This film from 1957 warns married women that too much devotion to husband & family often rebounds as they may often be tempted to take you for granted and start treating you like an unpaid servant.The trend now is for intelligent married women to have some "me time" which could involve developing their hobbies, pastimes interests & travelling on their own.Married women in 1957 were not so independent and relied too much on their husbands for emotional support and for material comforts.Of course today in 2018 the woman's movement has done a lot to help their own sex and with two female prime ministers, equal sexual rights legislation, and has changed a great deal for women over the last 60 years.Yvonne Mitchell's character is not well educated but always means well in dealing with her family.She is disorganised and inefficient which seems to cause great frustration to Anthony Quaile who plays her husband and who feels life has been slipping away from him and feels impelled to seek an office affair with his secretary (played by Sylvia Sims) at the firm of timber importers at which they both work.Young Andrew Ray (son of comic Ted Ray) plays their son who is caught in the middle of his parents marital strife.I rated this wholly British produced B&W film 7/10 which I saw on "Talking Pictures" channel 81 tonight.
19 Reviews
Woman in Drudgery more like
donaldgordon79718 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
To me this movie must be the first of the "kitchen sink" dramas of post war Britain as it came out in the fifties,long before the sixties made the genre popular. Woman in a Dressing Gown has been described by film historian Jeffrey Richards as "a Brief Encounter of the council flats", taking the scenario of a extra-marital affair and relocating to a less middle-class setting. However, writer Ted Willis described it more simply, as a film about " good honest fumbling people, caught up in tiny tragedies". As its female-focused title suggests, the film spends a lot of time on Amy, the wife whose devastated when her husband asks for a divorce. She gives it the works as the drudge who fights to rekindle the affection of her husband. There's a great bit when her new hairdo gets ruined by the rain, but it's heavy weather throughout. Amy is anything but the model '50s housewife: she burns food, never finishes the housework, always has the radio on too loud, and rarely has time to get dressed properly. But the film allows us to see reasons why she might have become that way (grief,loneliness,boredom) rather than simply demonising her. Do not watch this film if your at a low and feeling depressed as it will definitely not help. Yvonne Mitchells bravura performance won her the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear award for best actress
Yvonne Mitchell's stunning performance
mark-sulli2 May 2018
I recently saw this film on Talking Pictures, and intended to switch-off after a few minutes, as it didn't seem like my cup of tea (eg film noir).
I then gradually found myself bewitched by Yvonne Mitchell's stunning performance - one of the best I can recall by any actress. The domestic scene where she attempts to get the flat and herself ready, while getting steadily plastered, is a masterpiece of the actor's art. I also have to say, I find her drop-dead gorgeous - so why anyone would want to dump her is a bit of a mystery !
Unforgettable (Possible spoiler)
LaDonnaKeskes29 January 2004
Warning: Spoilers
I have seen this film exactly once, when I was about 15, on television about 35 years ago. It's unforgettable for its searing depiction of the life of postwar Britons of the middle class.
Jim Preston (Quayle) is married to a woman who appears nearly helpless as a housekeeper and could be suffering from chronic depression after the death of a child. The cramped flat where they live is a suffocating mess, cabinets spilling debris, sinks filled with dishes, dustbins crammed, through which his bathrobe-clad wife drifts in a logorrheic, ash-dropping haze. By contrast, the young woman he is infatuated with is elegant and pristine, and their encounters are marked by a tranquility and privacy lacking in his domestic life.
He makes one attempt to break free, causing his wife to decompensate into a hysterically sobbing invalid. His teenage son is fiercely protective of his mother and furiously rejects Preston. His life begins to come apart, and the freedom and love he yearns for slip away. He sinks back into his life, resurrecting his wife, and all goes on exactly as before--only worse.
It was utterly unlike anything I had seen before, completely real, unflinching, passionate and hurtful. The B/W cinematography is done with a dingy look that captures the sooty city perfectly.
This movie should come out on VHS, at least.
Jim Preston (Quayle) is married to a woman who appears nearly helpless as a housekeeper and could be suffering from chronic depression after the death of a child. The cramped flat where they live is a suffocating mess, cabinets spilling debris, sinks filled with dishes, dustbins crammed, through which his bathrobe-clad wife drifts in a logorrheic, ash-dropping haze. By contrast, the young woman he is infatuated with is elegant and pristine, and their encounters are marked by a tranquility and privacy lacking in his domestic life.
He makes one attempt to break free, causing his wife to decompensate into a hysterically sobbing invalid. His teenage son is fiercely protective of his mother and furiously rejects Preston. His life begins to come apart, and the freedom and love he yearns for slip away. He sinks back into his life, resurrecting his wife, and all goes on exactly as before--only worse.
It was utterly unlike anything I had seen before, completely real, unflinching, passionate and hurtful. The B/W cinematography is done with a dingy look that captures the sooty city perfectly.
This movie should come out on VHS, at least.
Bad Time Girl
writers_reign3 August 2012
Warning: Spoilers
The first feature film written by Ted Willis was Good-Time Girl in 1947 and within the decade he was chronicling the other side of the coin and the conclusion would seem to be that Sinner or Saint it's not much fun being a girl. By 1957 the 'kitchen sink' school of drama was firmly established on both stage and screen courtesy of plays like Look Back In Anger, which John Osborne unleashed in 1956 and films not a million miles away from Good-Time Girl and The Blue Lamp, also the work of Willis. Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Syms had been involved in Ice Cold In Alex yet there's an odd lack of chemistry between their semi-adulterous (she isn't married, he is) lovers as indeed there is between Quayle, a Shakespearean actor never fully at ease in modern dress, and Yvonne Mitchell, who walks away the the film, slipping easily around a wooden Andrew Ray as the son of herself and Quayle. It was probably seen as a taut, gripping drama in its day but that day wasn't yesterday or even the day before and time could have been kinder, nevertheless it will reward a look.
Even as a pre-teen I was touched by the wife's desperation.
magdalene6516 September 2000
I remember watching this film as a young girl. It was a bit over my head as far as the complexity of emotions but the situation was quite clear. The story of a middle aged couple: the husband, still attractive and a bit worldly, has become attracted to a young woman...the wife, a bit shop-worn and, having been a housewife and entirely devoted only to her family for nearly two decades, appears dull in the eyes of her husband. However, so moving was the performance of Ms. Mitchell as the wife, so clear the pain and desperation she displayed in attempting to keep her husband when it becomes clear she is losing him, that I remembered nearly every bit of the movie and retained it until years later when I could feel full empathy for her. I see this movie as a sad, sweet study of a universal type of woman: the house-bound, devoted and totally self-sacrificing wife who has, perhaps, given too much of herself to her family and kept too little for herself.
Could have been very soapy but turns out to be so much more real.
mark.waltz6 May 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Watching the ssloppily made up Yvonne Mitchell go from always smiling and pretending that she's the happy homemaker to becoming a bit of a heartbeat when she realizes that she's losing her husband to younger woman Sylvia Syms. He happens to drop the bomb one morning that he wants a divorce, and she can't get herself to let him go out the door to be on time to his office without pleading with him in a pathetic way that shows how 20 years of marriage and motherhood and homemaking have turned her into a piece of clay that has molded yet melted into something unattractive. He's barely arrived at the office when he's gotten a call from her, asking her to bring the woman he wants to leave her for over, and it turns out to be his secretary. Anthony Quayle, as the husband, tries to remain as calm as he can, but it's obvious that both guilt and determination to move on are his top priorities.
It's easy to see why Quayle would want to leave Mitchell, and it's also easy to paint her instantly as pathetic. But when she finally has had enough, having had a horrible day and trying to dress to impress where everything ends up going wrong, the viewer help but feel sorry for her. There are no real sides to take because none of the three people involved in this situation are bad people, but this being the 50's with divorce and infidelity, the wife has to come out the winner. A cheating husband the same year on "As the World Turns" was killed off in a car accident after viewer complaints, but this being a movie can take a different turn. It's also obvious that going forward, the marriage is going to be quite different, and that as unhappy as he will be, Quayle is bound by duty and not love, and that is his punishment.
This is a very claustrophobic movie with only a few outside scenes, and watching Mitchell plead to get her hair done then for it to all fall apart when she's stuck out in the rain, getting drunk and passing out before her husband and his girlfriend arrive. It's after this where she comes to that the L first occurs, and that also results in a confrontation between their son, obviously aghadt by his father's behavior. This seems very much like a stage play, and the performances are intense whilw the characterizations are truly believable. The result is an interesting but depressing film that shows a view of marriage from the perspective of all the people involved, and the very depressing black and white photography is certainly an interesting metaphor for the dour situation those involved. It's also a very different film topic for director J. Lee Thompson, best known for directing Charles Bronson action flicks.
It's easy to see why Quayle would want to leave Mitchell, and it's also easy to paint her instantly as pathetic. But when she finally has had enough, having had a horrible day and trying to dress to impress where everything ends up going wrong, the viewer help but feel sorry for her. There are no real sides to take because none of the three people involved in this situation are bad people, but this being the 50's with divorce and infidelity, the wife has to come out the winner. A cheating husband the same year on "As the World Turns" was killed off in a car accident after viewer complaints, but this being a movie can take a different turn. It's also obvious that going forward, the marriage is going to be quite different, and that as unhappy as he will be, Quayle is bound by duty and not love, and that is his punishment.
This is a very claustrophobic movie with only a few outside scenes, and watching Mitchell plead to get her hair done then for it to all fall apart when she's stuck out in the rain, getting drunk and passing out before her husband and his girlfriend arrive. It's after this where she comes to that the L first occurs, and that also results in a confrontation between their son, obviously aghadt by his father's behavior. This seems very much like a stage play, and the performances are intense whilw the characterizations are truly believable. The result is an interesting but depressing film that shows a view of marriage from the perspective of all the people involved, and the very depressing black and white photography is certainly an interesting metaphor for the dour situation those involved. It's also a very different film topic for director J. Lee Thompson, best known for directing Charles Bronson action flicks.
Comfort Blanket to the Woman
blacknorth6 September 2009
Warning: Spoilers
It's a matter of deep regret that Woman In A Dressing Gown remains unreleased on DVD and is rarely, if ever, screened on television. As a previous commenter noted, it's the first of the kitchen sink drama's which became so fashionable in the 1960's, and it's the best.
The story is unremarkable; clerk Anthony Quayle is having an affair with his firm's secretary, Sylvia Sims. His wife, Yvonne Mitchell, devoted, but suffering from a clinical depression which leads her to be alternatively hysterical and morose, knows nothing, believing her husband to be equally devoted, so when Quayle breaks the news that he plans to divorce her, she goes to pieces. This unpromising situation is electrified by several elements; Yvonne Mitchell's searing performance, a spare script, and some very claustrophobic settings.
Mitchell owns this film; her character is so helpless, so self-effacing, that Quayleand Sims offer her the best kind of support - they let her do her own thing. Long sequences find Mitchell alone - at the cooker, at the kitchen table, at the window - and each of these scenes is a masterpiece of momentum worthy of any noir. But isn't kitchen sink drama the most casual noir and therefore the most terrifying? Really one would have to see Mitchell in action - her habitual burning of family breakfasts, her abortive trip uptown to dolly up and win back her man, most of all her only companion - a faded dressing gown which acts as comfort blanket to the woman. She is stunning and deservedly won many plaudits for her performance.
Credit must also go to Anthony Quayle who underplays his natural strengths as an actor. His perplexity at finding himself an object of desire is played out beautifully and logically to the conclusion. Sylvia Sims also impresses as the other woman, a slip of a thing whose scenes are fragile but safe because we know she is in no danger from herself.
The script is taken from a television play by Ted Willis which was broadcast in the early days of ITV. I have no idea whether it still exists, probably not, given British television's habit of treating archives as ephemera - there is nothing ephemeral about Woman In A Dressing Gown. It is blindingly and viscerally memorable. Neither do I have any idea who currently owns the rights to this film but I must say they ought to be ashamed of themselves - it needs to be restored and issued on DVD before it's completely forgotten.
All in all, a lovely and unsung classic for connoisseurs of everything vital.
The story is unremarkable; clerk Anthony Quayle is having an affair with his firm's secretary, Sylvia Sims. His wife, Yvonne Mitchell, devoted, but suffering from a clinical depression which leads her to be alternatively hysterical and morose, knows nothing, believing her husband to be equally devoted, so when Quayle breaks the news that he plans to divorce her, she goes to pieces. This unpromising situation is electrified by several elements; Yvonne Mitchell's searing performance, a spare script, and some very claustrophobic settings.
Mitchell owns this film; her character is so helpless, so self-effacing, that Quayleand Sims offer her the best kind of support - they let her do her own thing. Long sequences find Mitchell alone - at the cooker, at the kitchen table, at the window - and each of these scenes is a masterpiece of momentum worthy of any noir. But isn't kitchen sink drama the most casual noir and therefore the most terrifying? Really one would have to see Mitchell in action - her habitual burning of family breakfasts, her abortive trip uptown to dolly up and win back her man, most of all her only companion - a faded dressing gown which acts as comfort blanket to the woman. She is stunning and deservedly won many plaudits for her performance.
Credit must also go to Anthony Quayle who underplays his natural strengths as an actor. His perplexity at finding himself an object of desire is played out beautifully and logically to the conclusion. Sylvia Sims also impresses as the other woman, a slip of a thing whose scenes are fragile but safe because we know she is in no danger from herself.
The script is taken from a television play by Ted Willis which was broadcast in the early days of ITV. I have no idea whether it still exists, probably not, given British television's habit of treating archives as ephemera - there is nothing ephemeral about Woman In A Dressing Gown. It is blindingly and viscerally memorable. Neither do I have any idea who currently owns the rights to this film but I must say they ought to be ashamed of themselves - it needs to be restored and issued on DVD before it's completely forgotten.
All in all, a lovely and unsung classic for connoisseurs of everything vital.
The rain falls hard on a humdrum town...
hitchcockthelegend17 April 2015
Woman in a Dressing Gown is directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Ted Willis. It stars Yvonne Mitchell, Anthony Quayle and Sylvia Syms, music is by Louis Levy and cinematography by Gilbert Taylor.
It's something of an inauspicious title, a title hardly conducive to making this piece of film leap out at you, to shout that it's essential British cinema. How wonderful to find that not only is it a title completely befitting the material being played out, but that it is actually essential British cinema.
It's little known and very under seen, in fact myself was only introduced to it by a Canadian friend! The story centers on a London family of three, husband is away earning the corn at the office, teenage son is just starting out in life after school, and mother? She's on housewife auto-pilot, but disorganised with it. Her auto- pilot world is shaken to the core when it is revealed that husband is having an affair with his personal secretary, a smart and beautiful younger sort who is demanding that husband divorces wifey or it's all off...
It sounds very kitchen sink, but actually it's not, it's a very smartly written picture giving credence to mental illness, to the shattering blows of infidelity, of a crumbling family dynamic, a family that in truth is homespun. Ordinary? Yes, but safe as the red brick built poky flat they dwell in. We are not asked to take sides here, to chastise or judge, Thompson and his superb cast merely ask us to delve into their world, to understand it, the psychological humdrum of 50s Britain, the starkness of marriage does mean growing old together, but that nobody ever said it was going to be easy.
Looking at it now it can be viewed as a very important film in the trajectory of British cinema, Mitchell's character is the fulcrum, making the film a must see as regards the evolution of how women have been represented in Brit cinema through the years. Thompson, better known for tough macho fuelled movies on his CV, does a wonderful job in letting us feel the anguish and emotional turbulence. Hazy camera shots couple up with stark framing of the objects in the cramped flat, all marrying up to the fractured nature of Amy & Jim's marriage. There's even humour to be found, very much so, with Louis Levy's musical cue accompaniments deftly shifting from seething passions to Ealing like comedy as the home life of Amy is scattergun in execution.
Kitchen sink, social realist, proto realist and etc? No! This has no pigeon hole to be placed in, it's just terrific film making, from the writing, the performances, the direction and its worth to anyone interested in classic British cinema, this demands to be sought out. And for the record, the last 20 minutes of film will move and invigorate the coldest of hearts. 9/10
It's something of an inauspicious title, a title hardly conducive to making this piece of film leap out at you, to shout that it's essential British cinema. How wonderful to find that not only is it a title completely befitting the material being played out, but that it is actually essential British cinema.
It's little known and very under seen, in fact myself was only introduced to it by a Canadian friend! The story centers on a London family of three, husband is away earning the corn at the office, teenage son is just starting out in life after school, and mother? She's on housewife auto-pilot, but disorganised with it. Her auto- pilot world is shaken to the core when it is revealed that husband is having an affair with his personal secretary, a smart and beautiful younger sort who is demanding that husband divorces wifey or it's all off...
It sounds very kitchen sink, but actually it's not, it's a very smartly written picture giving credence to mental illness, to the shattering blows of infidelity, of a crumbling family dynamic, a family that in truth is homespun. Ordinary? Yes, but safe as the red brick built poky flat they dwell in. We are not asked to take sides here, to chastise or judge, Thompson and his superb cast merely ask us to delve into their world, to understand it, the psychological humdrum of 50s Britain, the starkness of marriage does mean growing old together, but that nobody ever said it was going to be easy.
Looking at it now it can be viewed as a very important film in the trajectory of British cinema, Mitchell's character is the fulcrum, making the film a must see as regards the evolution of how women have been represented in Brit cinema through the years. Thompson, better known for tough macho fuelled movies on his CV, does a wonderful job in letting us feel the anguish and emotional turbulence. Hazy camera shots couple up with stark framing of the objects in the cramped flat, all marrying up to the fractured nature of Amy & Jim's marriage. There's even humour to be found, very much so, with Louis Levy's musical cue accompaniments deftly shifting from seething passions to Ealing like comedy as the home life of Amy is scattergun in execution.
Kitchen sink, social realist, proto realist and etc? No! This has no pigeon hole to be placed in, it's just terrific film making, from the writing, the performances, the direction and its worth to anyone interested in classic British cinema, this demands to be sought out. And for the record, the last 20 minutes of film will move and invigorate the coldest of hearts. 9/10
Impressive on all counts.
p-hodges53617 April 2018
I have only recently seen this film, and it's baffling how I missed seeing such a good film for so long. The story could be looked on as a humdrum kitchen sink drama, but it's so much more than that. It centres on a common situation in which a married man becomes disillusioned with his marriage and has an affair with a work colleague. The acting of the main players is totally believable, and flawlessly evokes the emotional complexities of their situation.
Special mention should be made of Yvonne Mitchell, who plays the the wronged wife. She gives one of the best performances I've ever seen by any actress. She deserved to be oscar nominated for this.
If you haven't seen this film then it's a MUST see. It's that good.
What about a cup of tea after the storm?
clanciai21 July 2018
This is Yvonne Mitchell's film, of course, and definitely her best performance. Anthony Quayle is as always one of the most reliable actors there ever was, and here for a change he is to play an extremely ordinary part: this could happen to anyone, and it usually happens sooner or later to everyone. The situation couldn't be more common. Sylvia Syms is beautiful as usual and doesn't have to act much, it's enough for her just to be seen, and she actually plays no great part - she is just the other woman. The acting is all Yvonne Mitchell's.
Of course you have to worry about her, as her heart is torn apart, as her world is turned to shambles, as she desperately tries to find a way out and fails in every single effort, and how she stills goes on just to carry on. She is the most helpless of all, and yet she is the one who carries through and gets through the crisis in a wreck of only shambles, as if you needed to get your whole world totally ruined just to find it all perfectly normal, as if nothing had happened, as if it just had to pass by like an ordinary shower of rain...
The direction is superb throughout with all its diverting manoeuvres focussing on petty dertails for a relief, like a missing button, the baby next door (apparently Mitchell's own), the soap problem with the engagement ring, and above all the shabby old drsssing gown - the very symbol of the film, nothing much, just an ordinary old worn out dressing gown, which you never really get out of...
Of course you have to worry about her, as her heart is torn apart, as her world is turned to shambles, as she desperately tries to find a way out and fails in every single effort, and how she stills goes on just to carry on. She is the most helpless of all, and yet she is the one who carries through and gets through the crisis in a wreck of only shambles, as if you needed to get your whole world totally ruined just to find it all perfectly normal, as if nothing had happened, as if it just had to pass by like an ordinary shower of rain...
The direction is superb throughout with all its diverting manoeuvres focussing on petty dertails for a relief, like a missing button, the baby next door (apparently Mitchell's own), the soap problem with the engagement ring, and above all the shabby old drsssing gown - the very symbol of the film, nothing much, just an ordinary old worn out dressing gown, which you never really get out of...
A sensitive study of human emotions
DPMay8 November 2018
Behind this unassuming title is a simple premise. It is the story of a man who, having become weary of his domestic life after twenty years of marriage, is tempted to walk out and begin a new relationship with his beautiful young secretary whom he has fallen in love with.
Such a scenario is a familiar one now, having been played out in many a television soap opera, but back in the 1950s when this film was made, extra-marital affairs and divorce carried much more of a stigma than is the case nowadays, and so one might think that this production carries little impact. That is far from the case, however, as this film relies not on sensational plot twists but instead concentrates on the effects that the situation has on the main protagonists. And in doing that it succeeds superbly in conveying the raw emotions of each character.
Anthony Quayle is the man torn between his status as a family man and the promise of an exciting and passionate new life with a beautiful woman who loves him. Quayle could play tough villains well but here he is exemplary playing the weak man, an individual swept along by circumstances rather than by having the drive to make him master of his own destiny. The two different lives he must choose between are personified by the different names each woman calls him: to his long-standing wife he is 'Jimbo', to his secretary he is 'Preston' (his surname). Yet Jim is never presented as a sly, scheming womaniser, only as a good man without the inner strength to be something better.
Sylvia Syms (who would become one of Quayle's co-stars in Ice Cold In Alex the following year) is 'the other woman', the secretary Georgie. The character's background is largely unexplored but we learn enough of her to know that her love for Jim is sincere and that she is not vindictive or manipulative.
But stealing the show is Yvonne Mitchell in a superlative performance as eponymous Amy, Jim's wife. Even after twenty years of marriage Amy is loving and devoted, but she is hapless, disorganised and a little overbearing. Her blind devotion means that she hasn't noticed her husband growing bored with their life, except perhaps on a subconscious level for when the bombshell is dropped, she immediately guesses the reason behind it. The reactions of Amy are varied, not always expected, but wholly convincing and touching. Much of the credit for that must also go to Ted Willis who wrote the screenplay, crafting rich dialogue that skillfully avoids all the hackneyed old cliches that this subject matter often serves up.
J Lee Thompson's direction is considered. He generally keeps the piece tight and close up to maximise the conveyance of feeling, the shots are well composed and occasionally imaginative, and scenes are lit most effectively.
So, does Jim leave Amy or end up staying with her? I won't spoil the outcome here, although the real joy is the getting there and in following a conflict where all three participants are good hearted and evoke sympathy. To pull that off so well is no mean feat.
Such a scenario is a familiar one now, having been played out in many a television soap opera, but back in the 1950s when this film was made, extra-marital affairs and divorce carried much more of a stigma than is the case nowadays, and so one might think that this production carries little impact. That is far from the case, however, as this film relies not on sensational plot twists but instead concentrates on the effects that the situation has on the main protagonists. And in doing that it succeeds superbly in conveying the raw emotions of each character.
Anthony Quayle is the man torn between his status as a family man and the promise of an exciting and passionate new life with a beautiful woman who loves him. Quayle could play tough villains well but here he is exemplary playing the weak man, an individual swept along by circumstances rather than by having the drive to make him master of his own destiny. The two different lives he must choose between are personified by the different names each woman calls him: to his long-standing wife he is 'Jimbo', to his secretary he is 'Preston' (his surname). Yet Jim is never presented as a sly, scheming womaniser, only as a good man without the inner strength to be something better.
Sylvia Syms (who would become one of Quayle's co-stars in Ice Cold In Alex the following year) is 'the other woman', the secretary Georgie. The character's background is largely unexplored but we learn enough of her to know that her love for Jim is sincere and that she is not vindictive or manipulative.
But stealing the show is Yvonne Mitchell in a superlative performance as eponymous Amy, Jim's wife. Even after twenty years of marriage Amy is loving and devoted, but she is hapless, disorganised and a little overbearing. Her blind devotion means that she hasn't noticed her husband growing bored with their life, except perhaps on a subconscious level for when the bombshell is dropped, she immediately guesses the reason behind it. The reactions of Amy are varied, not always expected, but wholly convincing and touching. Much of the credit for that must also go to Ted Willis who wrote the screenplay, crafting rich dialogue that skillfully avoids all the hackneyed old cliches that this subject matter often serves up.
J Lee Thompson's direction is considered. He generally keeps the piece tight and close up to maximise the conveyance of feeling, the shots are well composed and occasionally imaginative, and scenes are lit most effectively.
So, does Jim leave Amy or end up staying with her? I won't spoil the outcome here, although the real joy is the getting there and in following a conflict where all three participants are good hearted and evoke sympathy. To pull that off so well is no mean feat.
Gets better the more you watch it
alexanderrickman1 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
At the start Jimbo says to Brian that he must be the one stealing all his razor blades. Later on Amy suddenly pulls away when Brian reaches for her arm. I can't help but think she is cutting herself and didn't want to risk the guys finding out.
Amy's lack of focus causes her to burn the cooking. She's yet to realise this is why Jimbo needs "whole dollops of sauce" with every meal. It's the only way he can stomach the food she gives him.
When Amy's cries in the bathroom are drowned out by Brian and Christine dancing to their record, her insistence on having the radio up loud constantly begins to make sense. Amy must cry to herself when shes alone in the flat and the radio drowns it out.
Watch this to see Yvonne Mitchell's Oscar worthy performance. One of my highlights is this line from Amy to her husbands lover - "You know a thousand things about him. I know a million. That's what being married means. To know a man inside out and still love him." brilliant..
Amy's lack of focus causes her to burn the cooking. She's yet to realise this is why Jimbo needs "whole dollops of sauce" with every meal. It's the only way he can stomach the food she gives him.
When Amy's cries in the bathroom are drowned out by Brian and Christine dancing to their record, her insistence on having the radio up loud constantly begins to make sense. Amy must cry to herself when shes alone in the flat and the radio drowns it out.
Watch this to see Yvonne Mitchell's Oscar worthy performance. One of my highlights is this line from Amy to her husbands lover - "You know a thousand things about him. I know a million. That's what being married means. To know a man inside out and still love him." brilliant..
Brilliant piece of British cinema
a-w-p19 May 2019
Great black and white film - nostalgic and utterly moving - stunning performances from the main characters, especially the housewife - her downward spiral is a masterclass - it's a must see film for all the right reasons . . .
Woman On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown
Lejink14 July 2019
Perhaps the only thing stopping this film from being considered part of the British New Wave "kitchen sink drama" movement is that its lead actor isn't an outspoken, idealistic, go-getting younger man. Instead we get middle-aged office manager Anthony Quayle who lives with his slovenly, scatterbrain wife Yvonne Mitchell, never out of the dressing gown which gives the film its title and their young adult son Andrew Ray in their never-tidy flat where she always has music blaring just to add to the maelstrom. Ironically, a kitchen sink is in view in the claustrophobic scenes set in the family's flat, but it's always full of dirty dishes. Quayle's Jim Preston's head is turned by his pretty young secretary Sylvia Sym, whom he illicitly meets on Sundays before heading back to his depressing family life back home. When we join the action he has just decided he will finally tell his wife he will leave her and finally, after an aborted first attempt and emboldened by Sym's prompting, he breaks the news to her. It's fair to say she doesn't take it well.
Bearing the legend on its poster that no one will be allowed entry inside the last ten minutes, the emotional climax reached is credible and understandable if perhaps slightly predictable. The drama really just revolves around the four principals and especially Mitchell's Amy. She never suspects her husband's infidelity thinking that he is content with her and the ramshackle life they have, she just cannot see that her own slatternly ways are driving her man to a younger, prettier, better dressed and organised woman.
Of course this is the U.K. in the 50's where a woman's place for the large part was in the home, the dutiful housewife, whose tasks boil down to getting the nightly family dinner ready, tidying the house and making herself herself presentable to hubby coming in from work. Amy doesn't or indeed can't seem do any of these things but because Quayle's Jimbo as she irritatingly calls him with almost every utterance she makes to him has seemed to accept her as she is for so many years, his request for a divorce still hits her like a bolt from the blue.
Mitchell really is excellent in the title role, often wheedling and pathetic she can seem like a figure to be pitied. One can only feel for her as we follow her attempts to smarten herself up, swigging copiously from a freshly bought bottle of whisky to garner some courage for the showdown she calls for with Quayle and his mistress. I'm not sure I agree however with her being made to be such a helpless victim.
Anyway, the film is an interesting and engrossing peek into the lives of the working class in "You never had it so good" Britain to paraphrase then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan's phrase of the day. I have my reasons for disagreeing with the denouement but this was still a well acted, tightly directed contemporary melodrama and quite as good in its way as any of the recognised breakout films to come out of the U.K. just a few years later.
Bearing the legend on its poster that no one will be allowed entry inside the last ten minutes, the emotional climax reached is credible and understandable if perhaps slightly predictable. The drama really just revolves around the four principals and especially Mitchell's Amy. She never suspects her husband's infidelity thinking that he is content with her and the ramshackle life they have, she just cannot see that her own slatternly ways are driving her man to a younger, prettier, better dressed and organised woman.
Of course this is the U.K. in the 50's where a woman's place for the large part was in the home, the dutiful housewife, whose tasks boil down to getting the nightly family dinner ready, tidying the house and making herself herself presentable to hubby coming in from work. Amy doesn't or indeed can't seem do any of these things but because Quayle's Jimbo as she irritatingly calls him with almost every utterance she makes to him has seemed to accept her as she is for so many years, his request for a divorce still hits her like a bolt from the blue.
Mitchell really is excellent in the title role, often wheedling and pathetic she can seem like a figure to be pitied. One can only feel for her as we follow her attempts to smarten herself up, swigging copiously from a freshly bought bottle of whisky to garner some courage for the showdown she calls for with Quayle and his mistress. I'm not sure I agree however with her being made to be such a helpless victim.
Anyway, the film is an interesting and engrossing peek into the lives of the working class in "You never had it so good" Britain to paraphrase then Prime Minister Harold MacMillan's phrase of the day. I have my reasons for disagreeing with the denouement but this was still a well acted, tightly directed contemporary melodrama and quite as good in its way as any of the recognised breakout films to come out of the U.K. just a few years later.
"Everyone in the World Will Win the Lottery - but not us"!!
kidboots12 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
To describe this as a "man discontented with his marriage, seeks solace
with younger girl" is too simplistic. Anthony Quayle plays "Jimbo", a
drab, rather ordinary clerk whose private life is in chaos due to his
slovenly but sweet souled wife Amy. He desperately needs order and
finds it with Georgie, the office secretary, the initial scenes contrasting
the complete mess of his own home to the stark simplicity in which
Georgie lives. Young Sylvia Sims was really making her way in the film
world and she is fine as Georgie. Both she and Jimbo are living in a
fantasy of love although Jim tellingly says at the start that her attraction
for him was due to his just being there and that he isn't such a great
catch!! But by the film's showdown she has steeled herself to fighting
for Jim - as Amy says, he will not be doing any fighting himself as he
is defeated!!
Yvonne Mitchell is a revelation as Amy - so chaotic, the type of person who can work all day and the house still looks like a bomb has hit it!! From the opening scene with the blaring radio, you are part of Amy's world and you really understand Jim's need to escape but Amy has the sweetest nature. She cooks both Jim and son Brian's (a very good Anthony Ray) meals and serves them on little trays with all the condiments (all the while keeping up happy chatter about her day) but the bacon is burnt, the chips are peculiar ("I've found the best recipe for chips") - it seems whatever she tries will always be second rate. The only person who loves her unequivocally is Brian and it's his bewilderment at the situation that hastens the climax. Jim tells Amy that he wants a divorce but she pleads with him to bring Georgie back to the flat so that they can talk sensibly.
Amy has a plan - she pawns her engagement ring and with the money goes to the hairdresser and buys a small bottle of whiskey, enough for the three of them but everything goes wrong. She gets caught in the rain and her hair is ruined, her best dress has a broken zipper and a well meaning neighbour plies her with drink. By the time Brian comes home from work, not used to spirits she is almost paralytic and when Jim and Georgie arrive, Jim is sucked into a vortex. Amy, while dependent on him, is just drunk enough to fight for her man and tell Georgie some home truths - "you may know a hundred things about him but I know a thousand"!!
At the movie's end there are no winners - Anthony Quayle is so good, walking a thin line between quietness and rage. As he says "we are not going to win the lottery - everyone in the world will win but not us"!! Well meaning neighbour Hilda was played by Carole Lesley a tragic actress who had undeniable charms but when she was dropped by film studio Alliance couldn't accept the fact that she wasn't considered star material. She took her own life at 38.
Very Recommended.
Yvonne Mitchell is a revelation as Amy - so chaotic, the type of person who can work all day and the house still looks like a bomb has hit it!! From the opening scene with the blaring radio, you are part of Amy's world and you really understand Jim's need to escape but Amy has the sweetest nature. She cooks both Jim and son Brian's (a very good Anthony Ray) meals and serves them on little trays with all the condiments (all the while keeping up happy chatter about her day) but the bacon is burnt, the chips are peculiar ("I've found the best recipe for chips") - it seems whatever she tries will always be second rate. The only person who loves her unequivocally is Brian and it's his bewilderment at the situation that hastens the climax. Jim tells Amy that he wants a divorce but she pleads with him to bring Georgie back to the flat so that they can talk sensibly.
Amy has a plan - she pawns her engagement ring and with the money goes to the hairdresser and buys a small bottle of whiskey, enough for the three of them but everything goes wrong. She gets caught in the rain and her hair is ruined, her best dress has a broken zipper and a well meaning neighbour plies her with drink. By the time Brian comes home from work, not used to spirits she is almost paralytic and when Jim and Georgie arrive, Jim is sucked into a vortex. Amy, while dependent on him, is just drunk enough to fight for her man and tell Georgie some home truths - "you may know a hundred things about him but I know a thousand"!!
At the movie's end there are no winners - Anthony Quayle is so good, walking a thin line between quietness and rage. As he says "we are not going to win the lottery - everyone in the world will win but not us"!! Well meaning neighbour Hilda was played by Carole Lesley a tragic actress who had undeniable charms but when she was dropped by film studio Alliance couldn't accept the fact that she wasn't considered star material. She took her own life at 38.
Very Recommended.
"They say the first fifty years are the worst!"
richardchatten10 November 2022
You rapidly lose patience with Anthony Quayle for being such a weak fish that he completely fails to realise there's far more to a wife than just keeping the place tidy.
Yvonne Mitchell is an absolute delight in the tousle-haired title role. With her raucous laugh she tears about the set so fast the only way the director could possibly keep up with her is by constantly switching the camera's position into yet another of the notorious 'J. Lee Thompson' shots he's so often derided for.
A radiant young Sylvia Syms likewise is her usual charming self, and at least goes some way for the audience to sympathise with Quayle's plight.
Yvonne Mitchell is an absolute delight in the tousle-haired title role. With her raucous laugh she tears about the set so fast the only way the director could possibly keep up with her is by constantly switching the camera's position into yet another of the notorious 'J. Lee Thompson' shots he's so often derided for.
A radiant young Sylvia Syms likewise is her usual charming self, and at least goes some way for the audience to sympathise with Quayle's plight.
Must see!
ionelcrazyfroggg22 August 2022
Had this title in my watchlist for awhile, but I guess the description was a bit dry, leading you to think this could be just another soap opera. Man, how wrong I was!
Some of the best scripts and acting I've seen in a while, please do yourselves a favor and watch this masterpiece!
Some of the best scripts and acting I've seen in a while, please do yourselves a favor and watch this masterpiece!
Unfogettable For More Reasons Than One
BOOWAH26 December 2007
In the late sixties (Pre-VCR) we had three UHF stations in our area, and they all signed off at 12 midnight. Unfortunately I worked second shift at a local factory and was just getting out at that time. One of our stations, bowing to public pressure, agreed to remain on after midnight and show movies. "Great...Right? "No, Not so great!!! They purchased four films, one of which was "Woman In A Dressing Gown", and showed them over and over again. "My God, It was just like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" I still have the dialogue running through my head even today. (He covers everything I make in sauce...Dollops of sauce) The remaining films were(in order of boredom):
The Burning Hills, Teenagers From Outer Space,and Dangerous Youth
The Burning Hills, Teenagers From Outer Space,and Dangerous Youth
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
