A Place of
One's Own (1945) is a British film directed by Bernard Knowles. An impressive
ghost story based on the novel by Osbert Sitwell, it stars James Mason, Barbara
Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Mason and Mullen are
unnaturally aged to play the old couple. It was one of the cycles of
Gainsborough Melodramas.
Mr and Mrs
Smedhurst (James Mason and Barbara Mullen) is a business couple wanting to give
up work. They find a mansion in the country, Bellingham House, at a bargain
price. They move in along with their servants and soon learn the house is
apparently ghostly – but Mr Smedhurst especially is skeptical of the paranormal
myth.
They invite a young companion, Annette (Margaret Lockwood), to join them
but within days of arriving she gradually begins hearing strange voices. The
new owners learn that a young invalid girl was deemed to have been murdered 40 years
before in the house – and their presumptions of the supernatural are
challenged.
When the
spirit of the murdered girl acquires Annette, her health declines considerably
and soon she’s at death's door. A young doctor, Dr Selbie (Dennis Price), has
fallen deeply in love with Annette and tries to heal her but to no avail. In a
state of delirium, Annette calls for old Dr Marsham (Ernest Thesiger), the GP
who had attended to the dead girl 40 years before.
