84 Charing Cross Road (film)
| 84 Charing Cross Road | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | David Jones |
| Produced by |
Mel Brooks Geoffrey Helman |
| Written by | Hugh Whitemore |
| Based on | 84 Charing Cross Road by James Roose-Evans adapted from the book by Helene Hanff |
| Starring | |
| Music by | George Fenton |
| Cinematography | Brian West |
| Edited by | Chris Wimble |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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100 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1 million (domestic) |
84 Charing Cross Road is a 1987 British-American drama film directed by David Jones. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore is based on a play by James Roose-Evans, which itself was an adaptation of the 1970 epistolary memoir of the same name by Helene Hanff, a compilation of letters between herself and Frank Doel dating from 1949 to 1968. The play has only two characters, but the dramatis personae for the film were expanded to include Hanff's Manhattan friends, the bookshop staff and Doel's wife Nora.
In 1949, Helene Hanff is in search of obscure classics and British literature titles that she has been unable to find in New York City. She notices an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature placed by antiquarian booksellers Marks & Co, located at the titular address in London. She contacts the shop, where chief buyer and manager Frank Doel fulfills her requests. A long-distance friendship develops over time between the two and between Hanff and other staff members, as well, including birthday gifts, holiday packages and food parcels to compensate for post–World War II food shortages in Britain. Their correspondence includes discussions about topics as diverse as the sermons of John Donne, how to make Yorkshire pudding, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the coronation of Elizabeth II.
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