Movies

There are not that many British films from the 1930s and 1940s about ghosts and haunted houses and the ones that do stand out are primarily comedies like The Ghost Goes West (1935), The Ghost Train (1941), Blithe Spirit (1945) and Things Happen at Night (1948). Still, there have been a few U.K. features that took a more serious approach to the genre and A Place of One’s Own (1945) is a good example, even though it is largely overlooked and forgotten today.

Based on the novel by Sir Osbert Sitwell, brother of renowned author Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell, A Place of One’s Own (1945) is an atmospheric ghost story set in the Edwardian era that marked the directorial debut of Bernard Knowles and reunited the stars of The Man in Grey (1943) – James Mason and Margaret Lockwood. The latter title, a gothic melodrama, had been a hit for Gainsborough Pictures, so the studio surmised that Sitwell’s supernatural chiller would have a similar popular appeal. The casting, however, was much more offbeat with the young James Mason, a matinee idol at the time, playing Mr. Smedhurst, a middle age businessman settling into retirement. He hires Annette (Margaret Lockwood) as a female companion for his wife Emilie (Barbara Mullen) at their newly purchased country home but shortly after her arrival there, Annette begins hearing strange voices and noticing odd occurrences.