that "love at first sight" that lifts you from earth and makes you walk on clouds. This is what this movie so beautifully replicates. Enjoy it! Just like your first "puppy love," you will always treasure it!

When Melody was released in South Africa in the 70s the ending was changed. The scenes with the bomb and the mothers car, and the scenes of the kids beating the teachers were cut out. I guess the censors didn't want us kids getting any ideas about anarchy at school. When it was shown one morning on one of our local channels last year in 2003, it was the first time I had seen the full version. Interestingly enough I seem to prefer it with the edited ending, it keeps the innocence of the film all the way to the end. Luckily I taped it so I now have that copy to watch for ever. My friends and I sometimes talk about which 5 films you would take to a desert island if they were the only films you would ever see again, and Melody will always be on my list of 5.

Melody is possibly one of the most enjoyable, endearing pieces of cinematic art, ever. It's a gentle, tender story of innocent love between two 10 year olds who manage to overcome all sorts of barriers, including class differences, condescending adults, and incessant teasing and harassment from other children. Melody is a movie that you can watch repeatedly without ever tiring of it. In fact, if anything, it becomes more enjoyable as the viewer becomes more aware of details that he or she may have missed in previous viewings. There are no explosions, no one gets killed, and there isn't any objectionable language at any point in the film. In short, it's a wonderful film, suitable for all ages. I am a great fan of Melody, and highly recommend it for everyone.

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 ****

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?

I saw this movie as a child while I was living overseas (Panama) I believe it was first titled "To Love Somebody" and then later "Melody". I share the same feelings as the others who have commented. The film is the absolute bomb! It rates as my favorite movie of all time. I would love to see it again, since it's stuck with me all these years, but I can't find it anywhere! I'm in the entertainment business, and I would love to be part of the re-make!

It was originally known as 'S.W.A.L.K.', which means 'Sealed With A Loving Kiss', but for the foreign markets changed to as it's now. A pleasant surprise. Really. That I did not expect. Sometimes some movies are not meant to go and get as much it can, I mean I'm talking about the revenue. Yes, this movie had kind of disappointing domestic box office, though did fairly well outside. I am glad for seeing this wonderful film.

I have seen 'A Little Romance', 'My Girl' and many more (find them in 'Similar movies' on below), I really love them, but this one was, just wow, made me speechless. When I want to remember or to suggest if somebody asks about children romance themes to watch with their children, nephew and niece, this one would definitely pop-out first for sure. Worth spending time together for this.

The cast was so good. Everyone was excellent, from teachers, principle to parents and co-stars. Especially top three character performance leaves a mark to remember. No doubt why people created cult classic concept, so this movie will live on forever in fans unlike box office giants that comes with so big and fades away so fast. I already saw it a couple of times, mainly because of the clean blend between performance, music and innocent story theme.

''When is the wedding, Danny lover boy?''

The music was another plus point. All the soundtracks were very catchy and melodic like the title. The Bee Gees have done an exceptional job. Now I got another half a dozen of music tracks for my 'film songs' collection. I sometime hum 'Daaa dee da dee da da dah' and 'Melody fair' without my knowledge. Who doesn't love the 70s music, come on.

Many had liked the film because it brings their childhood memories. And so it did to me. Makes how much we miss those days what we did when we were lack of awareness about the real world. Such concept was this movie where two preteen kids fall in love, but in a result the story takes an unorthodox, quirky twist. Initially it starts off with a friendship theory and slowly marks its destination to advance in that direction.

Apart from the leading two, Melody and Daniel, the third character called Ornshaw was equally good who is a troublesome which makes one of our favorite. His masterplans and chewing gum are the highlight of that role and the movie. In one of the scenes where parents try to convince their children about the love and life was very touching.

The way it ends is what I love the most and I don't want to know what is going to happen next. Like a fairy tale 'happily ever after' or maybe opposite, but we know there's a lot we are not going to know what they do the rest of their life till death comes. hehehe. I have not said the 'a must watch' for a long time, so here it goes that you must try this one.