The Passing of the Third Floor Back (1935)
3.7 of 5 from 45 ratings
1h 26min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
The film focuses on a run-down boarding house in London, home to an assorted group of residents. Many of them cling precariously to their social positions with only one figure, the wealthy self-made businessman Mr Wright, being truly successful. The house is owned by the grasping Mrs Sharpe, who mistreats the maid, Stasia, a rehabilitated juvenile delinquent. The various members of the household are miserable and openly sneering and rude towards each other, the one exception being the respect shown by all to the powerful Mr Wright. In the case of one couple, Major Tomkin and his wife, this involves pressuring their daughter Vivian to marry Wright in spite of her obvious horror at the idea. The house's familiar routine is thrown off-balance by the sudden arrival of a mysterious foreign stranger, intended by the author to be an allegorical, Christ-like figure. Polite and charming, he swiftly earns the respect of the others in the house, especially that of Stasia. He takes a room on the "third floor back" and joins the residents for the dinner supposedly held in celebration of the marriage between Wright and Vivian. It becomes evident that she doesn't want to marry Wright, as she is in love with one of the other lodgers, and she storms out of the room. The desperate Major later tries to convince Wright that it is a misunderstanding and that the engagement is still on, as he and his wife are terrified by the loss of security if the marriage is broken off... - Actors:
- Conrad Veidt, René Ray, Frank Cellier, Anna Lee, John Turnbull, Cathleen Nesbitt, Ronald Ward, Beatrix Lehmann, Jack Livesey, Sara Allgood, Mary Clare, Barbara Everest, Alexander Sarner, Betty Baskcomb, James Knight
- Directors:
- Berthold Viertel
- Writers:
- Jerome K. Jerome, Michael Hogan
- Studio:
- Grapevine Video
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
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