Dead of Night
Reviews
John Chard
A weekend in the country? I should go. Architect Walter Craig arrives at Pilgrim's Farm for a weekend party held by what he hopes is a prospective client. Upon entering the farm house, Walter amazes everyone by telling them that he has a recurring nightmare about the house, the weekend and everyone in it. This sets off talk about the supernatural and each guest takes it in turn to recount their own strange tale... Dead Of Night is brought to us courtesy of Ealing Studios, somewhat a veer from the normal output associated with that bastion of British cinema, it is none the less one of the finest films to have come from the place that gave us The Ladykillers, Kind Hearts And Coronets and The Man in The White Suit. I often wonder if Dead Of Night sometimes wrongly gets marked down by the modern audience on account of its familiarity with creepy anthology shows such as One Step Beyond and The Twilight Zone? Or because of the numerous other movies with the same horror format that followed this, the best of them? There are five segments in Dead Of Night that are jointly directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (Went the Day Well?), Basil Dearden (Victim), Robert Hamer (Kind Hearts and Coronets) and Charles Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob). In the cast we have Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes, Roland Culver, Frederick Valk and a stunning Michael Redgrave. The stories consist of "The Hearse Driver," "The Christmas Story," "The Haunted Mirror," "The Golfing Story" and the chilling crowning glory that is "The Ventriloquist Dummy" (the latter being responsible for my fear of talking dummies even to this day). In spite of my obvious love for this film (it "is" the greatest anthology spooker ever) I'm aware that it suffers from a variance of pace (the bane of anthology films), whilst the light relief in the form of "The Golfing Story" , whilst being a jolly bit of cinema, is in truth a segment that doesn't sit quite right. More so when you consider it precedes the film's acknowledged Dummy led high point. Yet dust off the terribly British cobwebs and you find a hugely influential picture in the pantheon of horror anthologies. A film backed up by two genuinely creepy episodes (RE: The Haunted Mirror as well as that damn Dummy one). Thankfully, as Ealing films have found a new audience on DVD, Dead Of Night has been subjected to worthy and complimentary re-appraisal. Especially in America, where confusion reigned back in the day as two segments were cut from the released picture (segment 4 Golf and segment 2 Christmas), I mean imagine trying to make sense of character continuity there! So turn off the lights, listen to the sharp dialogue, and always keep one eye on what's stirring in the shadows, especially at the Dead Of Night... 9/10
CinemaSerf
Ever since I was a small child I have loathed ventriloquist's dummies. They put the fear of death into me - and I am fairly certain that seeing this film in the 1970s is to blame. It's a compendium of four stories told by guests at a farmhouse, and is all kicked off by Mervyn Johns ("Craig") who has a recurring - and rather menacing - dream that predicts doom and gloom. Before he can finish his story, though, we hear from three of the others. One involves a married couple where the husband becomes drawn into the life on the other side of his mirror: a mirror that comes from a room with a grisly past. The second is a more light-hearted haunting mystery with Basil Bradford and Naunton Wayne before the third, featuring an effective Michael Redgrave, is the one with the ghastly puppet - and then it is all rounded off by Mervyn. Thing is - is any of it real? Is is prophetic? Well you have to get to the end, and even then... It is well written and editing together. The episodic nature of the stand-alone stories works well keeping them short and snappy and the swathe of character actors who pepper the whole hundred minutes are all well cast and deliver solidly as we build to quite a gripping - if short - denouement. Watch in the dark with a glass or two and the rain beating against the window and this is really quite effective!
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