| The Ghosts of Berkeley Square | |
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Felix Aylmer & Robert Morley |
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| Directed by | Vernon Sewell |
| Produced by | Louis H. Jackson |
| Written by | James Seymour Caryl Brahms S. J. Simon |
| Starring | Robert Morley Felix Aylmer |
| Music by | Hans May |
| Cinematography | Ernest Palmer |
| Editing by | Joseph Sterling |
| Distributed by | British National Films |
| Release date(s) | 1947 |
| Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
The Ghosts of Berkeley Square is a 1947 British comedy film, directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer. The film is an adaptation of the novel No Nightingales by Caryl Brahms and S. J. Simon, inspired by the enduring reputation of the property at 50 Berkeley Square as "the most haunted house in London".[1] Despite its stellar cast of highly-respected character actors and its inventive use of special effects, the film proved less successful at the box-office than had been hoped.[2]
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18th century soldiers General Burlap (Morley) and Colonel Kelsoe (Aylmer) are desperate to prevent war, and hatch a plan to capture a warmongering military commander and hold him prisoner until the threat of hostilities passes. Unfortunately, while testing the efficacy of the contraption they have designed to entrap the man, they manage to kill themselves. Their stupidity incurs the wrath of Queen Anne in the afterlife, and as punishment they are condemned to haunt the Berkeley Square house until such time as a British monarch crosses the threshold of the property.
Things get off to a rocky start when the ghosts of Burlap and Kelsoe blame each other for the fiasco, quarrel, and refuse to speak to each other for 66 years. Once they have resolved their differences, they set about trying to engineer the required royal visit. Over the decades they interact with the succession of different occupants of the house, but never manage to lure a monarch to enter. As the years pass, the house becomes variously the home of a French-run bordello with drinking, gambling and fornication; an Indian rajah complete with harem; the home of the PT Barnum theatre: a Boer War soldiers' hospital and a World War I officers' club. Their time in purgatory eventually comes to an end when Berkeley Square is bombed during an air raid and Queen Mary comes to visit the damaged properties, allowing the pair finally to take their place in the afterlife.
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