L'auberge fantôme

I guess most reviewers are too young to remember the mind set of people at home during war. This film IMO reflects a very present concern of many people in coming to terms with grief. Spiritualism had always been important from the mid 19th century with a falling off towards the end of the century. But with a major resurgence in 1914 and WW1. The young men of whole communities in England died because of recruiting ploys like the "Pals Brigades". With this in mind, the central theme of this 1944 film (fifth year of WW2 for England) will have struck chords with many in the audience. Only 20 years separated the two WWs - not long enough to forget.

Spiritualism was never in "conflict" with science. Many 19th C. scientists studied spiritualism with the same avidity as electricity or radio waves. A couple of years ago, I went along with a friend to a spiritualist meeting in an English provincial town. I was surprised by some of what I saw and heard but most striking was the attempt by the spiritualist to give comfort to the people there. A comfort that was gratefully received.

I am not advocating spiritualism just as I would not advocate the use of placebos to the exclusion of doctors. But I have lived long enough in many countries and cultures to have experienced some pretty strange things. Keeping open a little window of uncertainty and doubt in a PC world where many know all the answers.

This tongue-in-cheek film is interesting from a number of aspects. The spiv (still reviled in my youth in England), the war-split couple, the lost child, the spiritualist seeking solace... They may seem quaint today but will have struck chords with many in the audience which is what cinema is all about.

Even the RAF father of one of the reviewers may have been unhappy with the film because it did not delve deeply enough into what was an everyday reality for him and his colleagues. Death for him was just around the corner, very real, and no theatrical imitation could possibly approach that reality.

This film taught me a few things and reinforced other things about what it was like for my parents generation.

This was the first Ealing film I saw, knowing it was an Ealing film, because it was shown as part of a long Ealing film series on UK BBC2 from May 1977. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although then at 18 years old the wartime propaganda element of it paradoxically irritated much more than it does forty years later. Is it blood running cooler or a more resigned luxury of perspective in operation? I feel I have to repeatedly point out with British films made in wartime that present day allowances must be made: if the people in this movie had lost the war they were fighting I wouldn't be here writing this nor you reading it. But if the people who made the film could come back would they think their efforts then were worthwhile is another matter though… Every week during that TV series my admiration and awe grew until I realised that British cinema would never again match the art and craft displayed by Ealing at their peak in the '40's and '50's; and by now I've watched some of their classics over a dozen times. However I find that I've seen The Halfway House for only the fourth time - maybe it was meant to be revisited only once in a while, like the ghostly inn itself.

A group of relatively unhappy temporal travellers find themselves drawn to and ensconced in a weird country inn in Wales complete with an unsettling landlord and his daughter who cast no shadows but end up casting large ones over the guests (and us), and for their own good. They were all fighting their own battles and problems but I admit! the biggest problem was that mine host Mervyn Johns was so firmly robotic in his anti-Nazi propaganda and posturing that his imperiousness ultimately became unconvincing and tiresome. It's a very gentle ghost story but at least it wasn't a musical like Brigadoon. Rather moralistic too and there's an array of familiar faces in here to back it all up: Tom Walls, more taciturn now; Alfred Drayton, Joss Ambler and rakish Guy Middleton, all as sharp as ever; Esmond Knight, in rural Wales one year before he memorably played a village idiot and a psycho in rural England; Sally Ann Howes, so posh you realise what today's inclusive society has lost or gained depending on your own prejudices. Sure that's not Wylie Watson playing one of the Welsh porters? There's plenty of beautiful atmospheric photography amid some lovely country and excellent sets. Favourite bits: Johns in a remarkably underplayed scene of mirror-trickery and his daughter Glynnis – like Peter Pan, in a clever for the time scene of shadow-trickery; the extended dinner conversation.

There's a few trite moments mainly involving the belief in the afterlife and the acting is rather stagey at the best of times but all in all it's still great escapist entertainment, which has imho er withstood the test of Time. And to hopefully echo back to the cast Glynnis's gentle farewell: good night to you all, see you in the morning.

A random group of characters go to the Halfway House in Wales to get away from the pressures of their daily lives. The innkeeper Mervyn Johns (Rhys) and his daughter Glynis Johns (Gwyneth) are on hand to greet the guests and give them advice. However, they don't seem to have reflections, they don't have shadows and they are living 1 year in the past - the calendar, the newspapers and radio broadcasts are out of date and the guest book hasn't been signed for a year. Who are the mysterious owners and what fate awaits the guests....?

The acting from some of the cast seems a bit stiff at times but the film keeps you watching. I like the more touching scenes, for instance, when Glynis Johns talks to the conductor Esmond Knight (David Davies) in the kitchen and tells him to come over to her "side", and the moment when they agree to see each other the next morning, knowing the fate of the inn. Captain Tom Walls (Harry Meadows) also has an impressive character transformation through the course of the film. It is a film with a mixture of strange incidents and it has, I think, an ambiguous ending. After several views, I think I get what happens…."Yea though I walk through the valley of death..........."

Britain, World War II.

A symphony conductor who has a few months to live.

A war profiteer.

A husband and wife coming to the end of their marriage, their daughter desperate to keep them together.

An elderly couple conflicted over the death of their son in the line of duty.

All of them wind up together at the Halfway House, a beautiful, yet strange Welsh country inn. Their hosts are Rhys and Gwyneth, the place appears to be stuck in a time warp, all the visitors here are here for a reason, a reason that will changed all their respective lives for ever.

Based on the Denis Ogden play, The Halfway House is brought to us from the wonderful Ealing Studios, it is, all things considered, an under seen gem from that particular Studio. There really is no great surprises as regards how the film unfolds, the makers, by way of Mervyn Johns first appearance, are not trying to bluff the viewer in any way, this is a halfway house after all. What drives the picture on is the unflinching stubbornness of the characters, despite the overwhelming evidence available to them, they all refuse to accept the mysterious hammer hitting them over the head. This makes the film a highly enjoyable piece, the mixture of comedy and mystery going hand in hand with it's fantasy led core, come the final reel the viewers should be in a state of warmth because in my honest opinion the film has undoubtedly done its job.

It's one of those films that wouldn't be out of place on Rod Serling's Twilight Zone show that aired some 15 years later, so enjoy the fantasy and the mystery unfolding, The Halfway House is a lovely little picture. 8/10

Surprisingly good camera work and color balance for a drama filmed in 1944. Even the out-of-doors scenes are crisp and the light is well balanced.

A group of strangers check-into an inn, each have their own emotional problems. The plot is interesting enough to hold the audiences attention, although a little slow moving in parts. The acting was very solid.

This is a very time-period relevant film. It really accurately reflects the attitudes, values and behaviors of middle class wartime Britain. A little slice of the Welsh countryside during war years.