Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1963)

"The L-Shaped Room" Su4iKC44 1£at£*t$ O O © Rating is for art houses. British import deals frankly with love affair of pregnant girl. Can be sold in general metropolitan markets. Leslie Caron gives marquee lift. This frank drama of London slum life already has achieved resounding and deserved success in art theatres so its acceptance with selective, sophisticated audiences is assured. A meticulously detailed, deliberately slow pace will lessen its potential in the general market, but its boxoffice performance in metropolitan areas might still be above average if it is given intensified promotional support. Leslie Caron gives it modest marquee value. The frank subject matter and the use of language usually considered taboo on screen will not set well with the family trade. James Woolf and Richard Attenborough produced for Romulus Productions, and Davis-Royal is handling the U. S. presentation via Columbia's distribution facilities. Lynne Reid Banks' novel has been adapted by writer-director Bryan Forbes ("The Angry Silence," "Whistle Down the Wind "). Mr. Forbes obviously finds much to like in the most unsavory-seeming characters, and it is this compassion, and understanding of the human spirit, that marks the difference between just another sordid soap opera and, as in "The L-Shaped Room", a moving emotional experience. Miss Caron emerges as a dramatic performer of stature, well deserving of the British Film Academy's best actress award she received earlier this year. Flawless as she is, she is matched in brillance by Tom Bell, Cicely Courtneidge, and, in smaller roles, Avis Bunnage, Kay Walsh, and Emily Williams. Only Brock Peters, with an unconvincing WestIndian accent, fails to be completely believable. The setting is a roach-infested tenement in a teeming London slum. A 27-year old French girl (Miss Caron) rids herself of her "cumbersome virginity" through an impetuous, loveless affair and becomes pregnant. She takes an L-shaped room in a slum and meets and falls in love with Tom Bell, an aspiring, but impoverished, writer. When he learns that she is pregnant, they continue their affair, but he is unable to overcome his feelings about another man's child. After an abortion attempt fails, Miss Caron, warmed by the concern of her neighbors, becomes more aware of life's beauty and is determined to have the child. Bell visits her in the hospital and brings her a story — their story — "The "L-Shaped Room," and she tells him that she is returning to her parents' home in France to raise her child. After she is discharged, she goes back to the rooming house to pick-up her belongings. She leaves the story in his room with this note: "It's a lovely story, but it hasn't got an ending. It would be marvelous with an ending." Columbia. 125 minutes. Leslie Caron, Tom Bell. Produced by James Woolf and Richard Attenborough. Directed by Bryan Forbes. "Shock Corridor" Sentinel ^ctfutf Q Q Played strictly for sensationalism, this low budgeter can be exploited for action houses, drive-ins. Sheer unadulterated sensationalism gives this low-budget melodrama exploitation values which distributor Allied Artists and exhibitors can capitalize. If promoted cleverly, "Shock Corridor" could get fairly good returns in the metropolitan action market and drive-ins. It is not for the hinterlands or class houses. The Leon Fromkess-Sam Firks production cannot be taken seriously in its depiction of mental illness. Writerproducer-director Samuel Fuller is guilty of excesses in all departments and, despite a fast pace and some interesting moments, the production eventually sinks into a cesspool of vulgarity. Effective black and white camera work with a few Technicolor dream inserts helps to offset the generally poor performances. The far-fetched plot revolves around the efforts of a reporter (Peter Breck) to solve the murder of a mentalhospital patient. He has his fiancee (Constance Towers) a stripper, pose as his sister to commit him to the institution on charges that he forced her into incest. Three inmates (Gene Evans, James Best, Harri Rhodes) witnessed the crime and from each the reporter learns, in moments of lucidity, clues to the killer's identity. For a few moments in its middle portion the film exerts a raw, ironic power. One witness, a Negro, first of his race to be admitted to a Southern university, has cracked under the strain and now imagines himself to be a white bigot. The scene ultimately loses effectiveness as he dons a pillowcase, believes himself to be the founder of the Ku Klux Klan, and instigates a riot that leads to the vicious beating of a Negro orderly. Tastelessness runs rampant in episodes that depict impotency in male patients, an inmate who believes himself to be pregnant, and the reporter's predicament when he opens the wrong door and finds himself mobbed by a room full of nymphomaniacs. These scenes are played solely for shock value and do nothing to further the plot. By the time the reporter solves the murder he has spent so much time in the presence of insanity that he too has lost his mind. It ends up tvith a downbeat, trick, ending. Allied Artists. 101 minutes. Peter Breck, Constance Towers, Gene Evans, James Best. Produced and directed by Samuel Fuller. "Murder at the Gallop" ScidiK&te ^cttinq. © O Plus Rating is for art houses. New Rutherford British murdercomedy will also serve as OK dualler generally. That indefatigable sleuth with the sagging jowls, Margaret Rutherford, is up to her chins in murder again and, this time, her chief suspects are Robert Morley and Flora Robson. The resulting antics will please fans in art houses, and the lively pace and short running time also makes this British import, released through M-G-M, welcome as a supporting dualler in the general market. Miss Rutherford, repeating the Miss Marple role she introduced in "Murder She Said", is a joy to behold when, D'Artagnan like, she twirls a cape about her massive frame and sets out to lower the British crime rate. Executive producer Lawrence P. Bachmann, producer George Brown, and director George Pollack are all able alumni from "Murder She Said," and an Agatha Christie detective novel, "After the Funeral," has been revamped to Miss Marple's sleuthing style by script writers David Pursall, Jack Seddon, and James P. Cavanagh. In this outing, our heroine stumbles onto the murder of a wealthy old recluse. The police insist that the death was accidental, but, Miss Rutherford, knowing better, gathers evidence at a riding academy where the victim's beneficiaries are fighting over the will. She thrusts and paries with the proprietor, Robert Morley, and, becoming fond of him, sorely hopes that he is not the killer. A librarian friend, Stringer Davis, pops in occasionally to help the old girl out, and Flora Robson, a timid secretary, offers, alternately, consolation and veiled threats. Murders pile up with alarming rapidity and, after nearly all the suspects have been eliminated, Miss Rutherford acts as a decoy and traps the killer. M-G-M. 81 minutes. Margaret Rutherford, Robert Morley, Flora Robson. Produced by George Brown. Directed by George Pollack. (Zeiiew Rating • POOR • • FAIR • • • GOOD • • • • TOPS Page 12 Film BULLETIN July 22, 1943