Lunch Hour

Plot

A recently graduated art school designer (Shirley Anne Field) joins a wallpaper manufacturing company and catches the eye of a married middle manager (Robert Stephens). 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 (Kay Walsh) 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 reveals the story to her, the woman 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 as she paints and eats a chocolate.

Stage play

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.