The House in Marsh Road

So why isn't it the House on Marsh Road instead of in? Don't know.

Patricia Dainton and Tony Wright are Jean and David Linton always down to their last British pound thanks to his drinking and not working. Suddenly Jean inherits a house from an aunt, along with 1000 pounds. Back in 1960, that was the equivalent of 21,000 pounds today.

You'd think Tony would be happy. He now has the solitude he needs to write the great British novel. However, all he does is complain. When he learns at the local pub that a real estate investor would buy the place for 6000 pounds, he wants to sell.

Jean won't hear of it. She loves the place, despite the alleged presence of Patrick, a poltergeist so-named by the maid (Anna Sharp-Bolster) who comes in to work. Patrick, she says, is there to protect the relatives of the previous owners.

Tony writes book reviews and does some work on his novel, but he can't type. He hires a sexy local woman, Valerie (Sandra Dorne) who is going through a divorce. She's not interested in him when she finds out the house is Jean's. Well, just supposing the house suddenly became his?

Good, atmospheric, short black and white film, with excellent performances and a great ending! Very entertaining.

It seems unusual for a story with a poltergeist character to be set in the modern era (1960) but the story is convincing and the narrative is helped by the effective and restrained performances of the main characters. The music seems strangely reminiscent of Bernard Hermann's Vertigo score in places; in others of that used in the One Step Beyond TV series; surely a coincidence since the latter was produced at around the same time as this film.

Supernatural thriller. A woman inherits an old country house from her late aunt, and moves in with her wastrel husband. He soon begins an affair with a local woman, and before long he's plotting to murder his wife. But the resident ghost has other ideas...

Tony Wright and Patricia Dainton are good as the husband and wife, whilst Sandra Dorne is perfectly cast as the local trash he takes up with (she seemed to specialise in these sorts of roles). Nice to see popular character actor Sam Kydd as the local property developer interested in buying the house. Pretty enjoyable. 6/10.

Missing from David Pirie's filmography in 'A Heritage of Horror' (1973) despite Pirie praising director Montgomery Tully's oeuvre overall as seeming "to be impressively consistent both in style and content". This overlooked little gem anticipating 'The Night of the Eagle' resembles a Chabrol marital drama produced by Val Lewton, as a poltergeist intervenes in a serious marital spat between Tony Wright & Patricia Dainton; with Sandra Dorne as the peroxide blonde Other Woman.

Recommended.

Low budget British movie about a troubled married couple whose luck changes when the wife inherits a house along with a small fortune. Said house comes complete with a ghost - a poltergeist to be exact - known as Patrick! Tony Wright is good as the devious, drunken husband whilst Patricia Dainton looks gorgeous as his suffering wife. Relatively tame but engaging supernatural thriller that does manage a few sudden creepy moments, it is well acted, charming and at 70 minutes long is perfect in length. I really enjoyed this movie.