Berkeley Square (1933), starring Leslie Howard - Fascinating “Back to the Future” movie

Movie Reviewed: Berkeley Square (1933), starring Leslie Howard


This is a fascinating time travel movie (1933) and perhaps the first of its kind that tells the story of a young American who goes back in time to London, after American Revolution, and meets his ancestors and his fiancée. Unlike the modern day box office hit, “Back to the Future,” starring Michael Fox, in this movie Leslie Howard as Peter Standish goes to his family, which obviously creates some strange situations. For example, during the conversation with his fiancée and other members of the family he seems to know the future and predict events as it would happen. This makes them very suspicious and uncomfortable of this visitor from future. Sometimes it gets a little amusing since these folks belong to another culture are ill at ease when Standish uses modern English and puts himself in awkward situation. This is secondary to the romantic fantasy that evolves but which he doesn’t anticipate. He had pledged his love to one woman, but falls in love with her sister played by Heather Angel. This becomes a fantasy and the love story where he and Helen Pettigrew (Heather Angel) expresses true love for each other. They both starred in the Broadway version and it naturally builds up in the movie when they become caring couple. Helen understands that Peter is from the future and through his eyes sees the destructions of war and the cultural change brought forth by technologies, it terrifies her. On the other hand Peter is nauseated with the lack of good hygiene of the 18th century folks, and public hangings, etc., stirs his conscious, hence he doesn’t want to stay in the past. The sad truth of the story is that Standish must accept the fact he will never find Helen in future, and thinking about someone long dead is very much in his mind. He lives in a state of emotional despair looking for the woman he loved 200 year ago.

Time travel is a fascinating concept for centuries for human beings and Hollywood is no exception to this mythical reality. Although this movie is more than 80 years old, the possibility of going back in time is increasingly real and possible according to the current understanding of quantum physics and recent developments in technology.

Leslie Howard offers a brilliant performance as Peter Standish and rightfully nominated for the Academy Award in the best actor category. I strongly recommend this movie to all fans of Leslie Howard and anyone interested in back to the future movies. Very fascinating indeed!