A Kind of Loving

"A kind of loving that knew no wrong until it was too late!"

1962 1h 52m EN

👍

7.1

SOLID

★7.1TMDB · 62

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

As Vic Brown vacillates between infatuation and disinterest for his co-worker Ingrid Rothwell, she finds out that she is pregnant and Vic has to reconcile how he thought his life would go with what life actually has in store for him.

“A kind of loving that knew no wrong until it was too late!”

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Where to watch · US

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Cast

Alan Bates
Victor 'Vic' Brown
June Ritchie
Ingrid Rothwell
Thora Hird
Mrs. Rothwell
Bert Palmer
Mr. Geoffrey Brown
Pat Keen
Christine Harris
James Bolam
Jeff
Jack Smethurst
Conroy
Gwen Nelson
Mrs. Brown

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: John Schlesinger
Writers: Keith Waterhouse, Willis Hall
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

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

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

64 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by John Schlesinger, shot by Denys N. Coop. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

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

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Alan Bates and June Ritchie and Thora Hird carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A kind of loving that knew no wrong until it was too late!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0056141 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

John Schlesinger directs. Denys N. Coop behind the camera. Ron Grainer scores. Roger Cherrill cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $0.2M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
264 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by John Schlesinger, shot by Denys N. Coop. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Ron Grainer. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Roger Cherrill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Alan Bates and June Ritchie and Thora Hird carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A kind of loving that knew no wrong until it was too late!".
8IMDB entry: tt0056141 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 62 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
10Classified under 16 themes, including "northern england", "based on novel or book", "working class", "black and white".

The technical file

Cinematography: Denys N. Coop
Original score: Ron Grainer
Editing: Roger Cherrill
Makeup / hair: Bob Lawrance
Runtime: 112 min · 1h 52m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $213,084
Box office: $581,138
Return: 273% of budget
Original language: EN
IMDB: A Kind of Loving (1962)

Awards

Golden Bear

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

John Schlesinger

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2024-03-31
★ 7/10
I can't say I was ever a great fan of Alan Bates, but he's really quite good in this - for the time - almost raunchy romantic drama. He is factory worker "Vic" who takes a bit of a shine to the shy "Ingrid" (June Ritchie) - well, she takes more of a shine to him, actually. What now ensues is a sort top-of-the-bus courtship, a movie, a snog on the beach and then... She becomes pregnant, a shotgun wedding follows and thought the pair do genuinely like one another, it's clear that there's some rather unpleasant writing on the wall. He's an ambitious character. His traditional working class roots are ones he wants to leave behind. His new family status makes him feel trapped and hemmed in. His future somehow snatched away from him. Needless to say, his character changes and that sets him at odds with his new wife - and with her mother (Thora Hird) who lives with them and rarely misses an opportunity to make her presence felt. How long can he tolerate this self-made scenario before something has to give? Bates convinces as his increasingly frustrated persona as does Ritchie whose character finds herself increasingly ostracised from an husband she loves but doesn't understand. Hird features sparingly but actually offers quite a cleverly constructed characterisation of either the interfering mother-in-law or the caring and responsible parent. That all depends on your perspective and though the story is definitely told from that of "Vic", I think John Schlesinger leaves enough ambiguity of loyalty for the audience to deal with. Though there's little graphic here that might have offended in 1962, the subject matter does challenge the ingrained societal approaches to marriage, to choice and to aspiration in quite a potent fashion and presents us here with a story that does take it's time to get going - but then, so do most romances!

Production companies