THE HOUSE IN MARSH ROAD (1960)

David Linton, book reviewer and frustrated author, and his wife Jean are living in distressed circumstances as David tries to get work done on a novel—though Jean thinks that his drinking is getting in the way of his writing. They have just moved into a small boarding house and plan on ducking out after a few weeks without paying when Jean gets the news that an aunt has died and left her a house and a nice chunk of money. When David and Jean arrive at the house, called Four Winds, strange things begin to happen: a door slams itself in David's face, an armchair seems to move on its own, and Jean hears unexplained noises. According to the housekeeper Mrs. O'Brien, the house is haunted by a poltergeist named Patrick who seems more pranky than dangerous. The two settle in; Jean loves the house, of which she has fond memories from her youth, but David is unhappy and his drinking gets worse. When someone makes them a good offer on the house, Jean declines which frustrates David all the more. As he slowly makes progress on his novel, David hires Valerie, the village blonde bombshell, as a typist; of course, the promise of an affair hangs in the air, though what Valerie really wants is to get married, and she soon plants the idea that David should kill his wife, get a bundle from selling the house, and marry her. He begins making plans, but we all know about the best-laid plans of mice and men, especially when a poltergeist is hanging around.

I often compare short B-films in the fantasy or horror genre to long Twilight Zone episodes; this one feels more like a long episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. For most of its running time, this is a mild but not uninteresting domestic thriller of an unhappy husband figuring out how to free himself of his wife but keep her money. But the poltergeist adds a supernatural element which cannot be dismissed—we see furniture move by itself, and the surprisingly spectacular finale is undeniably triggered by the ghost. I'd never heard of the B-level actors in the cast, but they are all very good: Tony Wright as the alcoholic husband who can be both charming and loutish, Patricia Dainton as the wife who knows how to take care of herself, and Sandra Dorne as the scheming totsy (pictured above with Wright). Also deserving of mention is Anita Sharp-Bolster as the housekeeper who named the invisible poltergeist Patrick after her husband because she never sees either one of them. The potentially exciting climax, which involves a nearly apocalyptic storm, suffers from the film’s low budget, but generally this was fun. [Amazon Streaming]