A Place of One's Own (1945)
Well, there are some things here that will enchant a movie lover already in love with old movies. For one, James Mason pulls off an old man brilliantly. You hardly know it's him, and he has the poise and delivery that make him always impressive. And then the story itself, about a ghost of sorts who has unfinished business in a house that Mason and his wife have moved into, is charming and given some nice complications (existential ones, in a way).
For me this wasn't enough. I found the filming (photography and editing) stodgy, and in this sense all too British. (I know, this is a terrible stereotype, but in fact a lot of British movies have a staged, stiff feel to them, and this doesn't include all the ones that do not, including, for example, the 1949 "The Third Man.") But this is a British movie, a filmed play of sorts, based on a novel with a fixed location (the haunted house). But this isn't a haunted house kind of movie, but rather a literary affair, with lots of talk (another British movie tendency) and some eventual "explanation" (which Mason delivers with ease).
The main idea is a terrific one, a house and then a young woman being possessed, and one doctor and then another drawn into the cure. This second doctor adds a nice twist to it all, which is revealed by the end. It ends up being an archly high romance, and great on that level.
Well, there are some things here that will enchant a movie lover already in love with old movies. For one, James Mason pulls off an old man brilliantly. You hardly know it's him, and he has the poise and delivery that make him always impressive. And then the story itself, about a ghost of sorts who has unfinished business in a house that Mason and his wife have moved into, is charming and given some nice complications (existential ones, in a way).
For me this wasn't enough. I found the filming (photography and editing) stodgy, and in this sense all too British. (I know, this is a terrible stereotype, but in fact a lot of British movies have a staged, stiff feel to them, and this doesn't include all the ones that do not, including, for example, the 1949 "The Third Man.") But this is a British movie, a filmed play of sorts, based on a novel with a fixed location (the haunted house). But this isn't a haunted house kind of movie, but rather a literary affair, with lots of talk (another British movie tendency) and some eventual "explanation" (which Mason delivers with ease).
The main idea is a terrific one, a house and then a young woman being possessed, and one doctor and then another drawn into the cure. This second doctor adds a nice twist to it all, which is revealed by the end. It ends up being an archly high romance, and great on that level.