Drama

Romance

A Kind of Loving

Vic Films Productions

Joseph Janni Production

Waterhall Productions

United Kingdom

English

Alan Bates

June Ritchie

Thora Hird

Bert Palmer

Pat Keen

James Bolam

Jack Smethurst

Gwen Nelson

John Ronane

David Mahlowe

Patsy Rowlands

Michael Deacon

Annette Robertson

Fred Ferris

Leonard Rossiter

Malcolm Patton

Harry Markham

Peter Madden

Norman Heyes

Bryan Mosley

Yvonne Buckingham

David Cook

Jerry Desmonde

Helen Fraser

Joe Gladwin

Reginald Green

Douglas Livingstone

Ruth Porcher

Bud Ralston

Edna Ridgway

Graham Rigby

Kathy Staff

Kathleen Walker

Fred Wood

John Schlesinger

Stan Barstow

Willis Hall

Keith Waterhouse

Joseph Janni

Roger Cherrill

Charles Hammond

Denys N. Coop

Ron Grainer

Ray Simm

Frank Ernst

Laura Nightingale

Don Sharpe

Bob Jones

George Stephenson

Jack Hanbury

Anne Box

Bob Lawrance

Maurice Fowler

John Harris

Harry Gillard

John Gilbert

Barney Platts-Mills

Pamela Davies

Nat Cohen

Stuart Levy

John Goldstone

Ann Skinner

CinemaSerf

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!

Official Trailer

Best Movies

A Kind of Loving

Cast & Crew

Videos

Cast

Alan Bates

June Ritchie

Thora Hird

Bert Palmer

Pat Keen

James Bolam

Jack Smethurst

Gwen Nelson

John Ronane

David Mahlowe

Box office

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