The Ghosts of Berkeley Square

Having just watched this marvellous film of wit & charm I felt compelled to comment. A witty movie full of wonderful characters.

A gem of it's kind recommended for anyone who believes black & white means a bad movie but is prepared to be convinced.

However, I do not see why it is classified as horror/comedy as there is no trace of horror in the whole film.

A very cute ghost comedy concerning 2 gentlemen officers of the 18th century. The men were trying hard to stop a war from starting when they accidentally killed themselves. At least the 2 men were good friends because they are now doomed to live in the Berkeley Square mansion until a reigning monarch visits, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. It takes 200 years before they are released from their spiritual earth-bound state to move onward in the "afterlife".

It's a lighthearted comedy that would be fun to watch around the winter holidays - there is a quick Christmas scene. It's also a family friendly movie that makes it nice to view around the holidays.

7/10

Pathe Pictures presents a British National Films LTD production {filmed at Elstree} of The Ghosts of Berkeley Square. Directed by Vernon Sewell, adapted from the novel "No Nightingales" co-written by Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simons and starring Robert Morley & Felix Aylmer as the erstwhile ghosts.

We start in the afterlife during what appears to be a council held by the upper-crust spooks. Here we meet Col. Kelsoe and Gen. Burlap {Morley & Aylmer} who begin to tell us the strange tale of how they came to be condemned for eternity to haunt a mansion in the Mayfair district of London. During the reign of Queen Ann they had planned to capture a war commander in their home in an effort to avert a crisis; but in the process of testing their own cunning contraption they killed themselves! So the sentence is given for them to stay in ghostly purgatory until a reigning monarch visits the house; thus only then will the sentence be deemed to have been served.

The story then sees the decades roll by as the ghosts "live" in hope of the monarchy actually turning up. Not going to be easy because the house falls to a number of quirky inhabitants and is used for a number of interesting things. Be it a place for French dandies to drink and gamble, a Harem, or the Tex Barnum Theatre-with each new occasion causing incredulity to them and fun for us as the ghosts set about either haunting or joining in with the current owners. Morley & Aylmer are a great double act, at times grumpy with each other {they don't speak to each other for 60 odd years!}, at others cunningly effective as they embrace the almost hopeless situation they find themselves in. A number of fine British character actors pop in and out to spice up the story {Thesiger, Hyde-White et al}, and the production is a very good one {note the costumes as each different time period fills out the story}. Full of delightful whimsy from start to finish, this is highly recommended viewing for fans of British comedy. Hey,! when you got a cuckoo clock that tells the year instead of the time......well you know you are on to a winner. 7/10

Robert Morley and Felix Aylmar are a couple of high-ranking British officers in the reign of good Queen Anne, recently retired. They have bought a house together on Berkeley Square. When it turns out that Marlborough is in charge of the latest campaign, they realize he's going to lose the war. They rig up a contraption to kill him, but it backfires, killing them. They are condemned to haunt the place discreetly until reigning royalty visits -- there's always an escape hatch.

And so they haunt it, as it is occupied by gentry, and a bawd and her girls, and P. T. Barnum, who turns it into a haunted house exhibit. Will royalty ever visit, freeing them?

It's directed rather lugubriously by Vernon Sewell from Caryl Brahms' and S. J. Simons' comic novel, NO NIGHTINGALE. The two authors had met a couple of decades earlier, when Miss Brahms recruited him to help her write captions for a series of cartoons by David Low. Their first novel, A BULLET IN THE BALLET, arose from her fantasy of killing ballet critic Arnold Haskell. Several novels followed, including the one this is based on. She died in 1982, five days short of her 81st birthday.

S. J. Simon was born Simon Jacoblivitch Skidelsky in Harbin, Manchuria. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was a leading bridge player, co-inventing the Acol bidding system, and writing the funny and still valuable classic Why You Lose At Bridge. He died in 1948, aged 44.

In the 1700s a pair of rum military officers plan to kidnap the Duke of Marlborough. The officers die testing a trap-door on the afternoon they are supposed to be serving tea to Queen Anne. As punishment for missing their date, they must haunt the house until royalty visits again.

Although they try to attract royalty they seem to be doomed to failure, and the house is leased to many different colorful-characters including French courtesans, circus performers and an Indian emperor.

A light-hearted film full of dry-humour quips and farce. The humour would have appealed to audiences looking for escapism and whimsy; however like all films of this time it contains subtle war-propaganda to inspire the masses.