About Mrs. Leslie

One of Shirley Booth's true acting performances. For audiences who thought she could only play burned out losers like the plodding,dull houswife in "Come Back,Little Sheba," this film shows she definitely had leading lady status. The story of a boarding house owner recalling her one great love in conjunction with the woes of her boarders is very good. The entire cast shines in support. The carping of Robert Ryan is a strange one.He is entirely believable as her lover. Miss Booth's appearance was almost a shock,she wears nice dresses and tailored suits with ease.Not every woman back then looked like Lana Turner!Surely show business had singers who were slightly dumpy and past their prime. Miss Booth duly projects the longing and lonliness all people feel at one time.The final scene where the last of the boarders leave is sadly sweet,as she sighs and puts out her rooms for rent sign again

If people did not accept back street arrangements like Shirley Booth did in About Mrs. Leslie a whole lot of romance novels and soap operas would never be written. In one of her few film appearances Shirley Booth plays Mrs. Leslie who owns a boardinghouse in Los Angeles and deals with the problems of her tenants while thinking back on her wartime romance with what was called then, a dollar a year man.

Her dollar a year man is Robert Ryan whom she met back east when she was singing in some second rate supper club. They more than hit it off and she accepts his proposition for a six week vacation on the southern California coast though her breaking her contract puts her career such as it is in jeopardy.

She only finds out about who this man really is when she sees a newsreel in the theater and finds out that 46 weeks a year he's a business executive and former World War I ace who married a Senator's daughter to advance his career. Ryan regrets this and Booth regrets having to settle for back street status though in the end financially she comes out well.

Combining elements of both Back Street and Maytime, About Mrs. Leslie is a fine film, one which we used to call a woman's picture. Booth made too few feature films for the big screen, but when she got there everyone was a gem.

About Mrs. Leslie is an uncut diamond. It should be broadcast more often.

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.

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.

Though she was known for her many roles on Broadway and an even more famous part on television, Shirley Booth did not seem to build much of a career as a movie star. Maybe this is because she was rather unlike other actresses that were headlining motion pictures in the 1950s. And that's a good thing, really, because for every Marilyn Monroe, it's kind of nice to have a Shirley Booth, who stands out and gives us something decidedly different and special.

In this film, ABOUT MRS. LESLIE, she is paired with Robert Ryan who plays against type as a mysterious magnate. It's fun to watch him make romantic gestures towards Miss Booth's character. Of course, his idea of companionship differs significantly from hers, yet a bond is forged and it is a lasting connection. Booth displays a range of emotions in this film, and she gets the chance to sing. The story of the couple's unusual courtship is told mostly in flashback, with several subplots in the present to balance out the narrative.