The House in Marsh Road, known on American television as Invisible Creature, is a 1960 British horror suspense film produced by Maurice J. Wilson, directed by Montgomery Tully and starring Tony Wright, Patricia Dainton and Sandra Dorne.[1] The plot centres on a benevolent poltergeist in a country home that protects a woman from her homicidal husband. It may be one of the first films to use the word 'poltergeist' in reference to a spirit or ghost[citation needed]. The film was never released to theatres in the US, and instead went straight to television.
The screenplay, also by Wilson, is based on the 1955 novel The House in Marsh Road by Laurence Meynell.[2]
Plot
David and Jean Linton move from rented flat to rented flat, leaving each with unpaid bills. David is a would-be author with an alcohol problem, and also involved in passing counterfeit notes. He has had several affairs during his marriage to Jean. Their luck changes when Jean inherits a house and £1000 from a distant aunt.
They go to see the house, "Four Winds", which lies in a country location and decide to live there. They are told by housekeeper Mrs. O'Brien (Anita Sharp-Bolster) ("Mrs B") that the home is already inhabited - by a poltergeist she has named 'Patrick', after her late husband. Patrick makes his presence known to Jean by moving furniture about, breaking mirrors, etc. David treats Jean badly, and Patrick retaliates by giving David warnings to stop. David prefers time in the local pub, "The Plough", rather than time at home. In the pub Morris Lumley tells him of Valerie Stockley who might be able to type out his material for his novel. Lumley is an estate agent and offers him £6000 for the house and land.
However, David can do nothing as the house is in Jean's name and he is unable to convince her to sell. He hires local sexpot Valerie Stockley (Dorne) - she calls herself 'Mrs.' but her true marital status is questionable - as his typist and they begin an affair. He steals money from Jean to give to Valerie, who tells him that once her divorce comes through, she'll be free to marry him, as he has proposed. But when she learns that Jean controls the property and the money, she angrily suggests that David kill Jean so that he can inherit.
Patrick becomes quite protective of Jean and helps her discover her husband's latest affair, but after she confronts Valerie, David convinces her that the affair is over and he wants another chance. However, he now starts to make attempts on Jean's life - firstly trying to push her down the open lift shaft in the house, but Patrick quickly closes the safety gate. Next David dissolves an overdose of sleeping pills in her glass of hot milk - but Patrick intervenes again, causing a loud alarm to ring each time Jean raises the doctored milk to her lips, which makes her realise that there is something wrong with it. David comes in later to see if she is dead yet.
Jean consults a solicitor in London about a divorce, but he tells her that her argument that a poltergeist is the only thing preventing David from murdering her 'won't hold water' in court.
With Jean in London, David is free to have Valerie spend the night with him. Patrick takes the opportunity to punish them. As they're lying in bed, Patrick locks them in the bedroom and sets Four Winds aflame. When Jean returns later that night, having been driven home by her close friend and confidant Richard Foster (Derek Aylward), she learns that both David and Valerie have perished in the fire, trapped behind the bedroom's barred windows.
The House in Marsh Road was granted an A-certificate by the British Board of Film Censors on 26 July 1960. The A-cert meant that the film was considered to be 'more suitable for adults'.[4][5]
The film was never distributed theatrically in the US. But under the title Invisible Creature, it was released to television in 1964 as part of American International Television's Amazing '65 syndication package, an 'eclectic assortment of 65 genre features' sold to individual TV stations around the US. As such, the movie was 'one of the earliest AITV releases', and was given an on-screen copyright date of 1964 and listed as an Alta Vista Production 'with UK production' by Merton Park Studios.[3]Invisible Creature was broadcast, for example, in the 1960s on WIIC-TV in Pittsburgh on the 'monster movie' programme Chiller Theater on 23 July 1966 and 2 August 1969.[7][8] It was also shown on WFLD-TV in Chicago numerous times during the 1970s: on Screaming Yellow Theater on 27 October 1972 and 2 March 1973; on WFLD Chiller Theater on 29 June 1975, 4 April 1976 and 15 August 1976; and on Monstrous Movie on 16 April 1977.[9][10][11]
More recently, the film was shown as The House in Marsh Road, its British title, on Talking Pictures TV in the UK on 11 October 2019.[12]
The House in Marsh Road was teamed with The Monkey's Paw (1948) for video distribution in the UK by Video Renown Productions Ltd. The video was given a PG rating on 8 May 2013 under the 1985 ratings guidelines issued for videos by the British Board of Film Classification, which defines PG as 'Parental Guidance - general viewing but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children'.[13][14][5]
Critical reception
British film critic Phil Hardy is unimpressed by The House in Marsh Road, calling it 'a rather tame supernatural thriller' and describing Tully as 'a veteran of medium- and low-budget British programme fillers'. He notes, however, that instead of the people who usually do so in horror films, it is Patrick the poltergeist who 'appears to be responsible for the house catching fire during a storm, trapping the adulterous couple in the flames'.[15]
American academic critic Rob Craig views the film in a more positive light. He calls it 'a cracking good drama with surprisingly adult themes', such as 'infidelity, alcoholism, paranoia and conspiracy'. And while it is 'essentially an old-fashioned ghost story', Craig writes that The House in Marsh Road 'comes to life due to an insightful screenplay, excellent characterizations and an abundance of atmosphere'. He also notes that the movie is perhaps one of the first to use the much-used-in-horror-films word 'poltergeist'.[3]
Steve Chibnall and Brian McFarlane, also British critics, point out that the four-way relationship of Jean, Richard, David and Valerie is somewhat unusual for its time in that it shows them living 'at some remove from the safety of quotidian middle-class mores'. The film offers 'an unusually frank picture of a grim marriage (...) with a suggestion of adultery', they write, also noting that for 'a haunted house mystery', it is one 'with (not rare in British Bs) a downbeat ending'.[16]
Wheeler W. Dixon, an American academic critic, pays special attention to the 'grim conclusion' of The House in Marsh Road. In line with Chibnall and McFarlane, he writes that 'in the stern moral universe the film inhabits, [David and Valerie's] violent deaths are seen as entirely deserved. Jean, it is implied, will move on through life with her new love, Richard'.[17]
A reviewer at Britmovie writes that 'this entertaining and atmospheric low-budget feature rises above the standard expected from the much-maligned b-movie.'[18]
Related Research Articles
Amicus Productions was a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England, active between 1962 and 1977. It was founded by American producers and screenwriters Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.
The Quatermass Xperiment is a 1955 British science fiction horror film from Hammer Film Productions, based on the 1953 BBC Television serial The Quatermass Experiment written by Nigel Kneale. The film was produced by Anthony Hinds, directed by Val Guest, and stars Brian Donlevy as the titular Professor Bernard Quatermass and Richard Wordsworth as the tormented Carroon. Jack Warner, David King-Wood, and Margia Dean appear in co-starring roles.
Bloodbath at the House of Death is a 1984 British comedy horror film directed by Ray Cameron and starring the comedian Kenny Everett, Pamela Stephenson and Vincent Price. It is an over-the-top spoof loosely inspired by The Amityville Horror and other horror films from the same period.
The Weak and the Wicked is a 1954 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson based on the autobiographical novel Who Lie in Gaol by his wife, Joan Henry, starring Glynis Johns and Diana Dors.
I Thank You is a 1941 black and white British comedy film directed by Marcel Varnel and starring Arthur Askey, Richard Murdoch, Graham Moffatt and Moore Marriott. It was produced by Edward Black at Gainsborough Pictures. The title of the film is the literal version of Arthur Askey's famous catch-phrase which he idiosyncratically pronounced as "Ay-thang-yaw".
The Yellow Balloon is a 1953 British drama film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Andrew Ray, William Sylvester, Kathleen Ryan, Kenneth More and Hy Hazell. It was Thompson's second feature as director. It was distributed by Associated British and produced by the company's Marble Arch Productions. It was made at Elstree Studios with sets designed by the art director Robert Jones. Location shooting took place around Bayswater and Chelsea including Queensway tube station.
Sandra Dorne was a British actress.
The Man in the Road is a 1956 British second feature thriller film directed by Lance Comfort and starring Derek Farr, Ella Raines, Donald Wolfit and Cyril Cusack. It was based on the 1952 novel He Was Found in the Road by Anthony Armstrong.
Patricia Dainton was a British actress who appeared in a number of films and television roles between 1947 and 1961.
Home to Danger is a 1951 British second feature film noir crime film directed by Terence Fisher starring Guy Rolfe, Rona Anderson and Stanley Baker.
Stolen Assignment is a 1955 British comedy 'B' film directed by Terence Fisher and starring John Bentley and Hy Hazell. It was produced by Francis Searle for Act Films Ltd and was a sequel to Fisher's Final Appointment (1954), featuring sleuthing journalists Mike Billings and Jenny Drew.
The Gelignite Gang is a black and white 1956 British second feature crime film directed by Terence Fisher and Francis Searle, starring Wayne Morris and Sandra Dorne. The film was released in the U.S. as The Dynamiters.
Things Happen at Night is a 1947 British supernatural ghost comedy film directed by Francis Searle and starring Gordon Harker, Alfred Drayton, Robertson Hare and Garry Marsh. The film is based upon a stage play, The Poltergeist, by Frank Harvey. It was shot at Twickenham Studios. Despite the film's comparatively large budget it ended up being released as a second feature.
Return of a Stranger is a 1961 British second feature thriller film directed by Max Varnel and starring John Ireland and Susan Stephen.
The Woman in Black is a 2012 gothic supernatural horror film directed by James Watkins from a screenplay by Jane Goldman. It is the second adaptation of Susan Hill's 1983 novel of the same name, which was previously filmed in 1989. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe, Ciarán Hinds, Janet McTeer, Sophie Stuckey, and Liz White. The plot, set in early 20th-century England, follows a young recently widowed lawyer who travels to a remote village where he discovers that the vengeful ghost of a scorned woman is terrorising the locals.
Marilyn is a 1953 British second feature ('B') film noir directed by Wolf Rilla starring Sandra Dorne and Maxwell Reed.
Operation Murder is a 1957 British 'B' crime film directed by Ernest Morris and starring Tom Conway, Patrick Holt and Sandra Dorne. It was written by Brian Clemens and produced by the Danzinger brothers.
Blackout is a 1950 British crime drama film directed by Robert S. Baker and starring Maxwell Reed and Dinah Sheridan. It was made as a supporting feature.
The Mark of Cain is a 1947 British drama film directed by Brian Desmond Hurst and starring Eric Portman, Sally Gray, Patrick Holt and Dermot Walsh. The film is based on the 1943 novel Airing in a Closed Carriage by Marjorie Bowen, which in turn was based on the true life murder trial of Florence Maybrick. It was made at Denham Studios with sets designed by the art director Alex Vetchinsky.
A Family Secret is the fourth episode of the third series of the British television series, Upstairs, Downstairs. The episode is set in 1912.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
