17-year-old Joanna Sorrin (South African actress Geneviève Waïte), a wide-eyed and fanciful country girl, goes to London for a fashion design course.
There, she dresses in chic fashions, comes into contact with the capital’s young jet set, indulges in the pleasures of casual sexual encounters, and an impromptu trip to Morocco with the wise and debonair Lord Peter Sanderson (Donald Sutherland).
She eventually becomes the mistress of nightclub owner Gordon (Calvin Lockhart), from Sierra Leone.
Unfortunately, her lover happens to kill a man and is sent to jail. As she is pregnant from Gordon, Joanna returns home to her parents – still as immature, childish and unprepared as she was at the film’s beginning.
Joanna is a great snapshot of “Swinging London” in the sixties.
Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent were asked to write the theme song, but their composition was dropped in favour of Rod McKuen’s soundtrack.
The Trent/Hatch version became a major UK hit for Scott Walker.
Joanna Sorrin
Geneviève Waïte
Hendrik Casson
Christian Doermer
Gordon
Calvin Lockhart
Lord Peter Sanderson
Donald Sutherland
Beryl
Glenna Forster-Jones
Granny
Marda Vanne
Father
Geoffrey Morris
Margot
Michelle Cook
Inspector
Manning Wilson
Black Detective
Clifton Jones
White Detective
Dan Caulfield
Lefty
Michael Chow
Bruce
Anthony Ainley
Angela
Jane Bradbury
Miranda De Hyde
Fiona Lewis
Lady Sanderson
Edith MacArthur
PC Dove
John Owens
Film Director
Michael Sarne
Dominic Endersley
David Scheuer
Director
Michael Sarne