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29 Acacia Avenue

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29 Acacia Avenue
Directed byHenry Cass
Written byDenis and Mabel Constanduros (play)
Muriel and Sydney Box (screenplay)
Produced bySydney Box
StarringGordon Harker
Betty Balfour
Jimmy Hanley
Hubert Gregg
Jill Evans
Henry Kendall
Dinah Sheridan
Megs Jenkins
Noele Gordon
Guy Middleton
CinematographyErnest Palmer
Robert Huke
Edited byJulian Wintle
Music byMuir Mathieson (musical director)
Production
companies
Distributed byColumbia Pictures Corporation (United Kingdom)
Oxford Films (United States)
Release dates
  • May 1945 (1945-05) (UK)
  • 30 October 1949 (1949-10-30) (US)
Running time
83 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget£30,000[1] or £45,000[2][3]

29 Acacia Avenue is a play by Denis and Mabel Constanduros.[4] Its 1945 British comedy-drama film adaptation, directed by Henry Cass,[5] was released in the U.S. as The Facts of Love.[6]

Premise

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Peter Robinson falls in love with the naïve country girl Fay and the worldly, wealthy and already-married Joan, and lives with them both (and Joan's husband) at his parents' house. However, one day Peter's parents unexpectedly return from holiday, and all hell breaks loose.

Cast

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Critical reception

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Allmovie wrote, "one of the few low-budget British programmers to enjoy a reasonably widespread American release...The film weaves three separate romantic subplots into an entertaining unified whole";[7] though Sky Movies called the film "one wartime West End success that didn't transfer too well to screen, ending up embarrassingly stagey";[8] but the Radio Times thought that although the film "fails to fully disguise its theatrical origins...it nevertheless makes for pleasant period entertainment, with particularly likeable performances from British veterans Gordon Harker and Betty Balfour as the parents."[9]

References

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  1. ^ Geoffrey Macnab, J. Arthur Rank and the British Film Industry, London, Routledge (1993), p119
  2. ^ Andrew Spicer, The Lion That Lost Its Way and Other Cautionary Tales of the Show Business Jungle: the autobiography of Sydney Box
  3. ^ MacQuitty, William (1994). A Life to Remember. Quartet books. p. 296. ISBN 9780704327894.
  4. ^ Constanduros, Mabel; Constanduros, Denis (1944). Acacia Avenue: A Comedy in Three Acts (French's acting ed.). London: French.
  5. ^ Drazin, Charles (1998). The Finest Years: British Cinema of the 1940s. London: Andre Deutsch. p. 206. ISBN 9780233989853.
  6. ^ "29, Acacia Avenue". BFI. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
  7. ^ "Facts of Love (1945) - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  8. ^ "29 Acacia Avenue". Find and Watch.
  9. ^ Tony Sloman. "29 Acacia Avenue". RadioTimes.
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