About Mrs Leslie

In one of her rare film roles, Shirley Booth is perfectly cast as the cheerfully competent, middle-aged owner of a Beverly Hills boarding-house, sympathetic - but not indulgent - to the various problems of her roomers. Flashbacks reveal her bitter-sweet past when, as a night-club singer, she found happiness with a mysterious, lonely tycoon (Ryan) who is able to spare only six weeks a year away from business pressures to be with her. At first resentful when she discovers that he is trapped by a marriage contracted for social and material advantage when he was young and ambitious, she learns to be grateful for what she has. It's soap, of course, especially given that Booth's story is lent a happy ending, as it were, by two roomers who turn their backs on the rat race for fame and fortune, electing instead to settle humbly for each other. But it's scripted with wit, insight and no small dash of acerbity (by Ketti Frings from a novel by Vina Delmar), while Booth and Ryan give terrific performances. Their (on the face of it) unlikely pairing lends the film a distinctly offbeat flavour.