The Halfway House

Although it is nominally based on the unsuccessful 1940 play "The Peaceful Inn" (which makes no mention of World War II), this film is chiefly inspired by a real incident of the war which had attracted some attention at the time. The Welsh village of Cwmbach had only one bomb dropped on it by the Luftwaffe during the entire course of the war; it fell on a local inn and killed the landlord and his daughter (no-one else). It has never been satisfactorily explained why this incident should have occurred. It had not been part of an air raid; there were none in this remote rural area.

The action takes place on 21 June 1943 exactly one year after the inn was destroyed on the same day Tobruk fell. The calendar in the ghostly inn shows 21 June 1942 as a Thursday. In fact 21 June 1942 was a Sunday.

Opening credits prologue: CARDIFF