DIRECTOR: Bryan Forbes
The phrase “L-shaped” serves as a powerful architectural metaphor for a marginal, isolated, or unstable position in society. In the context of British literature and cinema—especially post-war “kitchen sink realism”—an L-shaped room represents a literal and figurative rejection of mainstream societal structures. In mid-20th-century cities like London, large Victorian family homes were frequently partitioned by landlords into cheap, multi-tenant boarding houses. An L-shaped room is rarely intentional; it is usually the awkward leftover scrap of space left after cutting a large room into smaller pieces to maximize rental income.
Writer/director Bryan Forbes’s uneven adaptation of Lynne Reid Banks’s novel boasts Leslie Caron’s most outstanding performance. She plays a young Frenchwoman who becomes pregnant after an affair and refuses to marry the baby’s father. Facing strict parents and social stigma, she moves into a dingy boarding house in Notting Hill, London. Her attic room is L-shaped, symbolic of her marginal position in society. The house is filled with outsiders: the aging actress Mavis (Cicely Courtneidge), the West Indian jazz musician Johnny (Brock Peters), and the aspiring writer Toby (Tom Bell). Initially considering abortion, Jane changes her mind after a cold encounter with Dr. Weaver (Emlyn Williams). She takes a job at a café, slowly adapts to her surroundings, and grows close to Toby. Jane and Toby fall in love. However, Toby feels betrayed when he learns of Jane’s pregnancy, and Jane is left to face her future alone. Despite heartbreak, Jane embraces her independence and prepares to raise her child, finding strength in her community of misfits.
THE PROBLEM WITH JOHNNY
- Johnny’s sexuality is one of the most significant changes made when adapting Lynne Reid Banks’s novel. By altering Johnny’s character and shifting the narrative focus, director Bryan Forbes changed how the film approached marginalized identities.
- In the Book, John (Johnny) is explicitly revealed to be gay. His character combines multiple layers of societal marginalization in 1960s Britain: he is a Black immigrant, a jazz musician, and a homosexual man at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. The novel also explores the protagonist Jane’s initial homophobic prejudices, which she eventually overcomes as they bond over their shared status as outcasts.
- In the Movie, Johnny’s homosexuality is entirely omitted or, at most, buried under highly ambiguous subtext. Instead, the film refocuses his marginalization primarily on his race and his unrequited feelings for Jane or his friendship with Toby. This is problematic, as his character is an enigma who fades in and out of the narrative, diminishing the impact of several scenes.
THE LAVENDER SWAP
To maintain a queer narrative thread in the film without using Johnny, the filmmakers shifted the theme of hidden sexuality to another character.
- Mavis in the Book: An older, former wardrobe mistress who speaks openly about her past heterosexual affairs with men.
- Mavis in the Movie: Played by Cicely Courtneidge, she is transformed into a retired music-hall performer who harbors a “lavender secret”. She is portrayed as a closeted lesbian who shares a deeply tender, delicate coming-out scene with Jane, providing the movie with its primary LGBTQ+ representation.
WHY THE CHANGE HAPPENED
- In 1962, the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) and international distribution rules, such as the Hays Code, were highly restrictive regarding homosexuality. A character who was both Black and gay was considered too radical or controversial for mainstream cinema audiences at the time.
- Splitting the themes allowed the film to focus Johnny’s arc on the racial prejudices of post-war London, while using Mavis to explore the quiet loneliness of aging as a closeted individual in a changing world.
- Two years later, Peters became the first Black, queer character to be portrayed on screen in Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker (see below).
A recording of the song Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty, sung in the film by Mavis, is sampled at the beginning of the title track of the album The Queen is Dead by the Smiths.
Cinematography: Douglas Slocombe. Romulus Films: James and John Woolf
Distributed by Columbia Pictures in the US.
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