I'd been looking forward to this one, in view of its time-travel/reincarnation theme (released as part of a 10-movie set of minor Tyrone Power vehicles, I had opted to acquire it through ulterior sources though I may still get my hands on some of the other titles). Still, I was surprised by how well this implausible yet fascinating theme is handled here surely making for one of the star's most underrated (and unusual) efforts.
Made in Britain, the film was based on John L. Balderston's romantic fantasy play "Berkeley Square" (the literate adaptation here is by Ranald MacDougall) already brought to the screen in 1933 under that name (while the original title of this one is actually THE HOUSE IN THE SQUARE); the first version is virtually impossible to see nowadays, though it did land Leslie Howard an Oscar nomination the ultimate irony, given that the transcendental narrative essentially bestows its protagonist with immortality, is that an untimely demise was in store for the leading man of both cinematic renditions!
Anyway, Power is an American scientist working in England (the initial radiation experiment is intriguing but superfluous and misleading under the circumstances) who lives in a house belonging to an ancestor of his and who conveniently looked just like him. Finding the latter's diary, he learns that he had been persecuted for his strange beliefs and practices and was eventually locked up in an insane asylum he becomes convinced that, by some quirk of nature, the two had actually exchanged places and, soon enough, he's hit by a bolt of lightning and wakes up in 1784!
He meets the family of his forebear including the latter's future wife (Beatrice Campbell); thanks to letters which had been preserved and that he had read, Power's initially able to comfortably fill his shoes however, he then meets and falls for Ann Blyth, Campbell's sister and of whom he was unaware! Soon, the hero begins to commit other gaffes by which he demonstrates to be perceptive of things that hadn't yet occurred or, at least, weren't common knowledge (from the gift of a shawl for Campbell which Blyth hadn't even unpacked, the secret and subsequently famous portrait of a Duchess played by Kathleen Byron by the painter Gainsborough, delivering the lady's own obituary at a ball, not to mention 'feeding' Dr. Johnson with some of his own celebrated epigrams[!], etc). This doesn't sit at all well with either Campbell (who's unwilling to keep up her engagement to Power, not least because of his constant attentions for her sister) or the vindictive Raymond Huntley (Blyth's much older suitor). The hero, finding himself increasingly out-of-touch with the times, retires to a basement in a poor quarter of town to 'recreate' future inventions such as the light bulb and the model of a steam-ship; when these are discovered, they're branded the handiwork of a sorcerer by eminent scientist Felix Aylmer the place is destroyed there and then, while Power is on his way to perpetual confinement in Bedlam!
Other notable cast members are Dennis Price (playing an amiable rake, as was his fashion during this time the relentless and rather effeminate pursuit of etiquette by the aristocrats, in fact, is just about the sole blemish on the picture) and Michael Rennie (as Power's pragmatic scientist associate in the modern-day sequences). Incidentally, the film utilizes moody black-and-white cinematography for these bookends while soft but attractive color is employed throughout the central 'fantasy' section; both are courtesy of Georges Perinal, a top French cameraman resident in Britain for over thirty years. Similarly, Power effectively tackles both facets of his character: the film, ultimately, can be read as both a morality play (the hero's decision to tempt Fate which, as often happens, subsequently threatens to unbalance the order of the things) and a celebration of that well-worn Surrealist concept l' amour fou in his relationship with a radiant Blyth (herself playing a dual role, the second as Rennie's sister who had cared for the Power's even more bewildered ancestor in his unseen tenure in the 20th century).
Given my appreciation for THE HOUSE IN THE SQUARE (the title I'm partial to myself), I'm all the more interested now in one day catching the original version. Finally, this was one of British director Baker (a future horror regular)'s brief four-movie brush with Hollywood I'd already watched DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952; which I also own) and INFERNO (1953), but not the minor noir NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP (1952).
Made in Britain, the film was based on John L. Balderston's romantic fantasy play "Berkeley Square" (the literate adaptation here is by Ranald MacDougall) already brought to the screen in 1933 under that name (while the original title of this one is actually THE HOUSE IN THE SQUARE); the first version is virtually impossible to see nowadays, though it did land Leslie Howard an Oscar nomination the ultimate irony, given that the transcendental narrative essentially bestows its protagonist with immortality, is that an untimely demise was in store for the leading man of both cinematic renditions!
Anyway, Power is an American scientist working in England (the initial radiation experiment is intriguing but superfluous and misleading under the circumstances) who lives in a house belonging to an ancestor of his and who conveniently looked just like him. Finding the latter's diary, he learns that he had been persecuted for his strange beliefs and practices and was eventually locked up in an insane asylum he becomes convinced that, by some quirk of nature, the two had actually exchanged places and, soon enough, he's hit by a bolt of lightning and wakes up in 1784!
He meets the family of his forebear including the latter's future wife (Beatrice Campbell); thanks to letters which had been preserved and that he had read, Power's initially able to comfortably fill his shoes however, he then meets and falls for Ann Blyth, Campbell's sister and of whom he was unaware! Soon, the hero begins to commit other gaffes by which he demonstrates to be perceptive of things that hadn't yet occurred or, at least, weren't common knowledge (from the gift of a shawl for Campbell which Blyth hadn't even unpacked, the secret and subsequently famous portrait of a Duchess played by Kathleen Byron by the painter Gainsborough, delivering the lady's own obituary at a ball, not to mention 'feeding' Dr. Johnson with some of his own celebrated epigrams[!], etc). This doesn't sit at all well with either Campbell (who's unwilling to keep up her engagement to Power, not least because of his constant attentions for her sister) or the vindictive Raymond Huntley (Blyth's much older suitor). The hero, finding himself increasingly out-of-touch with the times, retires to a basement in a poor quarter of town to 'recreate' future inventions such as the light bulb and the model of a steam-ship; when these are discovered, they're branded the handiwork of a sorcerer by eminent scientist Felix Aylmer the place is destroyed there and then, while Power is on his way to perpetual confinement in Bedlam!
Other notable cast members are Dennis Price (playing an amiable rake, as was his fashion during this time the relentless and rather effeminate pursuit of etiquette by the aristocrats, in fact, is just about the sole blemish on the picture) and Michael Rennie (as Power's pragmatic scientist associate in the modern-day sequences). Incidentally, the film utilizes moody black-and-white cinematography for these bookends while soft but attractive color is employed throughout the central 'fantasy' section; both are courtesy of Georges Perinal, a top French cameraman resident in Britain for over thirty years. Similarly, Power effectively tackles both facets of his character: the film, ultimately, can be read as both a morality play (the hero's decision to tempt Fate which, as often happens, subsequently threatens to unbalance the order of the things) and a celebration of that well-worn Surrealist concept l' amour fou in his relationship with a radiant Blyth (herself playing a dual role, the second as Rennie's sister who had cared for the Power's even more bewildered ancestor in his unseen tenure in the 20th century).
Given my appreciation for THE HOUSE IN THE SQUARE (the title I'm partial to myself), I'm all the more interested now in one day catching the original version. Finally, this was one of British director Baker (a future horror regular)'s brief four-movie brush with Hollywood I'd already watched DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952; which I also own) and INFERNO (1953), but not the minor noir NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP (1952).