Our Mother’s House **** (1967, Dirk Bogarde, Yootha Joyce, Margaret Brooks, Mark Lester, Pamela Franklin, Yootha Joyce, Anthony Nicholls, Phoebe Nicholls) – Classic Movie Review 4198

The 1967 British thriller drama film Our Mother’s House about seven children who hide the death of their deeply religious mother by burying her body in the garden of their dilapidated suburban Victorian home is disturbing and suspenseful. 

‘The children’s story that is not for children…’

Director Jack Clayton’s disturbing, suspenseful and macabre 1967 British thriller drama Our Mother’s House, about seven children who hide the death of their deeply religious mother by burying her body in the garden of their dilapidated suburban Victorian home, is a striking achievement.

The actress Haya Harareet, who was the star of the 1959 Ben-Hur (‘loved him, hated hur’) and was married to director Clayton, co-writes the screenplay with Jeremy Brooks, based on the 1963 novel by Julian Gloag.

The seven Hook kids get rid of home-help Mrs Quayle (Yootha Joyce) and continue life as before, but then Charlie Hook (Dirk Bogarde) turns up, saying that he is their long-absent father.

Bogarde enjoys himself in a useful role from his best period and the seven children – including a trio of future stars, Mark Lester (Jiminee), Pamela Franklin (Diana) and Phoebe [Sarah] Nicholls (Gerty) – give fascinating performances.

Perhaps director Clayton does not quite bring all the unusual material exactly together, but he comes near enough.

Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde.

Though he only appears in the film’s second half, Bogarde (replacing too-costly first choice Richard Burton) earned one of his six BAFTA Best Actor nominations for his performance, two in this same year – also for Accident (1967). He won the BAFTAs as Best British Actor for The Servant (1963) and Darling (1965).

Bogarde recalled: ‘I loved every second of the film, which was one of the happiest I have ever made. On my first morning in the gloomy house in Croydon I was in a bit of a funk. Eight pairs of eyes, ranging from five to 14, gazed at me solemnly. Not a smile, no welcoming grin even. In the little caravan in the scrubby front garden which I had been given to change in, there was a jam jar stuffed with privet and some wilting Michaelmas daisies. Under it was a note: “Let’s hope you’re as good as you’re cracked up to be. You’d better be. Sincerely, The Children.”‘

Phoebe Nicholls is the daughter of co-players Anthony Nicholls and Faith Kent, and she is the mother of actor Tom Sturridge.

Margaret Brooks [Leclere], who plays Elsa, is the daughter of Jeremy Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay. She now works as a TV and film scriptwriter with her husband Eric Leclere and teaches script-writing at UK universities.

Also in the cast are Louis Sheldon Williams, John Gugolka, Gustav Henry, Parnum Wallace, Claire Davidson, Annette Carell, Gerald Sim, Edina Ronay, Diane Ashley, Garfield Morgan, John Arnatt and Jack Silk.

Our Mother’s House is the second of five collaborations between Clayton and French composer Georges Delerue, who wrote the score for Clayton’s The Pumpkin Eater (1964).

Jack Clayton was Haya Harareet’s second husband. They were married in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, in 1984.

Haya Harareet died from natural causes at her home in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England, on 3 February 2021, aged 89.

Her role as Esther, the former slave and daughter of Simonides, steward of the House of Hur, in Ben-Hur, remained her best remembered performance. She was the film’s last surviving credited cast member at the time of her death. She began in Israeli films with Hill 24 Doesn’t Answer, nominated for the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or in 1955.

The cast are Dirk Bogarde as Charlie Hook, Margaret Brooks as Elsa, Pamela Franklin as Diana, Louis Sheldon Williams as Hubert, John Gugolka as Dunstan, Mark Lester as Jiminee, Sarah Nicholls as Gerty, Gustav Henry as Willy, Parnum Wallace as Louis the Children’s Guest, Yootha Joyce as Mrs Quayle, Claire Davidson as Miss Bailey, Anthony Nicholls as Mr Halbert, Annette Carell as Mother, Gerald Sim as Bank Clerk, Edina Ronay as Doreen, Diana Ashley as Charlie’s girlfriend, Garfield Morgan as Mr Moley, Faith Kent as Woman client, John Arnatt as man client, and Jack Silk as Motorcyclist.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 4198

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Haya Harareet co-writes the screenplay.