Lunch Hour


Lunch Hour is a 1962 film based on a one-act play by John Mortimer. It is about a man and a woman who attempt to have an affair during their lunch hour, but are continually interrupted. Shirley Anne Field described it as perhaps "the most enjoyable film I'd ever done" because the cast and crew all worked so closely together.

Plot

A recently graduated art school designer joins a wallpaper manufacturing company and catches the eye of a married middle manager. They begin a workplace affair during their lunchtime breaks, but their attempts to find some privacy are continually thwarted.
The man eventually locates a small hotel where he books a room for just one hour, but then feels the need to invent a hugely complicated tale to tell the hotel manager about a troubled marriage and a wife travelling down from Scarborough for a heart-to-heart talk.
The still-suspicious hotel manageress continually interrupts the couple and, as the man slowly tells the story to his would-be lover, she starts to believe the whole fantasy. She sees herself as the stay-at-home wife, ironing the man's shirts, and starts to have sympathy with the life of the real unseen betrayed wife. The couple argue over the woman's imagined life, and as their hour in the hotel is up, the affair between the couple ends and they return separately to their work roles. There, the man appears sullen and unhappy, while the woman smiles quietly to herself as she works.

Cast

The cast in the original stage production included Wendy Craig with whom Mortimer had an affair and conceived a son.

DVD release

The movie was issued on DVD in 2011 via the BFI Flipside release scheme.