Lunch Hour

Lunch Hour is a 1962 film based on a one-act play by John Mortimer. It is about a man and a woman who attempt to have an affair during their lunch hour, but are continually interrupted. Shirley Anne Field described it as perhaps "the most enjoyable film I'd ever done" because the cast and crew all worked so closely together.[2]

Lunch Hour
Opening title
Directed byJames Hill
Produced byJohn Mortimer & Harold Orton
Written byJohn Mortimer
Based onplay by John Mortimer
StarringShirley Anne Field
Robert Stephens
Production
company
Eyeline Productions
Distributed byBryanston Films (UK)
Release date
1962
Running time
64 min.
LanguageEnglish
Budget£22,750[1]

Plot

A recently graduated art school designer (Shirley Anne Field) joins a wallpaper manufacturing company and catches the eye of a married middle manager (Robert Stephens). They begin a workplace affair during their lunchtime breaks, but their attempts to find some privacy are continually thwarted.

The man eventually locates a small hotel where he books a room for just one hour, but then feels the need to invent a hugely complicated tale to tell the hotel manager (Kay Walsh) about a troubled marriage and a wife travelling down from Scarborough for a heart-to-heart talk.

The still-suspicious hotel manageress continually interrupts the couple and, as the man slowly tells the story to his would-be lover, she starts to believe the whole fantasy. She sees herself as the stay-at-home wife, ironing the man's shirts, and starts to have sympathy with the life of the real unseen betrayed wife. The couple argue over the woman's imagined life, and as their hour in the hotel is up, the affair between the couple ends and they return separately to their work roles. There, the man appears sullen and unhappy, while the woman smiles quietly to herself as she works.

Cast

Stage play

The cast in the original stage production included Wendy Craig with whom Mortimer had an affair and conceived a son.[3]

DVD release

The movie was issued on DVD in 2011 via the BFI Flipside release scheme.[4]

References
  1. Petrie, Duncan James (2017). "Bryanston Films : An Experiment in Cooperative Independent Production and Distribution" (PDF). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television: 7. ISSN 1465-3451.
  2. Interview with Shirley Ann Field about the movie on BBC Radio 4 15 April 2011 accessed 19 March 2013
  3. Tim Walker and Richard Eden,"Mortimer's joy at son with Wendy Craig", Daily Telegraph, 12 September 2004 accessed 19 March 2013
  4. Cinema Retro 5 July 2011 accessed 19 March 2013
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