About Mrs. Leslie

"...and the man she never quite married"

1954 1h 44m EN

👍

7.4

SOLID

★7.4TMDB · 7

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A lonely, unhappy owner of a Beverly Hills boarding house reflects on her lonely, unhappy life and the lonely, unhappy man she once loved.

“...and the man she never quite married”

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Cast

Shirley Booth
Mrs. Vivien Leslie
Robert Ryan
George Leslie
Marjie Millar
Nadine Roland
Alex Nicol
Lan McKay
Sammy White
Harry Willey
James Bell
Mr. Herbert Poole
Eilene Janssen
Pixie Croffman
Philip Ober
Mort Finley

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Daniel Mann
Writers: Ketti Frings, Hal Kanter
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

72 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Daniel Mann, shot by Ernest Laszlo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Victor Young. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Warren Low shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Shirley Booth and Robert Ryan and Marjie Millar carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "...and the man she never quite married".

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0046676 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

Only 7 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Daniel Mann directs. Ernest Laszlo behind the camera. Victor Young scores. Warren Low cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

172 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Daniel Mann, shot by Ernest Laszlo. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Victor Young. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Warren Low shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5Shirley Booth and Robert Ryan and Marjie Millar carry the top of the cast.
6Marketing tagline: "...and the man she never quite married".
7IMDB entry: tt0046676 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
8Only 7 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
Original score: Victor Young
Editing: Warren Low
Costume design: Edith Head
Runtime: 104 min · 1h 44m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: About Mrs. Leslie (1954)

Also by

Daniel Mann

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-08-07
★ 7/10
“Mrs. Leslie” (Shirley Booth) spends a fair amount of her time helping out her lodgers at her Los Angeles home whilst benignly reminiscing about her own true love. That all started when she was a chanteuse in a bar and he an occasional visitor. The two immediately spark, and he invites her to spend six wintry weeks with him in warmer climes. Despite warnings from her boss that breaking her contract will see her blacklisted, she goes to spend her time with her mysterious stranger (Robert Ryan). Now he is no one-track minded user, and before long both are enamoured of the other and their six week dalliance becomes an annual occurrence. It’s only when she makes a visit to the cinema that she discovers his true identity, status and secret but will that kibosh her love for the man, or any love he may have for her? I though Booth and Ryan worked really quite engagingly here. Sure, there are some questionable morals but these two characters manage to illicit a sense of “so what”. Their memories are interspersed with the current romantic shenanigans of wide-boy “Lan” (Alex Nicol) and his girlfriend “Nadine” (Marjie Millar) which serves effectively as an antidote to her own, low-boil, lurid past. Robert Ryan was probably more famous for his grittier parts, but here he brings a complementary degree of humanity to the stoically savvy one from the on-form Booth. There is some good humour and even some angst in this (for the time) quiet daring observation of clandestine true love, and what’s more - there obviously isn’t a rose-tinted denouement, either.

Production companies