After 20 years of marriage and running around after her husband Jim (Anthony Quayle) and son Brian (Andrew Ray), feckless and domestically untidy Amy Preston (Yvonne Mitchell) finds she cannot compete with an attractive younger woman – prim and tidy secretary Georgie (Sylvia Syms) – for the affections of her husband.
This painfully honest drama, based on a television play by Ted Willis, was light years ahead of its time in its treatment of women and their place in marriage.
Yvonne Mitchell’s portrayal of clinical depression is stunning in its depth and understanding, and director J Lee Thompson pulls no punches in his exploration of a marriage gone sour following the intrusion of a younger woman.
In many ways, this movie heralded a new dawn in gritty British film-making that led to the “kitchen sink” social dramas of the 1960s.
Amy Preston
Yvonne Mitchell
Georgie Harlow
Sylvia Syms
Jim Preston
Anthony Quayle
Brian Preston
Andrew Ray
Hilda
Carole Lesley
Mrs Williams
Nora Gordon
Harold
Max Butterfield
Christine
Roberta Woolley
Director
J. Lee Thompson
