No Room at the Inn

I saw this film when I was very young and it had the most amazing effect on me. My Mother took me to the cinema I think not realising that it was to be so disturbing. I now work in the caring industry and have a highly developed sense of justice, fairness and the importance of treating people as you would wish to be treated yourself which I attribute largely to this film. I will never forget it - it is the most haunting film I have ever seen. I would really love to be able to see it again from my adult perspective but cannot find it. Can anyone tell me where I might get a copy? If I had to chose one scene which affected me most it would have to be when one of the children was locked in the outside coal shed - I am now a claustrophobic and can't bear to be shut in anywhere! What a legacy to have been left by a film!!

From the opening shot of a department store, with a background choir singing "Once in Royal David's City," this turns out to be an engrossing, evocative & still-powerful film, which has much merit in the message it portrays. Although it dates from 1948, and I have only seen the truncated version of 63 minutes (does anyone have the full version available?) the film is a credit to all concerned. It carries a direct and hard hitting message, and the influence of the great Dylan Thomas is clear for all to see. The casting is top notch, and Freda Jackson plays a thoroughly despicable, two-faced harridan in grand style. In its day, it must have been a forceful, and probably unpalatable, slice of life, with the exposure of dual standards particularly unsettling in certain quarters. Although a work of fiction, it comes across as very true to life and totally believable. It's a must-see film!

Yes i was in the same boat.With a dragon of a woman chasing my sister brother and me, i think for her sport.The scene that stands out for me was when one of them say's You.v Broke Me Bleed-en feather.I remember very well the war years.Three of my cousins were buried alive in the blitz of Portsmouth.Being a naval port it got it's share.We ended up living in tent's courtesy of the army.I think this film depicted some of the deplorable situations that children were placed in.I think the small amount of comedy gave it the lift it so badly needed.I know it made an everlasting impression on me.I wonder if by to-days standards it would have won Best Picture Of The Year.I should think so.

When I saw the film the first time I was scared out of my wits by Mrs Voray. I could empathize with evacuee children as some of them came to my town at the end of the war. The film can be viewed in full length on the Internet these days. As an adult I interpret the film as the interplay of myth and social realism. Mrs Voray has the attributes of a witch even in her looks but more significantly in her power to bewitch town worthies and others by her smarmy insinuations and false charm. I agree with another reviewer that the film recalls the world of the Grimm brothers, Hansel and Gretel particularly. Dylan Thomas was intrigued by images drawn from the world of witches and sinister occult practices. What saves the play from being a moralizing allegory is its keen almost Dickensian observation of people as they are, foibles and all.

I was Ronnie and my stage name was Stanley Conett (Stanley Heinemann) I played that part for 427 performances at the Winter Garden. Then toured England and Scotland with the show. Also I did the BBC version.It is a pity that you have published the wrong actor's name for the Winter Garden version of the show. I was too tall to be in the film version. The Theater version often caused the audience to erupt with shouting and curses at Fred Jackson. The show ended with the girls suffocating Mrs.Voray and it was different in the movie. Ref -corrected version in Wikipedia.