NO ROOM AT THE INN

New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 556, 17 February 1950, Page 15

NO ROOM AT THE INN

¢Pathe-British National) : N? ROOM AT THE UINN, which has, quite sensibly, been released here on condition that children under 16 are not admitted, is scarcely as important as the initial shock-wave of publicity may have suggested. In Wellington it has been advertised, with more enthusiasm than accuracy, as "Wicked but witty: the Film of the record-breaking West End play." As the same advertisement intimated, ‘Reservations are Essential, but having made these it must still be conceded that this is a production.of some quality. Most apparent from the. outset is (that the quality is uneven. In the first place, it should be made clear that this is an emasculated version (by Dylan thomas and Ivan Foxwell) of the play by Joan Temple. As originally written, it was the story of a group of evacuated children, who, through the corruption of a billeting officer, fall into the clutches of a drunken and sadistic harpy. Driven desperate by hunger and ill-treatment the children eventually murder her and so the action is worked out. The screenstory is substantially toned down-th¢ _monstrous Mrs. Voray (played with great effect by Freda Jackson, who took the role on the stage)-dies by mis-/ adventure, and the plot is rather unrayelled at the edges, but the film is still notable fer the’ number. of excellently limned character-portraits which it contains. There are at least a dozen of these. Some of the players (such as Wylie Watson, Billy Howard dnd. Frederick Moran, who appear as shopkeepers and borough councillors), make simple walkon parts memorable. Others, like Freda Jackson and Joan Dowling (a female Artful Dodger) are impressive over longer distances. But the film suffers from poor staging. I should have thought it would not have been hard to find a genuine slum to act as a background.