The L-Shaped Room (1962)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Bryan Forbes

Writers:

Lynne Reid Banks (novel)
Bryan Forbes (screenplay)

Release Date:

20 November 1962 (UK)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

"Sex is not a forbidden word!"

Plot:

Jane, a young French woman, pregnant and unmarried, takes a room in a seedy London boarding house, which is inhabited by an assortment of misfits...

Plot Keywords:

Abortion | Lesbian | Pregnancy | Punctuation In Title | Kitchen Sink Realism

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Leslie Caron	...	Jane Fosset
Anthony Booth	...	Youth in Street
Avis Bunnage	...	Doris
Patricia Phoenix	...	Sonia
Verity Edmett	...	Jane II
Tom Bell	...	Toby
Cicely Courtneidge	...	Mavis
Harry Locke	...	Newsagent
Ellen Dryden	...	Girl in Newsagent's
Emlyn Williams	...	Dr. Weaver
Jennifer White	...	Monica
Brock Peters	...	Johnny
Gerry Duggan	...	Bert
Joan Ingram	...	Woman in Park
Mark Eden	...	Terry

Runtime:

126 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:X (original rating) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

4 St Luke's Road, Notting Hill, London, England, UK

Company:

British Lion Film Corporation

Trivia:

The Smiths open their album The Queen Is Dead with the scene of the character Mavis leading a chorus of "Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty."

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mary Tyler Moore: The Square-Shaped Room (#2.13)" (1971)

Soundtrack:

Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty

A gem—the movie that plays most often in my mind

If I were asked to name my second favourite film I would have to consider many; my favourite is an easy choice—The L-Shaped Room. As a teenager I saw it on its first release, then four times soon after. Bryan Forbes has crafted this film from a rather maudlin novel by Lynne Reid Banks; it becomes, in his hands, quite a different story—a work of art. Leslie Caron, although uniformly fine in all her films, has never been better than she is here. The supporting actors (and there are many) all give sensitive, human performances. The evocative score (parts of the first movement of the First Piano Concerto by Brahms) is a consummate fit with the narrative. The result of this collaboration of sources and talents is a restrained, perfect tapestry that depicts the human condition. The L-Shaped Room has no flaws—none.