Berkeley Square

Leslie Howard received his first Oscar nomination in this lovely film adaptation of the play he starred in in London and on Broadway. He plays a current-day (1933) American man who yearns for the peace and quiet and beauty of the 18th century after he discovers some old papers and diaries in his ancestral house. He wishes so hard he is actually transported to 1784.

Right off the bat, he gets into trouble fitting into the rhythm and manners of 18th Century London ... and into the lives of his ancestors. The mother (Irene Browne) is trying to marry off two daughters (Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor) to men with money, one of whom is Howard's ancestor whose body he is now inhabiting.

Knowing that he must not change history, he walks a tightrope. He is not attracted to the woman his ancestor marries, but he is attracted to her sister. But history dictates he must not marry her. He also keeps dropping words and phrases that make no sense in 1784, and he scares people by when he blurts out bits of information about things that have not yet happened.

As he digs himself into a bigger hole every day, he realizes that the woman he really loves (Angel) seems to shares his discontent for the age in which she is trapped. She longs for the future! Yet in one horrific moment, she sees the future world in his eyes and it scares her. For his part, he finally has to admit that the 18th Century is utterly horrible and that it actually stinks! People don't bathe; the streets are full of horse manure.

Leslie Howard is superb as the man torn between the past and his own time. He and Heather Angel make for a terrifically doomed couple, and the scene when he returns (in 1933) from her grave and read the epitaph carved into her headstone is quite moving.

Co-stars include Juliette Compton as an arch and wily duchess, Alan Mowbray as Clinton, Ferdinand Gottschalk as the aged suitor, Betty Lawford as the current-day girlfriend, Beryl Mercer as the housekeeper, and Samuel S. Hinds as Adams.

"Berkeley Square" is similar in theme to Jack Finney's "Time and Again." A present day American is transported back to the home of his ancestors in London, during the American Revolution. He knows, of course, what will hap- pen and even falls in love with one of his female ancestors. An old film but a terrific one, with Leslie Howard and Heather Angel.

Leslie Howard plays an American who takes possession of a bequeathed estate in London's Berkeley Square quarter. While at the house, Howard magically connects to the past, and makes the stunning discovery that time happens all at once. (A topic explored by Christopher Nolan in 2014's Interstellar).

A thunder storm serves as the device that transports Howard from 1933 back to 1784, and in the same Berkeley Square house he would one day inherit. Posing as the recently-arrived American cousin his hosts were expecting, Howard frightens those in his presence by the ability to predict the future, and by his odd phrases. They think he's the devil. But Heather Angel's character, the sister of the woman Howard was slated to marry, sees the truth.

Berkeley Square has a lovely staginess to it, and the air of a drawing room comedy of manners, with sumptuous period costumes. (The film is based on a play by the same name). Howard and Angel capture the loneliness and despair of lovers trapped in different worlds. Historical figures like the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Georgina the Duchess of Devonshire make appearances.

There's a scene in which Angel stares into Howard's eyes, and sees the future: the great Industrial Revolution, with automobiles, trains, airplanes, electricity, tall buildings. She also sees war and destruction. And rather than being in awe of the modern world, she's horrified that God would condemn mankind to such a monstrous future. It's quite prescient. If someone back in 1933 could have had a peak into the future they, like Heather Angel's character, would probably look past the digital gadgets and be horrified, too.

This is a very amusing love story with a good dash of humor. Much of the humor centers around the culture clash between Standish and the 18th century family. Standish uses modern terms and slips when he reveals things that happen in the future. The culture clash is a cautionary tale for would be travelers. This film appealed to many women because Leslie Howard was a heart throb for many of them. My mother loved this film and could watch it over and over. She was so disappointed when late in her life it disappeared from the old movies shown on TV.

It is currently not commercially available, but a number of vendors have poor quality CDs or tapes for sale. All of these were probably made from a VHS tape from a TV showing. The tape was deteriorated and possibly copied several times so there is a lot of instability and wiggling of the image. The original broadcast used extreme compression of the video and sound. As a result the noise level rises to become very loud until dialog causes the gain to be cut. As a result the dialog is sometimes very indistinct. The music which was originally soft also rises to match the level of the dialog. Once this is restored by hand, the film is fairly listenable. The complaint of another reviewer about the music being too loud may stem from watching a copy with similarly compressed sound. In addition the broadcast severely cropped the film and did not stabilize the jitter.

This is a film that deserves restoration from the existing prints, but when and if this happens is unknown. Until then buying one of the existing CDs may be the only way to view this fine film.

Leslie Howard proves once again that he was the matinée idol women adored long before he was unwillingly cast as Ashley Wilkes in "Gone with the Wind," a role he hated to play.

He gives a very forceful performance here as a young man who is fascinated by his ancestry and somehow transports himself to an earlier era, with unhappy consequences he couldn't have expected when events turn against him.

Heather Angel makes a good impression (she and Howard both starred in the Broadway stage version), but the tale itself is much too talky for the screen and would have benefited from a wider use of outdoor scenes to take away some of the stage-bound feeling. An unusual feature is the almost constant flow of background music in an era when most soundtracks were only punctuated by dialog without musical effects. This affects the quality of the spoken words, of which there are far too many for my taste and, in this case, because it's based on a stage play taken from an unfinished Henry James novel called "A Sense of Time." It takes a willingness to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the fantasy aspects of the story, but it's done in an interesting way and directed in stylish fashion by Frank Lloyd.

Summing up: One of Howard's better film performances, he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. Remade by Fox in 1951 as a film for Tyrone Power and Ann Blyth called "I'll Never Forget You."