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The L-Shaped Room

Lynne Reid Banks' bestseller novel seemed, on the surface, to be unlikely material for a film. Largely set in the restricted area of a faded lodging house the novel had little enough glamour or strength of plot to recommended it, excellently written though it was. But Bryan Forbes' screenplay and his tactful, sensitive direction create a tender study in loneliness and frustrated love.

Lynne Reid Banks’ bestseller novel seemed, on the surface, to be unlikely material for a film. Largely set in the restricted area of a faded lodging house the novel had little enough glamour or strength of plot to recommended it, excellently written though it was. But Bryan Forbes’ screenplay and his tactful, sensitive direction create a tender study in loneliness and frustrated love.

Yarn concerns a girl (Leslie Caron) with a background of provincial France who, in London, has a brief affair resulting in pregnancy. Rejecting the idea of an abortion she decides to live it out on her own. And, in the loneliness of her L-shaped room in a seedy tenement, she finds a new hope and purpose in life through meeting others who, in various ways, suffer their own loneliness and frustration.

This brief outline gives no credit to the film’s many subtle undertones. Not a great deal happens but it is a thoroughly holding and intelligent film having the quality of a film like Marty.

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Caron and Tom Bell make a strong team. Though they, plus Brock Peters, as Negro lad, bear the brunt of such action as there is, the trio are well supported by a number of others.

Vet Cicely Courtneidge make a sharp comeback as a retired vaude artist, living with her cat and her faded press clippings. Other notable jobs are done by Avis Bunnage (a landlady who prides herself on the respectability of her house, despite two of her lodgers being prosties) and Bernard Lee, as her boozey, hearty gentleman friend.

1963: Nomination: Best Actress (Leslie Caron)

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The L-Shaped Room

UK

  • Production: Romulus. Director Bryan Forbes; Producer James Woolf, Richard Attenborough; Screenplay Bryan Forbes; Camera Douglas Slocombe; Editor Anthony Harvey; Music John Barry; Art Director Ray Simm
  • Crew: (B&W) Available on VHS. Extract of a review from 1962. Running time: 142 MIN.
  • With: Leslie Caron Tom Bell Brock Peters Cicely Courtneidge Avis Bunnage Bernard Lee

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