84 Charing Cross Road (1987)

Director:

David Hugh Jones

Writers:

Helene Hanff (book)
James Roose-Evans (play)

Release Date:

13 February 1987 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot:

True story of a transatlantic business correspondence about used books that developed into a close friendship.

Plot Keywords:

Friendship | Correspondence | Book | Apartment | Bookstore

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

Anne Bancroft	...	Helene Hanff
Anthony Hopkins	...	Frank P. Doel
Judi Dench	...	Nora Doel
Jean De Baer	...	Maxine Stuart
Maurice Denham	...	George Martin
Eleanor David	...	Cecily Farr
Mercedes Ruehl	...	Kay
Daniel Gerroll	...	Brian
Wendy Morgan	...	Megan Wells
Ian McNeice	...	Bill Humphries
J. Smith-Cameron	...	Ginny
Tom Isbell	...	Ed
Anne Dyson	...	Mrs. Boulton
Connie Booth	...	The Lady from Delaware
Ronn Carroll	...	Businessman on Plane

Runtime:

100 min | West Germany:95 min (video)

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | Canada:G (Ontario) | Sweden:Btl | USA:PG (certificate #28282) | UK:PG | West Germany:6

Filming Locations:

Buckingham Palace, Westminster, London, England, UK

Company:

Brooksfilms

Trivia:

Mel Brooks bought Anne Bancroft the rights to the book "84 Charing Cross Road" for her birthday one year.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Toward the end of the movie, Helene Hanff says that "it would have been worth learning Old English to read Chaucer". Chaucer did not write in Old English, he wrote in Middle English.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Businessman on plane: Your first trip to London?
Helene Hanff: Yes.
Businessman on plane: You want a word of advice? Don't trust the cab drivers; they'll take you five miles to go three blocks... and, uh, don't waste your time looking at a street map. Nobody can find their way around London - not even Londoners.
Helene Hanff: Maybe I should go to Baltimore instead.
Businessman on plane: No; you'll enjoy it. London's a great place. What kind of trip is it - business or pleasure?
Helene Hanff: Unfinished business.

Movie Connections:

References "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" (1950)

My favourite film

Whenever anyone asks me, which isn't often, I tell them this is it. And they invariably have never heard of it, which is a terrible shame.

I love the film, and advise those who love it as well that they SHOULD read the book too... and also read The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, and find out what happened when Helene went to England after all those years.

And don't stop there... look up the Oxford Book of English Prose and the Oxford Book of English Verse (http://www.bartleby.com/101/), edited by the venerable Q (Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch), and see what inspired Helene to begin the correspondence in the first place (basically she decided to read everything Q mentioned, "unless it's fiction.")