Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Admirable film.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Set in 1900, after being on the market for 40 years, a mature couple buy a large house but when a young lady joins them as a companion she becomes possessed by the ghost of a tragic former occupant. This is not a horror film as such, rather a drama wit some supernatural element. Some wonderful flowing camera work and great acting (I think that James Mason is one of the best actors to come out of the UK). There's a delightful scene where Dennis Price is taking Margaret Lockwood for a spin in his new automobile, which can reach a dizzy 8mph! A delightful film, perhaps just a tad slow though.

Other comments have mentioned that this story of ghosts, possession and romance is slow. And it does have its longueurs. I don't know how much time is spent on establishing the fact that Lockwood, who is like a daughter to the elderly couple, Mason and Mullen, is possessed by the spirit of an invalid who died in the house forty years ago. It's wasted time. The film seems slow not because it's intrinsically dull but because it's too long. It might have made a perfect episode of "The Alfred Hitchcock Hour." James Mason is at his best being suave or moody. Here, he's crippled by an abundance of old-age make up and an attempt at some kind of exotic English dialect. He's a well-off, no-nonsense retired businessman who unwittingly buys a haunted house, and he harumphs around denying that anything strange is going on, even when something strange is going on. His more sensitive wife realizes something is up, but not until the end does Mason come around, and even then he opts for straightforward first-order change.As the possessed chief factotum, Margaret Lockwood is okay but looks a bit older and, more important, stronger than she did in "The Lady Vanishes." She's supposed to be wasting away, calling out for "Doctor Marsham", the doc who could have saved the life of the now-departed invalid. The problem is that Marsham moved away years ago and no one has any idea where he is, or if he's still alive. Her fiancé, the young and handsome doctor, Dennis Price, doesn't believe in ghosts and can do nothing to help her.At the end, the spectral Dr. Marsham shows up and gets the job done, but he's always in shadow and photographed from behind, so it's difficult to tell that he's the celebrated character actor, Ernest Thesinger, the mad scientist who had a penchant for shrinking kings and queens in "The Bride of Frankenstein." The tale takes place around the turn of the century, during the Boer War, and it's interesting to observe the details of a proper middle-class English country life -- the exchange of visiting cards, the lawn parties at which everyone is dressed up as if it were Easter Sunday. The cups of tea. The little glass of port after dinner.On the whole, if you liked, say, "The Uninvited" or the sentimental but amusing "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," you'll probably enjoy this.

A nifty little ghost story in which possession is part of the lore. James Mason as an elderly retired draper buys a lovely old manse at a bargain price...because the real estate agent forgot to mention that it's haunted. His wife's companion, the lovely Margaret Lockwood, suddenly starts playing piano melodies she never heard before and takes to her bed, pleading "Send for Dr. Marsham." But her fiancée is Dr. Selby. Mason is marvelous as a retired old coot. Barbara Mullen is splendid as his practical wife. And a very young Dennis Price is a loving -- and bewildered -- young medic. If you enjoyed "The Haunting" and "The Uninvited," pay a visit to "A Place of One's Own."

I had always been interested in watching this well-regarded British ghost story – but was still pretty much blown away by it, being generally deemed too low-key for complete success. The film (the U.K. equivalent to THE UNINVITED [1944]) is notable for James Mason's playing of a character role much older than his 36 years; he's fine as always, but is matched by Barbara Mullen as his wife – and the whole proves a nice showcase, too, for the young Dennis Price as a doctor. The latter falls for and eventually treats Margaret Lockwood, Mullen's ingénue companion – who, on the old couple's inexpensive acquisition of a fashionable but notorious country-house, becomes possessed by the spirit of the latest female occupant (she had been ill-treated by both masters and servants and would die separated from her lover, another medic). Directed by a former cinematographer (his debut and unquestionably best effort), the period atmosphere is exceedingly well deployed throughout – thanks to Stephen Dade's probing camera-work and the elegant production design, particularly the mansion's interior. There are few genuine scares, yet the film generates some definite frissons along the way: Lockwood, a mediocre pianist at best, suddenly playing a piece faultlessly in front of guests; the girl's spontaneous quotation from a poem she readily admits to being unfamiliar with; and, especially, her close encounter with an unseen entity (woken up by the piano mysteriously playing at night, we hear its lid being violently shut when she enters the room, followed by the camera's swift panning – suggesting something had gone past her – and then hushed voices plotting murder in the hallway). Also worth mentioning in this regard, however, are the enigmatic 'orders' given to the old couple as well as the gardener (a surprising straight turn from comedian Will Hay's frequent sparring partner Moore Marriott) respectively requesting a certain doctor's presence and the unearthing of a locket (subsequently cleaned just as inexplicably). Eventually, the former lovers do get together one more time – the girl obviously in Lockwood's form and the medic now reduced to an old man (played by none other than Ernest Thesiger, whose entrance here towards the end of the film is almost as impressive as the one in BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN [1935]) – but, tellingly, the camera cuts away at this precise moment, as if we what they had to say was meant for their ears only!; following this, there is a twist involving Thesiger's character – which I actually predicted, but it certainly adds to the poignancy of the reunion. All in all, a little gem of a film displaying plenty of brooding style but also surprising warmth (not a feeling one usually associates with ghost stories).