84 Charing Cross Road **** (1987, Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench) – Classic Movie Review 9028

Director David Jones’s 1987 drama 84 Charing Cross Road features subtle and affecting performances from Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins, bringing to life this glowing and delightful film version of Helene Hanff’s memoirs (and its TV and stage play versions) about the two-decade correspondence and blooming friendship between the sassy New York City script-reader Helene Hanff and the staid London shop manager Frank P Doel who sells her antiquarian books via the mail.

Perfectly cast and intelligently directed, it is a civilised pleasure. Bancroft and Hopkins both play to their strengths. Anne Bancroft won the BAFTA Film Award for Best Actress. And, although he did not win any awards, it is one of Hopkins’s best performances.

Bancroft’s husband, Mel Brooks, was executive producer, and he gave the film or at least the rights to the book, to Bancroft as a birthday present.

Also in the cast are Judi Dench as the wife Nora Doel, Maurice Denham, Jean De Baer, Eleanor David, Mercedes Ruehl, Ian McNeic,e Daniel Gerroll, J Smith-Cameron, Tom Isbell, Anne Dyson, Connie Booth and Ronn Carroll.

Hugh Whitemore is the screenwriter, basing his seamless script on the book by Helene Hanff and the play version by James Roose-Evans.

Bookseller Frank P Doel worked at Marks & Co, 84 Charing Cross Road, London.

84 Charing Cross Road is directed by David Jones, is made by Brooksfilms and Columbia Pictures, is released by Columbia, is written by Hugh Whitemore, based on the book by Helene Hanff and the play version by James Roose-Evans, is shot by Brian West, is produced by Geoffrey Helman, is scored by George Fenton, and is designed by Eileen Diss and Edward Pisoni.

The movie was partly shot in the studio at Shepperton Studios, Surrey, England, but also on various London and New York locations. The production rebuilt the famous book shop at Shepperton Studios. It gives special thanks to Choir of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, New York; The New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting; and the New York Police Department Motion Picture Unit. The deco towers are Newmark & Co.

Helene Hanff died on 9 April 1997, aged 80. Anne Bancroft died on 6 June 2005, aged 73. David Hugh Jones died on 18 September 2008, aged 74.

[Spoiler alert] Hanff wrote the book in 1970 and finally got to 84 Charing Cross Road in summer 1971, only to meet an empty premises as it had closed. Hanff’s apartment at 301 E. 72nd Street in New York City, has been named Charing Cross House. It has brass commemorative plaque. 84 Charing Cross Road became a record store, then a wine bar called All Bar One and now has been turned into a McDonald’s. It has brass commemorative plaque. The original building was torn down many years ago.

Benjamin Marks and Mark Cohen began bookselling in 1904 and later went into business together as Marks & Co. Benjamin Marks is the father of Leo Marks, the writer of Peeping Tom (1960).

Bancroft and Hopkins both appeared in The Elephant Man (1980), also produced by Brooksfilms.

Hugh Whitemore also wrote the original televised play version for Play for Today: 84, Charing Cross Road (1975).

The Broadway production of James Roose-Evans’s stage play opened on 7 December 1982, after 15 previews, and ran for 96 performances till 27 February 1983.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 9028

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