The Halfway House
- 1944
- 1h 18m
IMDb RATING
6.6/10
1.3K
YOUR RATING
A group of travellers, all with something to hide in their past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. The inn-keeper seems a little mysterious...A group of travellers, all with something to hide in their past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. The inn-keeper seems a little mysterious...A group of travellers, all with something to hide in their past, take shelter from a storm in an old inn. The inn-keeper seems a little mysterious...
Françoise Rosay
- Alice Meadows
- (as Francoise Rosay)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough it is nominally based on the unsuccessful 1940 play "The Peaceful Inn" (which makes no mention of World War II), this film is chiefly inspired by a real incident of the war which had attracted some attention at the time. The Welsh village of Cwmbach had only one bomb dropped on it by the Luftwaffe during the entire course of the war; it fell on a local inn and killed the landlord and his daughter (no-one else). It has never been satisfactorily explained why this incident should have occurred. It had not been part of an air raid; there were none in this remote rural area.
- GoofsThe action takes place on 21 June 1943 exactly one year after the inn was destroyed on the same day Tobruk fell. The calendar in the ghostly inn shows 21 June 1942 as a Thursday. In fact 21 June 1942 was a Sunday.
- Crazy creditsOpening credits prologue: CARDIFF
- ConnectionsRemade as The Peaceful Inn (1957)
Featured review
Ealing Studio's The Halfway House is a heartwarming supernatural wartime parable intended to raise morale in its blitzed British audience with the message that, despite such troubled times, the United Kingdom shall prevail, whilst at the same time lifting the spirits of the bereaved by suggesting that death isn't the end. There's also time to bash those who remain neutral during wartime or who try to profit from the conflict.
These messages are hammered home rather heavily, but do not stop the movie from being an enjoyable time; if anything, the film's status as wartime propaganda only makes it more interesting. Of course, a cracking cast doesn't hurt, and this one's got great performances to spare: Mervyn Johns plays Rhys, the ghostly landlord of the titular inn, and his real-life daughter Glynis plays his on-screen daughter Gwyneth (whose husky Welsh lilt is particularly appealing). Support is given by a range of reliable character actors, including Tom Walls and Françoise Rosay as a couple who are struggling with the loss of their son, Esmond Knight as terminally ill conductor David Davies, Guy Middleton and Alfred Drayton as a couple of racketeers, and Valerie White and Richard Bird as an estranged couple whose daughter (played by a young and very plummy Sally Ann Howes ) tries to get her parents back together.
Before the halfway mark of The Halfway House, I had guessed that the visitors to the inn were dead (victims of an air raid), but I was wrong, and glad to be so. Instead of taking this trite route, the film treads another path, with a Twilight Zone-style time twister plot and an ending that sees each person finding redemption and leaving with hope in their hearts. It's the kind of feel-good finalé that makes the film ideal for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for lovely Glynis.
These messages are hammered home rather heavily, but do not stop the movie from being an enjoyable time; if anything, the film's status as wartime propaganda only makes it more interesting. Of course, a cracking cast doesn't hurt, and this one's got great performances to spare: Mervyn Johns plays Rhys, the ghostly landlord of the titular inn, and his real-life daughter Glynis plays his on-screen daughter Gwyneth (whose husky Welsh lilt is particularly appealing). Support is given by a range of reliable character actors, including Tom Walls and Françoise Rosay as a couple who are struggling with the loss of their son, Esmond Knight as terminally ill conductor David Davies, Guy Middleton and Alfred Drayton as a couple of racketeers, and Valerie White and Richard Bird as an estranged couple whose daughter (played by a young and very plummy Sally Ann Howes ) tries to get her parents back together.
Before the halfway mark of The Halfway House, I had guessed that the visitors to the inn were dead (victims of an air raid), but I was wrong, and glad to be so. Instead of taking this trite route, the film treads another path, with a Twilight Zone-style time twister plot and an ending that sees each person finding redemption and leaving with hope in their hearts. It's the kind of feel-good finalé that makes the film ideal for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for lovely Glynis.
- BA_Harrison
- Apr 17, 2019
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Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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