About Mrs. Leslie (1954)

Too much of everything

Powerful

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Daniel Mann, a master director of dramas, reunites with leading lady Shirley Booth after their successful collaboration in Come Back, Little Sheba to create the wonderfully romantic drama About Mrs. Leslie. If you like these two of their films, be sure to check out their third film together, Hot Spell!Told in flashbacks, Shirley starts the film off as the owner of a boarding house. Her tenants and neighbors often come to her with their problems, since she's such a sympathetic mother type, and while she deals with their trifles, she remembers her earlier years, before she was Mrs. Leslie. Back then, she was a nightclub singer who fell in love with the handsome, charming, enigmatic Robert Ryan. Their slow-burning love affair is fascinating to watch, and while both actors are naturally likable anyway, they'll instantly win a place in your heart.As you might expect, since this is a Shirley Booth movie-her movies are much different than Hazel-you might want to keep your Kleenexes handy. Her darling wobbly voice and her terribly sad face makes me cry every time.

I came across this little film and thought if Shirley Booth was in it, it must be interesting. This is a great little film - a true gem! Seeing Hazel in a swimming suit on the beach and evening gown acting seductive as a nightclub singer is worth everything! Although the film was made a few years before "Hazel" and Shirley is slim and young, she is still "Shirley" - she was no great beauty but her acting makes up for any of that and you don't even think about it. Her genuine smile and easy manner win viewers over in an instant. I loved this film! Old movie buffs will definitely appreciate this true and rare insight into Shirley Booth's acting, outside of "Hazel" - which I loved by the way. Younger viewers should take a look at this to understand what "real" acting is, instead of the lax luster films Hollywood churns out these days.

Anyone who was impressed by Jake Gyllenhaal's performance in Brokeback needs to see About Mrs. Leslie. Undoubtedly one of the best young actors alive, he deserves the highest praise possible for believably delivering lines as corny as the lyrics of bad Country & Western ballads ('Sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it…') . However, in this obscure movie with an oddly tragic-comic version of the same plot, Shirley Booth manages to meld an equally corny script with an impossible character not only believably, but irresistibly. If Jack twisted your heart, Vivian ('life') will rip it out and stomp on it. Maybe it's just me but I find that as actors only children and people with a bit of mileage on them have the depth to move me really deeply, sometimes they have a power that goes way beyond their physical selves. Just watch her: through a microscopic pout, the merest suggestion of a tilt of her head or just a hint of a downward glance Booth does what it takes Gyllenhaal and Ledger's whole body to express. I know she had a great and long career on Broadway, but it's a shame she ended up wasting many years playing a maid on a sitcom. Better than not working at all, I suppose. P. S. If anyone is inclined to read a book with a similar and equally engaging story, they should try Absent in the Spring, written by Agatha Christie under the name Mary Westmacott because it's not a murder mystery. Obviously, there was more to her as a woman than was hinted at in the biopic about her.

First, it must be mentioned that Shirley Booth was a fantastic actress in both film and stage, the latter being her forte. Here was an actress who, despite the fact that she was not Hollywood model material by any means, could run rings around scores of her drop-dead gorgeous contemporaries in the acting department! It's really a pity that she became typecast as "Hazel" in her popular television series, because she could, and did, offer so much more.That said, now comes the plot of this particular film. A fairly good looking, well to do up and comer in politics, albeit married to someone else, falls in love with Ms. Booth's somewhat frumpy character. Highly unlikely, some people would say, but it happens in this film, and it happens in real life, no matter what the media would have you believe. Robert Ryan rendered a fine performance, and both of them generated the right chemistry. This is where it gets really good. The love that's shared between these two comes across as quite genuine. In fact, it blossoms throughout the film by way of a good plot! No spoiler here! You must see the film in its entirety to understand this.Yes, the film plays out like a soap opera for the most part, but the idea behind it, the love between these two people, no matter the odds, is very real. There are lots of sub-plots going on throughout, but they all seem to come together perfectly and sensibly in the end. Many facets and foibles of human nature are addressed quite well in the process.This is a must see, as are all of Shirley Booth's movies, at least in my opinion. It's too bad she didn't make more of them.