Although the house is haunted and the young girl is possessed you will not find this film horror nor is it a comedy-horror - this film is a drama, mystery and a thriller - and quite a good one too.This is not your modern day possession/haunted house film - if you want that then look elsewhere - you won't see pea soup flying and heads spinning. This one is a love story of sorts (and not like "Ghost" with Patrick Swayze). This is a very tastefully made film and quite different than most ghost stories I've ever seen.I really enjoyed this one for it's great atmosphere - haunting a times. The cast is good too. I personally did not have a problem with the cinematography nor the directing (I read where James Mason was displeased with the end results of this film although he wanted to do this film).8/10

Most people will find this old English film too talky to even bother with, but I found this a wonderfully subtle little ghost story. This is all done of course without computer graphics and awesome special effects. I don't think there is one special effect used in the entire film, all movings of the 'ghost' merely suggested by camera work.So this movie will be found quite dull by today's jaded standards.Margaret Lockwood is quite lovely in this feature, although to my mind, she was never more delectable than as the character she played in Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes'.James Mason, a young man at the time, plays an elderly retired businessman. Barbara Mullen is a standout as his psychic wife.The biggest kick for me was the appearance of Ernest 'Dr. Pratorius' Thesiger as the mysterious Dr. Marsham. It is quite fitting, considering his history in the horror genre, that Thesiger was brought on to play the doctor.Subtlety has no place in the minds of today's moviegoers, so this movie will continue to be ignored. The story itself reminded me of one of the better episodes of 'One Step Beyond'.Most movies today would treat this material as 'horror' and would probably result in yet another over-the-top gore feature. But there is no blood; this is a subtle ghost story, and an imagination is required to enjoy this piece.

I should caution anyone that may be slightly impatient that you'll have to stick with this one for awhile before the story kicks into gear. Over the course of the first forty minutes or so it's a story focused on two elderly people and their young helper who meets a boy she falls in love with. This is all enjoyable enough, if a bit dull, depending on one's tolerance for such stories in older films. There's a sprinkling of mysterious goings-on building to what's to come later, but just a sprinkling. This isn't to discourage anyone from trying the movie. I just want to prepare you to view this when you aren't watching a clock. The pace does pick up midway through and here's where the mystery elements of the film really come into play. All of the actors are good, particularly Margaret Lockwood. As others have pointed out, James Mason and Barbara Mullen are playing characters twice their age for some inexplicable reason. But they do well, with the usual "old people are kind and sweet and amusingly cantankerous" trope that permeated movies of the time. Ernest Thesiger has what amounts to a brief cameo (where he's dubbed, oddly). The role is important to the plot but given how little of his face you see, the part really could have been played by anybody. One more note: this is in no way a scary film. Some of the characters in the story may become frightened or bewildered but to the audience this is more of a mystery film with some supernatural overtones. This is worth pointing out for those expecting something akin to The Innocents or The Haunting. Still, it's a good but not great mystery film with some nice heart-warming humor and sentimentalism. Added points if you like British films of the period where everyone speaks and acts quite properly, except for the servants who add touches of color and comedy relief.

A Place of One's Own is directed by Bernard Knowles and adapted to screenplay by Brock Williams from the novel written by Osbert Sitwell. Out of Gainsborough Pictures it stars James Mason, Barbara Mullen, Margaret Lockwood, Dennis Price and Dulcie Gray. Music is by Hubert Bath and cinematography by Stephen Dade.Retiring couple the Smedhurst's (Mason & Mullen) purchase Bellingham House and hire Annette Allenby (Lockwood) as a companion for Mrs. Smedhurst. Bellingham House had been empty for a number of years, and soon enough the new inhabitants, especially Annette, find out why.A gentle Edwardian ghost story that's full of charm and whimsical romance, it's clearly not a film for horror fans looking for a fright night in by candle light. There are a few nice supernatural touches such as hushed voices, the tinkling of the ivories, interior gust of wind, that sort of thing, while the possession angle is nicely handled by Knowles in what was his first major directing assignment.Gainsborough were hoping to replicate the success of the Man in Grey from two years earlier, which had starred Mason and Lockwood, but A Place of One's Own was a flop, with Mason himself later saying that he dropped the ball with this one. The problem is that the film is often too off-beat, with Mason cast as an elderly man and pretty much hamming it up to the point of detracting from Lockwood's fine work.Still, it's a very pleasing and harmless picture in spite of the mixed tonality, while having a Ernest Thesiger cameo is always a good thing. 6/10