''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 Montgomery Tully (6 May 190410 October 1988) was an Irish film director and writer. Film career Born in Dublin, Tully studied at the University of London, and originally entered the film industry as a director of documentaries. Later, Tully wo ...

and starring Tony Wright,

Patricia Dainton Patricia Dainton (born 12 April 1930) is a Scottish actress who appeared in a number of film and television roles between 1947 and 1961. Early years Dainton was born Margaret Bryden Pate, in Hamilton, Scotland, the daughter of film and stage ...

and

Sandra Dorne Sandra Dorne (born Joan Smith; 19 June 1924 – 25 December 1992) was a British actress. Career Also known as Sandra Holt, Dorne was often known in the 1950s as the B-film Diana Dors. As a platinum blonde, she was a regular female lead ...

. The plot centres on a benevolent poltergeist in a country home which 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. 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.

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.

Cast

* Tony Wright as David Linton *

as Jean Linton *

as Valerie Stockley * Derek Aylward as Richard Foster *

Sam Kydd Samuel John Kydd (15 February 1915 – 26 March 1982) was a British-Irish actor. His best-known roles were in two major British television series of the 1960s, as the smuggler Orlando O'Connor in '' Crane'' and its sequel ''Orlando''. He als ...

as Morris Lumley *

Llewellyn Rees Walter Llewellyn Rees (18 June 1901 – 7 January 1994) was an English actor. Career His television roles included appearances on ''Doctor Who'' (in the serial '' The Deadly Assassin'' (1976) playing the assassinated Time Lord President), '' T ...

as Webster * Anita Sharp-Bolster as Mrs. O'Brien *

Roddy Hughes Rhodri Henry Hughes (19 June 1891 – 22 February 1970) was a Welsh theatre, film and television actor, who appeared in over 80 films between 1932 and 1961. Selected filmography * ''Mr. Bill the Conqueror'' (1932) * ''Reunion'' (1932) * '' Say ...

as Daniels * Harry Hutchinson as Pub Landlord *

Olive Sloane Olive Sloane (16 December 1896 – 28 June 1963) was an English actress whose film career spanned over 40 years from the silent era through to her death. Sloane's career trajectory was unusual in that for most of her professional life she was e ...

as Mrs. Morris * Geoffrey Denton as Police Inspector *

Olga Dickie Olga Helen Fowler Dickie (28 August 1900 – 7 March 1992) was a British and later Australian actress best known for her numerous film roles, especially in the horror and suspense genre, and radio announcer. Life and career Dickie was born in Bri ...

as Hotel Proprietress

Production

The film was produced at

Merton Park Studios Merton Park Studios, opened in 1929, was a British film production studio located at Long Lodge, 269 Kingston Road in Merton Park, South London. In the 1940s, it was owned by Piprodia Entertainment, Nikhanj Films and Film Producers Guild. Peter M ...

in the UK. ''The House in Marsh Road'' was granted an A-certificate by the

British Board of Film Censors The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of fi ...

on 26 July 1960. The A-cert meant that the film was considered to be 'more suitable for adults'.

Distribution

Theatrical distribution in the UK of ''The House in Marsh Road'' was by

Grand National Pictures Grand National Films, Inc (or Grand National Pictures, Grand National Productions and Grand National Film Distributing Co.) was an American Poverty Row motion picture production-distribution company in operation from 1936 to 1939. The company ha ...

. 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 American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fil ...

'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. ''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. 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. More recently, the film was shown as ''The House in Marsh Road'', its British title, on

Talking Pictures TV Talking Pictures TV (TPTV) is a British free-to-air vintage-film and nostalgia television channel. It was launched on 26 May 2015 on Sky channel 343, but later also became available on Freeview, Freesat, and Virgin Media. It is on air for 24 h ...

in the UK on 11 October 2019. ''The House in Marsh Road'' was teamed with ''

The Monkey's Paw "The Monkey's Paw" is a horror short story by English author W. W. Jacobs, first published in the collection '' The Lady of the Barge'' in 1902. In the story, three wishes are granted to the owner of The Monkey's Paw, but the wishes come with ...

'' (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 The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of f ...

, which defines PG as 'Parental Guidance - general viewing but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children'.

Critical reception

British film critic

Phil Hardy Philip Hardy (born 9 April 1973) is an English-born former Ireland under-21 footballer who played as a left-back. With Welsh club Wrexham from 1990 to 2001, he played more than 450 games under manager Brian Flynn. He was named on the PFA ...

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'. 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'. 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'. 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, avid and Valerie'sviolent deaths are seen as entirely deserved. Jean, it is implied, will move on through life with her new love, Richard'. A reviewer at Britmovie writes that 'this entertaining and atmospheric low-budget feature rises above the standard expected from the much-maligned b-movie.'

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:House in Marsh Road, The 1960 films British horror thriller films 1960s thriller films 1960s English-language films Films directed by Montgomery Tully 1960s British films