It recounts the tale of young American Peter Standish, played by Howard (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor), who, explained by S.T.

In 1784, shortly after the United States wins its independence, American Peter Standish sails from New York to England to marry his cousin.

When they have tea with the American ambassador, Peter confides to the diplomat with eager anticipation his conviction that he will be transported back 149 years at 5:30 that day.

He rushes home, and just as he opens the door, he is indeed back in 1784, taking the place of the earlier Peter Standish just as he arrives at the house, then owned by his relations, the Pettigrews.

[6] The New York Times reviewer Mordaunt Hall called it "an example of delicacy and restraint, a picture filled with gentle humor and appealing pathos.

"[3] Variety declared the film "an imaginative, beautiful and well-handled production", but predicted that it would not fare well at the American box office because of the very British cast and dialogue.

[7] John Mosher of The New Yorker also praised the film, writing that "the charm that was in the play is there, with Leslie Howard again in his stage role, and with the good, even poetic, lines conserved, and the handsome eighteenth-century London mounted for us with a great deal of taste.

"[8] Harrison's Reports wrote: "Artistically and handsomely produced and beautifully acted, "Berkeley Square" emerges as high-class entertainment for the better class of picture-goers; it is rather slow for the masses.

[11] In 1951, 20th Century Fox produced a Technicolor adaptation, with substantial alterations to the plot, as The House in the Square (also known I'll Never Forget You and Man of Two Worlds), starring Tyrone Power and Ann Blyth.

In the 1933 film, Standish's mistakes in vocabulary and his foreknowledge inspire suspicion and then fear when he at last speaks openly about the future and his disgust for the 18th century.