SOUND FEATURES: BERKELEY SQUARE (1933)
CREDITS
Released: September 15, 1933
Production Company: Fox Film Corporation
Featured Cast: Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor, Irene Browne, Beryl Mercer, Colin Keith-Johnston, Alan Mowbray, Juliette Compton, Betty Lawford, Ferdinand Gottschalk, Samuel S. Hinds, Olaf Hytten, David Torrence, Lionel Belmore, Tom Ricketts, Hylda Tyson
Director: Frank Lloyd
Producer: Jesse L. Lasky
Cinematographer: Ernest Palmer
Editor: Harold D. Schuster
Casting Director: Phil M. Friedman
Settings: William S. Darling
Costume Designer: William Lambert
Unit Manager : Earl Rettig
Location Manager: R.C. Moore
Sound Recordist: Joseph E. Aiken
Musical Director: Louis De Francesco
Writers: Henry James (unfinished novel “The Sense of the Past”), John L. Balderston (play and screenplay), Sonya Levien (screenplay)
TECH
Runtime 1 hr 28 min (88 min)
Sound Mix Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Color Black and White
Aspect Ratio 1.37 : 1
Negative Format 35 mm
Cinematographic Process Spherical
Printed Film Format 35 mm
The 2011 H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival® in San Pedro was the first to screen a newly restored 35mm print of “Berkeley Square” from 1933.
STORY
Peter Standish has just inherited a house on Berkeley Square in London from a distant cousin, although he is unsure why it was given to him. It isn’t until he moves in that he discovers a special bond with the house. Upon the discovery of further artifacts of his ancestors who had previously lived there, including a detailed diary, Peter comes to believe that he is destined to walk into the house at 5:30pm on September 3rd to assume the life of one of those ancestors.
That man, also named Peter Standish, was an American officer in Washington’s army who walked into the house for the first time at the same moment on the same day 149 years earlier in 1784, shortly after the American Revolution. Then, it was the home of Standish’s distant cousins, the Pettigrews – Lady Ann and her three offspring Tom, Helen and Kate, who would become Mrs. Standish in an arranged marriage. Peter believes he knows what he should do so as not to change history by the details listed in Standish’s diary. Indeed, Peter’s prognostication does become his reality. Beyond doing what is stated in the diary, Peter has to be careful not to divulge information which has yet to happen or that he should not know, and to limit his use of 20th-century English-language idioms. As hard as he tries, Peter’s actions have the potential to alter the course of his own history and his imminent wedding in present day to Marjorie Trant. His experience in 1784 may also bring to light the meaning of certain items as symbols of eternal love.
Written By: Huggo
AWARDS
Nominated for 1 Oscar Award. Another 1 win
1934
Academy Awards, USA
Nominated, Oscar
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Leslie Howard
1933
National Board of Review, USA
Won, NBR Award
Top Ten Films