Critically and commercially successful on release, particularly in British cinemas where it was reviewed as a “notable box office attraction” and over in New York where critic Bosley Crowther viewed it as “the best of a batch of Christmas shows” and praised it for its creative use “of Technicolor to photograph the earthly scenes and sepia in which to vision the hygienic regions of the Beyond”.

It marks a perfect example of many films which came out after the end of the Second World War (including It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)) which were “perhaps tapping into so many people’s experiences of loss of loved ones and offering a kind of consolation” as remarked in a 2006 book, ‘Cross Connections’.

#2 in Total Film’s 2004 ranking of Greatest British Films.

#20 in British Film Institute’s 1999 list of ‘Best 100 British Films’.

#90 in Sight & Sound 2012 ranking of ‘Greatest Films Ever Made’.

In most recent years, it has been critically praised as “one of the greatest films ever made” by Film Critic, Mark Kermode, and when re-released digitally restored and shown in British Cinemas in December 2017 it was described by Kevin Maher for The Times as “essential viewing” and a “definitive fantasy classic”.