The Halfway House (1944)
Directed by Basil Dearden, Alberto Cavalcanti

Film Review

During the Second World War, Ealing Studio's contribution to the war effort was a series of propaganda films of a mostly conventional hue intended to boost the morale of a war-weary nation and galvanise support for the armed services in the fight against Fascism.  The Foreman Went to France (1942), Went the Day Well? (1942) and San Demetrio London (1943) were typical of Ealing's wartime output and each wears its obvious propaganda badge without shame.  The Halfway House, by contrast, is a very different kind of propaganda film that gets across its messages in a far less direct and strident manner, but is no less effective for doing so.  With its quaint mix of comedy and drama, it's a halfway film, sitting midway between Ealing's fairly nondescript early films and the more affectionately remembered ones the company would go on to make after the war, including the famous Ealing comedies.

The war seems a very long way away in The Halfway House.  After a hurried prologue which provides a cursory introduction to all of the characters, it settles down to a more sedate pace in the idyllic environs of rural Wales, a haven of peace where an assortment of individuals with very pronounced accents (English, French and Welsh) gather for a harmless spot of psychic time travel.  You'd think the story was knocked up by J.B. Priestley or Nigel Kneale, but in fact it was loosely based on a play (The Peaceful Inn) by Dennis Ogden, which interestingly makes no reference to the war, even though it is set in 1940.  A carefully constructed morality piece, the Ealing film version of Ogden's play is about ordinary men and women waking up to their responsibilities, which may be to bear the hardship caused by the war with greater dignity, or to take a more active participation in the war effort, putting the needs of humanity before those of the individual.  The supernatural component of the film, whilst underplayed, gives it a unique character that anticipates Ealing's subsequent full-blooded horror excursion, Dead of Night (1945).

The Halfway House exhibits the technical excellence and quality of writing and acting that would earn Ealing a prominent position on the landscape of British cinema after the war.  Ealing regular Basil Dearden directs the film with his customary aplomb, not only getting some superb performances from his talented cast (which includes Françoise Rosay, a star of French cinema, amid an ensemble of great British character actors), but also creating a memorable atmosphere through some inspired camerawork and lighting, helped by the legendary cinematographer Wilkie Cooper.  Basil Dreardon would later direct one of Ealing's best war films, The Captive Heart (1946), as well as the fondly remembered crime drama The Blue Lamp (1950), the debut piece for one P.C. George Dixon.  On the The Halfway House, Dearden was assisted (uncredited) by Alberto Cavalcanti, one of Ealing's great stylists and a driving force behind some of the studio's best films of this period.

Another of Ealing's stalwarts, the character actor Mervyn Johns, has a dominating presence in the film as the vaguely ethereal Welsh landlord Rhys.  Johns' strong Welsh accent is not the only thing that sets him apart from the rest of the cast, who mostly speak in the jarring 'received pronunciation' form of English accent that was de rigueur in British cinema at the time.  The actor's whole manner has an unearthly stillness about it, making him the one still point in a world in turmoil.  Petty self-interest, fear, grieving and abject disgust of the war are just as vividly represented by the other protagonists in the drama and Mervyn Johns' role is that of a pastor gently guiding his wayward parishioners back into the light.  Churchill's famous bulldog spirit may have been a great motivator for some, but Johns' gentler, humane reasoning is just as effective in convincing the doubters just why the war had to be fought and won.

Film Synopsis

June 1943.  Ten disparate individuals badly in need of a rest arrive at a small hotel, The Halfway House, lost in the Welsh valleys.  They are greeted by the hotel's friendly owner Rhys and his young daughter Gwyneth.  The guests comprise a married couple mourning the loss of a son who died on active service, a young couple who have yet to settle down, a wartime profiteer, a captain reluctant to serve the war effort, a famous composer who has only a few months left to live, a young girl and her parents who are about to get a divorce.  Not long after their arrival, the guests begin to notice that something is amiss.  The newspapers and calendar are all one year out of date, Rhys shows no reflection in a mirror and Gwyneth casts no shadow when she goes out of doors.  It is as if the owner of the hotel and his daughter are ghosts...  After hearing a radio broadcast from 1942, the guests are astonished to learn that they have been taken back exactly one year in time, to the exact hour when the hotel was destroyed by an aerial bombardment...