Berkeley Square/I'll Never Forget You

Berkeley Square
(1933)
Directed by Frank Lloyd
Written by John Balderston (play, screenplay), Sonya Levien (screenplay)
Starring Leslie Howard, Heather Angel, Valerie Taylor, Irene Browne
IMDB Entry

Time travel is a common trope these days, but, outside of Will Rogers's A Connecticut Yankee and several silent iterations of A Christmas Carol, it rarely made it to movie screens. I was surprised to see that one of the earliest sound features with time travel as a major element was Berkeley Square, and its remake I'll Never Forget You.

Peter Standish (Leslie Howard) lives in a house in Berkeley Square in London and is fascinated by its history, finding letters and diaries from its inhabitants from 1784. He begins to believe that he'll be transported to the time and finds it happening.  He takes on the identity of his ancestor from America* and falls in love with Kate Pettigrew (Valerie Taylor), even though arrangements were made for Standish to marry her sister Helen (Heather Angel).  Kate has been betrothed to a gross, rich merchant, a way for her family, who are in financial straits, to get on their feet again.

Peter starts causing trouble by using words that haven't been coined, and by mentioning things that haven't happened yet. People wonder why he can know these things. At the same time, he misses all the 20th century conveniences.**  Kate learns his story and urges him to return to his own time. She says they'll be back again one day in heaven.

Peter returns to his own time. His 18th century counterpart has been in his place, with people thinking he is mad.

The movie is quite slow moving and takes some time to get to the story (though it does open with a frame tale of Peter traveling to London). 

I'll Never Forget You
(Alternate title: The House on the Square)

(1951)
Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Written by Ranold MacDougall, based on the play Berkeley Square by John L. Balderson
Starring Tyrone Power, Ann Blyth, Beatrice Campbell, Michael Rennie, Irene Browne
IMDB Entry

The remake keeps the same basic plot but does add some differences.  Peter (Tyrone Power) is now an atomic scientist*** who tells his friend Roger (Michael Rennie) of his theory of time travel, and, after a literal stroke of lightning, Peter goes into the past. He falls in love with Helen (Ann Blyth) and she begins to discover where he came from. Peter invents some more modern technology -- electric lights, for instance -- and Helen is impressed. But history says he marries Kate (Beatrice Campbell). In addition to that complication, Peter is deemed mad and sent to Bethlem Royal Hospital (i.e., Bedlam) before he finally returns home. It is then that he meets Roger's sister Martha -- who looks exactly like Helen.

The remake tries to explain the time travel element, but it really doesn't add anything to the film. In this one, though Peter really isn't very smart and goes much too far in giving himself away.  But the ending is a bit better, with its hint that Martha and Peter may be together. And, like The Wizard of Oz, the opening and ending sequences (in the present) are in black and white, while the scenes from the past are in color.

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*Also named Peter Standish

**Plumbing, especially

***Though that has nothing to do with the main plot.