Main Cast: Leslie Caron, Tom Bell, Anthony Booth, Brock Peters, Dame Cicely Courtneidge, Patricia Phoenix, Avis Bunnage
Release Year: 1962
Country: UK
Run Time: 125 minutes
Plot
Considered ultra-mature film fare in 1962, The L-Shaped Room stars Leslie Caron as a unmarried, pregnant French girl. Arranging for an abortion (illegal at that time), she takes up residence in a ramshackle British boarding house where most of the other residents are also outcasts of society. Many of the character types were new to films of the era, but have since become cliches: the understanding young black, the lesbian actress, the prostitutes without golden hearts. There is also a Christopher Isherwood type writer (Tom Bell) who observes the passing parade and writes a book on the subject. Director Bryan Forbes brings his usual muted sensibilities to the project, resulting in a work that downplays the sensational aspects and emphasizes characterization. Surprisingly, while The L-Shaped Room was considered too "hot" for several corporate-owned American movie houses, it was an early arrival on 1960s TV, where it frequently ran uncut. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Time has inevitably dulled the impact of The L-Shaped Room, a feature considered shocking and daringly frank at the time of its release. The dated aspect of the film dilutes its impact, but Room is still surprisingly engrossing. A great deal of the credit must go to Leslie Caron, for once given challenging material that allows her to prove that she was an actress of considerable talent and ability. Caron was always able to imbue her characterizations with a heated feistiness that indicated there was more to them than meets the eye; here she gets to explore more of her inner resources, ladling them out carefully as she follows her character's odyssey of indecision. With another actress, Jane's indecisiveness could be maddening, but Caron makes her wavering attitude seem totally natural. Bryan Forbes directs her with care and subtlety, and draws fine performances from Tom Bell, Brock Peters and Dame Cicely Courtneidge as well. He also makes effective use of the surroundings, creating a boarding house that is gothically oppressive. While the dialogue occasionally rings false, there is still a great deal of wit and humor, and it does a marvelous job of creating a well-defined, closed-in community. If the film lags, it still paints a believable portrait which captures the alienation and bleakness of many of Britain's inhabitants at this specific place and time. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Bernard Lee - Charlie; Harry Locke - News Agent; Ellen Dryden - Girl in News Agent's; Gerry Duggan - Bert; Nanette Newman - Girl at End; Diane Clare - Nurse; Mark Eden - Terry; Verity Edmett - Jane 11; Joan Ingram - Woman in Park; Stanley Morgan - Waiter in Club; Pamela Sholto; Gerald Sim - Doctor in Hospital; Kay Walsh - Prostitute; Arthur White - Milkman; Jenny White - Monica; Emlyn Williams - Dr. Weaver
The L-Shaped Room follows a young French woman, Jane (Leslie Caron), who arrives alone at a run down boarding house in Fulham, London. Beautiful and withdrawn, she encounters the residents of her house through the meandering first act of the film, each a social outsider in their own way.
Jane is pregnant, we learn, and has no desire to marry the father. On her first visit to a doctor, she wants to find out if she really is pregnant and consider her options. The doctor's facile assumption that she must want either marriage or an abortion so insults her that she determines to have the child.
She and Toby (Tom Bell) start a romance, which is disrupted when he learns that she is pregnant by a previous boyfriend. They try to work things out, but he is also unhappy with his lack of income and success as a writer. Meanwhile Jane becomes friends with the other residents of the house and they help her when she goes into labor. Toby visits her in the hospital and gives her a copy of his new book, called The L-Shaped Room. On leaving the hospital Jane starts her journey home to her parents in France, and says good bye to the L-shaped room that she had lived in for seven months.
