The Halfway House

Ealing Studios’ The Halfway House is a halfway sort of film. Made in 1944, it’s not quite propaganda but is clearly on that road. Not quite a ghost story either, or not the usual sort of ghost story. Brigadoon is somewhere in the back of the plotting. A mysterious pub out in delightful sun-dappled Welsh countryside, bombed out of existence a year before, somehow rematerialises, ready to welcome unwitting visitors. The people who turn up are all in need of spiritual succour. David Davies (Esmond Knight), a conductor with a terminal disease. Captain Fortescue (Guy Middleton), a professional crook insisting on his rank. Richard French (Richard Bird), a squadron leader in the throes … Read more