Product Details

• Actors: Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, Judi Dench, Jean De Baer, Maurice Denham
• Directors: David Hugh Jones
• Writers: Helene Hanff, Hugh Whitemore, James Roose-Evans
• Producers: Geoffrey Helman, Jo Lustig, Mel Brooks, Randy Auerbach
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: October 10, 1995
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (132 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302424739
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,551 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins) are lifelong friends who never meet in this unique comedy-drama based on a true story. Hanff and Doel are separated by 3,000 miles of ocean and joined by a passion for old books. Their relationship begins when New Yorker Hanff orders a copy ("unabridged, please!") of Pepys's diary. Doel, as polite and soft-spoken as Hanff is loud and overbearing, fields the request from his book shop in London. For the next two decades they correspond without ever actually sitting down for tea and crumpets. Brit director David Jones (Betrayal) does a reasonably good job of goosing a movie about something as uncinematic as letter writing, and the stars have fun chewing scenery on both sides of the Atlantic. The model for this kind of bittersweet relationship is David Lean's Brief Encounter, which, not coincidentally, is glimpsed here when Hanff steps out for a rainy-day matinee. --Glenn Lovell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

143 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Friendship with Depth and Love, October 27, 2002

By 

Brockeim "Playful Literary Adventurer" (Where the wind blows.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 84 Charing Cross Road (DVD)

In these days of e-books, and bland books constructed from franchised ideas and formulas, we are presented "84 Charing Cross Road," a story about a relationship begun because of a mutual love of old great books.

Hopkins and Bancroft share a film highlighting both of their genuine personas.

Like Hopkins in "Shadowlands" and "The Remains of the Day," we see him in full glory, as a quiet man of grace and sophistication.

He is the chief buyer at an English bookstore, and Bancroft's character mails him a request for a book. Correspondence and a relationship begins. Contently and confidently married, Hopkins responds as an older brother might, and the two grow to cherish each other despite the distance.

As they care for each other, and slowly, their local friends and family become aware, we see how love transcends the sea. Neither character has an agenda, and this left me feeling a little less cynical about the world around me.

Like so many of today's e-mail- and chatroom-only friendships, they learn to appreciate each other, though knowing only the other as they choose to describe themselves.

This isn't a story about books or bookstores, despite the honest representation of their demeanor and personality. Any booklover knows the search for a book, and the texture of a bookseller's knowledge and connection with his books.

This is a movie about the depth, trust, and love of one unexpected relationship. Book lovers will enjoy the context, and good friends will smile knowingly.

--Brockeim

72 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Small Gem, February 7, 2005

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 84 Charing Cross Road (DVD)

Based on the charming true-life book by Helene Hanff, 84 Charing Cross Road is an absolute heart-tugging gem of a movie, and I cannot believe I never came across this 1987 sleeper before this time. Anne Bancroft is magnificent as brash New Yorker Helene Hanff, a book lover extraordinaire who comes across a British emporium of rare books, and begins an extraordinary correspondence (via paper, this was BEFORE e-mail and how charming it is!) with Frank Doel, played fabulously by a young Anthony Hopkins.

Somehow, in their 20 years of correspondence about books, their growing and deep friendship never had its denoument: Neither one was ever able to visit the other. And yet they were extraordinarily close in their mutual love of books, as Hanff's prolific reading habits and exacting demands for unabridged material complimented Doel's understated British desire to help her all he could.

I found myself in tears more than once; there are so many subtleties to this movie, especially in the bravira performance by Bancroft. This may be her finest role, unheralded though it was.

Something wonderful for any book lover. Order it and enjoy!

52 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An unspoken Love, November 23, 2000

By 

Jenny - See all my reviews

This review is from: 84 Charing Cross Road [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I thanked the man at Central Park who introduced "84 Charing Cross Road" to Anne Bancroft and Mel Brooks for help making it into a film. David Hugh Jones did a splendid directing. Marvellous adaptation of Helene Hanff's book which I cherish. Without this film I may never find such a terrific book. Great contribution to books-lovers and movie-goers.

I love this film.It's one of my all time favourite! Very literary unique with exquisite performances from Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins.

This bitter sweet true story is about lifelong letters correspondence between a struggling writer Helene Hanff(Bancroft) and a book dealer Frank Doel(Hopkins). It began when Helene, a New Yorker responded to an advertisement in the "Saturday Review of Literature". She wanted to mail order out of prints or cheaper edition old books from a London book shop which Frank worked as a book dealer. The book shop was located in 84 Charing Cross Road. At first everything were strictly business like. Helene was always interested and amazed by English Literature and cultures and Frank vice-versa,intrigue by this American. Eventually,they developed a special friendship,an unspoken love and care for each other without even seeing each other. They were like soul mates and that was extraordinary.

The cultural and social differences between London and New York during that period were vividly illustrated. It's so touching to see Helene finally going to London.Her love for english literature was sincere and remarkable. This made the movie so unforgettable and great. Beacause all these actually did happened and those people really existed.

Both Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins were astonishing in their roles. Also with great supporting casts like Judi Dench and Maurice Denham.

This movie taught me about books,the magic of literature,friendship and many more.It also showed there are many different kind of perpetual love and care. I'll always re-watch it because I find it's a classic which touch my heart and soul.