About the time of the Cadbury print ad and 'The Knack' Charlotte met Roman Polansky who was friendly with her sister Sarah. Roman was highly taken by Charlotte and, as he was in pre-production for 'Repulsion' and looking for a leading lady, he took some photos of her to show his producers. He was so excited by his discovery, he rashly showed the photos around the restaurant at Pinewood Studios where they were seen by the lunching Boulting brothers - John and Roy. The Boultings were twins who used to alternate their credits of producer and director and were legends in the British film world. Big mistake on Roman's part; the Boultings were also in re-production - on 'Rotten to the Core' and they, too needed a leading lady. The thing was they were further ahead than Roman in terms of financing etc and a couple of phone calls later they'd signed our girl - right from under Roman's nose (no pun intended) and the rest is history. 'Rotten to the Core' had been written for Peter Sellers whose early cinema career was in a string of highly successful Boulting brother's comedies. But, along came the 'Pink Panther' series and he was off to international super stardom and far too expensive for the twins. They replaced him with Anton Rogers and the main promotion for the film was this new, young starlet with the strange name...Charlotte Rampling.
So, despite the similar titles, 'Repulsion' and 'Rotten to the Core' and the fact that both films were shot in black and white, the similarities ended there. 'Repulsion' was an art-house movie and 'Rotten' was a comedy. 'Georgy Girl' which came next was chosen as a vehicle for Charlotte to show her versatility as a dramatic actress rather than a comedienne in a light comedy. If Roman had succeeded in signing Charlotte, she would never have done 'Georgy Girl' and therefore been exposed to such a huge mainstream audience.
Howzat for the fickle finger of fate?

[Bryan Southcombe]