No Room at the Inn

I was in the U.K.throughout the war, I was an evacuee. My treatment was just like this movie. I saw it when it first came out, I was 15 years old and had been working for a little over a year, in London. Although somewhat sad it was also very amusing. Films like this leave a lasting impression. I remember one line in particular when the small boy got hold of a hat and stuck it in the pitcher, the comment was "What happened to me Sailor Beware", it was a womens sailor hat.

If you have lived through a war, buzz bombs, being bombed out, you would not appreciate the artistry of this production as much as I did.

When I saw the film the first time I was scared out of my wits by Mrs Voray. I could empathize with evacuee children as some of them came to my town at the end of the war. The film can be viewed in full length on the Internet these days. As an adult I interpret the film as the interplay of myth and social realism. Mrs Voray has the attributes of a witch even in her looks but more significantly in her power to bewitch town worthies and others by her smarmy insinuations and false charm. I agree with another reviewer that the film recalls the world of the Grimm brothers, Hansel and Gretel particularly. Dylan Thomas was intrigued by images drawn from the world of witches and sinister occult practices. What saves the play from being a moralizing allegory is its keen almost Dickensian observation of people as they are, foibles and all.

Sonia Dresdel had recently played a monstrous matriarch in 'This Was a Woman', now it was Freda Jackson preserving for posterity her performance in Joan Temple's West End hit of 1945 in a role that would have been perfect for Tod Slaughter had he fitted her furs and high heels.

Anybody curious as to what Mrs Bates in 'Psycho' was like before she took strychnine need look no further. Jackson as the monstrous Mrs Voray (we never learn what became of her husband) looks like a female version of The Childcatcher from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang', and one of her victims is even called Norma Bates in this barnstorming melodrama that reveals what a fearsome place wartime Britain actually was.

I saw this film when I was very young and it had the most amazing effect on me. My Mother took me to the cinema I think not realising that it was to be so disturbing. I now work in the caring industry and have a highly developed sense of justice, fairness and the importance of treating people as you would wish to be treated yourself which I attribute largely to this film. I will never forget it - it is the most haunting film I have ever seen. I would really love to be able to see it again from my adult perspective but cannot find it. Can anyone tell me where I might get a copy? If I had to chose one scene which affected me most it would have to be when one of the children was locked in the outside coal shed - I am now a claustrophobic and can't bear to be shut in anywhere! What a legacy to have been left by a film!!

I was Ronnie and my stage name was Stanley Conett (Stanley Heinemann) I played that part for 427 performances at the Winter Garden. Then toured England and Scotland with the show. Also I did the BBC version.It is a pity that you have published the wrong actor's name for the Winter Garden version of the show. I was too tall to be in the film version. The Theater version often caused the audience to erupt with shouting and curses at Fred Jackson. The show ended with the girls suffocating Mrs.Voray and it was different in the movie. Ref -corrected version in Wikipedia.