Our Mother's House

Go Away, Go Away, Go Away! Our Mother’s House is directed by Jack Clayton and adapted to screenplay by Jeremy Brooks and Haya Harareet from the novel of the same name written by Julian Gloag. It stars Dirk Bogarde, Margaret Brooks, Pamela Franklin, Louis Sheldon Williams, John Gugolka, Mark Lester and Yootha Joyce. Music is by Georges Delerue and cinematography by Larry Pizer. When seven youngsters are left orphaned by the death of their bedridden mother, they decide to keep her passing quiet case they get split up and sent into orphanages. The youngsters prove to be quite resourceful and tick along nicely, that is until one of the boys brings a friend home to live with them; just as the children’s estranged father appears on the doorstep. At first glance it seems material ripe for an Ealing Studios piece, a whimsical fable of adorable youngsters taking on the world in trying circumstances, Our Mother’s House is a far cry from such a thing! It’s a creepy off-kilter film of some considerable class, containing psychological insights into seven children adapting and improvising in life by creating their own new order. The results are both enlightening and frightening. They have a weekly séance type of set-up where they believe they are talking to their dead mother, they administer their own punishments and forge their own cheques! But of course this self sufficient life can’t p…

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