The House in the Square aka I’ll Never Forget You – 1951 | 90 mins | Romance, Drama | Colour – B&W

Plot Synopsis

Filmed in black and white and Technicolor to portray the shift in time, The House in the Square was a remake of Berkeley Square (1933), which was based on the stage play by John L Balderston. A filmed stage play often relies on the actors to compensate for the rigid approach but Tyrone Power gives a sombre performance and injects little humour or verve into the lethargic proceedings.

Dour American atomic research physicist Peter Standish (Tyrone Power) lives alone in a Berkeley Square mansion he’s inherited. His co-worker Roger Forsyth (Michael Rennie) believes Standish has been overworking and is headed for a nervous breakdown, and is further shocked that his best-friend claims he can change places with an 18th century ancestor. On the very same day his ancestor arrived in London from America there was a violent storm, and just as Standish is about to enter his house there is a bolt of lightning – and he recovers to discover he is now in the 1784 with his ancestors.

His intended fiancée is Kate (Beatrice Campbell), and he is staying at the mansion with her and her family, but when he meets her sister Helen (Ann Blyth) he falls in love. Their mother, Lady Anne (Irene Browne), their brother Tom (Dennis Price) and Helen’s fiancé Mr. Throstle (Raymond Huntley) are both disturbed and afraid by Standish’s uncanny knack of foretelling the future. Despite being in the 18th century Standish is unable to forgo his scientific research and sets up a workshop that creates inventions that anticipate the work of Alexander Graham Bell and James Watt. The jealous Throstle has the Bow Street Runners investigate Standish’s Shepherd Market laboratory and endeavours to have him institutionalised as a mad man. As he is lead away by the police there’s another bolt of lightning and Standish is finally restored to 20th century London.