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

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

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:

When they made the film the famous shop was a record store so they rebuilt it at Shepperton Studios. That also made it easier to change the passing traffic from the 1940's to the 1970's.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: As Helene types, she never once hits the space bar.

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)

A Different View of Singlehood

I saw this movie in 1987, read the book, and just rented it again in memory of Anne Bancroft. It remains for me a gem-an amazingly done story. What is really amazing however-and a sad comment on where people's attentions are focused-is that in 1987 there were two movies that dealt with married men and single women. This was one of them; the other was "Fatal Attraction." What a difference! People flocked to see the latter film in which (spoilers for "F.A." here) a single urban career woman has a brief affair with a married man, tries to kill herself, tries to kill everyone else, fricassees a pet rabbit, etc. Now in "84 Charing Cross Road," the heroine's finances prevent her from crossing the ocean to actually meet the married man of her daydreams- but even if she had been able to visit England and meet him,I doubt she would have baked his children's pets or kidnapped his children. This was not,thankfully,that kind of film. This was a true story of a single career woman whose life was happy in spite of her being single. She had friends, her writing, the books she was buying and reading. We see at one point a photograph on her bureau of a man in uniform-was this a former boyfriend,a fiancé,who was killed in the war? Possibly-but the woman does not live in grief nor does she go melodramatically crazy. It's too bad that America chose to make the derivative trash that is "F.A." popular while not honoring "84 Charing Cross Road" for its depiction of a brainy adult relationship.