This film is part of Free
Patricia Brent - Spinster
A single girl, goaded by her fellow boarding-house residents, pretends to be engaged to a charming officer.
Overview
‘Patricia Brent, Spinster’ was a wildly popular light romantic novel by Herbert George Jenkins in 1918, which was immediately optioned for adaptation as a film in the depressing aftermath of the Great War. Set in a Bloomsbury boarding house, it tells the story of Patricia, secretary to a ‘rising’ politician who overhears herself pitied for her single state by the meddling older residents. Incensed, the spirited Patricia pretends to be dining with an invented fiancé at the Quadrant club. Having been followed there by her nosey neighbours she randomly selects an officer on his own at a table and asks him to play along; he does so charmingly and the rest of the story follows the complications of their relationship.
The adaptation was by Eliot Stannard and it was directed by Geoffrey Malins of Battle of the Somme (1916) fame. The print is missing the first reel which sets up the characters in the boarding house but the story is otherwise complete. The final denouement gallops through a Zeppelin air raid tinted a satanic red.
Related
The Ice Tower - Extended Q&A The Ice Tower - Extended Q&A
Inside Film 2026 36 mins
Writer-director Lucile Hadžihalilović explains how she spun her own dark fairy tale out of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen.
New Perspectives: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror New Perspectives: Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Short documentary 2025 3 mins
Harry Coghlan of Northumbria University explains why FW Murnau's 1922 vampire story is an endlessly intriguing work of art.
New Perspectives: La Haine New Perspectives: La Haine
Short documentary 2025 4 mins
Charlie Hammersley, a student from Northumbria University, explains how Mathieu Kassovitz's 1995 film holds up a mirror to society.
Dreamers Q&A Dreamers Q&A
Inside Film 2025 30 mins
The film-makers behind a haunting tale of love and community within a UK immigration detention centre visited the BFI Southbank to discuss their film.
Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio in Conversation Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 50 mins
Paul Thomas Anderson and Leonardo DiCaprio in Conversation at BFI Southbank, discussing the making of One Battle After Another.
Laura Mulvey in Conversation Laura Mulvey in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 76 mins
Laura Mulvey in conversation, following her BFI Fellowship Award.