The Halfway House

The Halfway House is a 1944 British drama film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Tom Walls, Franoise Rosay and Mervyn Johns who appears with his own daughter, actress Glynis Johns. The film tells the story of ten people who are drawn to stay in an old hotel in a remote Welsh village. The film was shot at Barlynch Abbey on the DevonSomerset border.

The film premiered in London at the Regal, Marble Arch onApril 1944, and The Times reviewer wrote The film elusively obtains its effects when it appears to be least striving after them, and an occasional frisson is achieved by acute touches of direction which light up not only depths of human tension and unhappiness, but also unobtrusively reckon with their causethe war.George Perry wrote in Forever Ealing 1981 No matter how wellacted, the fantasy is hard to sustain and never develops beyond a theatrical morality tale. while The Huffington Post reviewer writes, I really cant recommend The Halfway House enough unlike the more overt Ealing war films which this resembles in many ways, not least the disparate group coming together and working together, this is subtler propaganda, and its overarching supernatural atmosphere is well done. Apart from that, however, it offers strong character portraits, great visual flourishes, and another solid turn from Mervyn Johns. Flickering Myth calls it an unseen and unappreciated classic of British cinema. ........

Source: Wikipedia