HotToastyRag
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.
rosyrnrn
The story is very believable and likely raised a lot of eyebrows back when it was released. I love older movies because they do not show all the gratuitous sex scenes but rather, hint at the possibility. I also appreciate Shirley Booth and Bob Ryan as actors. However, now here is the part that is going to rebut the previous reviews, I personally feel both of these actors are miscast in this movie. Neither seem to deliver heartfelt lines. It really feels like they are just reading the script. Robert Ryan is exquisite in film noir and this is movie is not his forte. And I don't know why Shirley Booth doesn't put any more feeling into delivering her lines because I know she is capable of doing so. So while I think the movie is a very good story line, I wish they would have cast other actors. Just stating my opinion is all and I do appreciate and respect the previous reviewers felt both were absolutely stunning in their parts.
jjnxn-1
Lovely little drama about a hopeless love affair told in remembrance. Shirley Booth is incredibly moving in a beautifully simple performance and Robert Ryan a fine match in a understated part very different from his usual gruff often cruel characters. If you are only familiar with Shirley Booth from her years as "Hazel" she will be a revelation here. She and Ryan are pretty much the whole show with the other actors unmemorable excepting the neighbor's daughter and only because she is such an odious little brat. For discriminating audiences who enjoy superior acting and don't mind that the actors look and behave like real people.
MRSLESLY
About Mrs Leslie,in less credible hands,would have been just another average 1950's tearjerker,but in the hands of (Oscar) winning actress "Shirley Booth" the film crosses the boundary, from maudlin to interesting. Anyone familiar with Booth's acting genius, knows that the actress could have made a film about the invention of the "pencil sharpener" worth watching. It could be said, and rightfully so that 'Robert Ryan" was miscast, as Mr. Leslie, but if given a chance, I believe you'll gladly overlook Paramount's little casting error. All in all, About Mrs Leslie, isn't "Shirley Booth's" greatest moment, but she still had reason to crow! I highly reccomend this dramatization of "Vina Delmars" best selling novel of the same name.
AD
