Some reviews take longer to write than others. This one had me going around in circles. After writing the first paragraph, I nodded off. When I woke up, I diligently finished the rest of it, only to suddenly awaken again to discover that I had only dreamed that I had finished it. Then I had to wade through writing the rest of the review again. Just as I was about to post the darn thing, I suddenly awoke again, having dreamed that I had rewritten the review. Don't be surprised to discover when you've finished reading it that you only dreamed your read it. Where will this all end? Dead of Night is a horror genre classic that emanated from a rather unlikely source.

Historical Background: Ealing Studios was best known for the remarkable series of comedies that they generated under the leadership of Sir Michael Balcon, drawing on the combined talent of writers like William Rose, Compton MacKEnzie, and T.E.B. Clarke, and directors Henry Cornelius, Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, and Alexander Mackendrick. Those great comedies included Passport to Pimlico (1949), Whisky Galore! (1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Man in a White Suit (1951), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953), and The Ladykillers (1955). Balcon et al. occasionally branched out successfully into other genre. With the present film, Balcon and a quartet of four directors invented a subgenre by creating the first highly esteemed horror anthology, Dead of Night (1945). Later entries in the subgenre included Tales of Terror (1962) and Tales from the Crypt (1972). Among non-English language films of this type, one thinks of Kwaidan (1964). Individual ideas found in the present film also proved so fertile that several were reused in later films. One can see shades of this film's finale in Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). The Ventriloquist's Dummy segment was fleshed out and reshot as The Devil Doll (1964). Several of the not-to-be-mentioned twists were incorporated into segments of The Twilight Zone. Why after the success of Dead of Night Ealing Studios never returned to the horror genre is hard to fathom.

The Story: Dead of Night is composed of five separate stories integrated by way of a linking segment, directed by Basil Dearden. Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), a London architect, has driven out to the country to visit a prospective client, Eliot Foley (Roland Culver), who is interested in remodeling his country home. As he arrives, Craig suddenly gets the distinct feeling that he's previously seen Foley's home and that he can anticipate everything that Foley says as they meet. Even the inside of Foley's home is entirely familiar to Craig. Inside, he meets five guests, though he feels that he already knows each one: Mrs. Foley (Mary Merrall), Hugh Grainger (Anthony Baird), a race car driver, Dr. van Straaten (Frederick Valk), a psychologist, Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes), a schoolgirl, and Joan Cortland, a friend of the Foleys. Every line that is spoken to him triggers a déjà vu experience. Suddenly, he realizes that he has met them all before in a recurrent dream that he's been having for years. Craig is understandably nervous. Though he can't remember exactly what happens in the dream, he knows that it turns horrible near the end. Craig recalls, however, that a tall, dark-haired woman will arrive and that Sally will leave before the others. Dr. van Straaten is skeptical and explains away Craig's experience with psychological theory. The others are a bit more understanding, each having had mysterious experiences of their own in the past.

Hugh Grainger is the first to chip in with a tale of his own bizarre experience (The Racer Tale, also directed by Dearden). He had been hospitalized following a nearly fatal accident on the racetrack and had experienced some delirium in the aftermath. Dr. Albury (Robert Wyndham) had been his physician. Grainger had fallen in love with and later married the nurse, Joyce (Judy Kelly). When Grainger had recovered enough to be discharged, he had glanced out the window of his hospital room while dressing and had seen or imagined a strange hearse. The driver of the hearse (Miles Malleson) had looked directly at Grainer and yelled up to him, "Just room for one inside, sir." Later, when Grainger was about to board a bus, he had noted this same strange man operating the bus. When the bus driver repeated the same line, "Just room for one inside, sir," Grainger had been so freaked out that he decided to wait for another bus. The bus he refrained from taking had then driven off a cliff, killing all those on board. As Grainger completes his story, Joyce arrives – the sixth guest – just as Craig had predicted.

Now it is Sally O'Hara's turn to relate her experience with the supernatural (The Christmas Party, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti). Sally had once gone to a Christmas costume party in an old mansion. The children, mostly younger than herself, initiated a game of "sardines," a variant on hide-and-go-seek in which each seeker packs into the hiding place with the original hider until all the seekers have finally found the spot. During the activity, Sally had gotten lost in the maze of rooms in the huge manor house and had come across a boy whom she had not previously seen at the party. Since he was crying, Sally had tried to comfort him. She had learned that the boy had a sister about Sally's own age. Later, rejoining the festivities, Sally had been told that a young boy had once been killed by his older sister in this very house. After finishing her story, Sally is fetched away by her mother, again as Craig had predicted. Once again, Dr. van Straaten concocts a rational explanation.

Joan Cortland relates a bizarre story of her own (The Haunted Mirror, directed by Robert Hamer). When Joan had been engaged to her present husband, Peter Cortland (Ralph Michael), she had given him a gift of an antique, three-paneled mirror. Peter, who is a bit vain, had spent a good deal of time preening in front of the mirror, but one day he had been startled to discover that the room that he saw behind him, reflected in the mirror, was not the same as the one he was in. The bed, for example, was quite different, with large posts, entwined with carvings of vines. Peter's mental health began to deteriorate because of these odd, recurring experiences. Joan had forced him to stand with her, holding her hand, until he had finally seen the true image of the two of them standing there together, with the actual room in the background. After they had been married, the mirror had moved with them into their new home. During a solo trip, Joan had revisited the shop where she had purchased the mirror and had discovered a bed identical to the one described by her husband. Furthermore, the shopkeeper, Mr. Rutherford (Esme Percy) had related to her a story about the bed's origin that made her fear for Peter's safety. She returned home immediately and barely averted a crisis that I'll leave for viewers to discover for themselves.

It is Mr. Foley who relates the next story (Golfing Story, directed by Charles Crichton). Two golfing buddies, George Parratt (Basil Radford) and Larry Potter (Naunton Wayne), were also rivals for the same woman, Mary (Peggy Bryan). She was no help in settling the matter, loving each of them equally. Finally, they decided to let a golf match decide their respective fates. Both men agreed that the loser would disappear forever, leaving Mary to the other. The contest was nip-and-tuck, of course, and the two reached the last hole still tied. Potter reached the green in three while Parratt claimed, falsely as it happens, to have gotten there in two. Potter sank a long putt but Parratt also sank his shorter one, claiming the match and Mary's hand. Distraught, but true to his word, Potter had walked off into the adjacent pond and drowned himself. In heaven, however, Potter discovered Parratt's fraud from the "angel of records." Potter returned to earth as an apparition to haunt Parratt and set things right.

Dr. van Straaten relates the final episode (Ventriloquist's Dummy, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti). It is the most substantial and most acclaimed segment. The story pertains to a famous ventriloquist, Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave), and his dummy, Hugo Fitch (with voice provided by John McGuire). Frere had gradually become so invested in the duality inherent in his act that his personality had split into two segments, one representing himself and the other Hugo. Hugo had come to the point of wanting to sever his partnership with Frere, in order to take up with a rival ventriloquist, Sylvester Kee (Hartley Power). When Hugo had turned up in Kee's room at the hotel, Frere had flown into a jealous rage and shot Kee twice, though non-fatally. Shortly thereafter, Frere had stomped his dummy into debris and then lapsed into a catatonic stupor. Sylvester, having mostly recovered from his wounds, was asked to pay a visit to Frere in the hospital to see if his presence might shake the troubled man out of his somnolent state. I'll leave the outcome of that visit for readers to discover for themselves.

Returning to the wraparound segment of the film, Dearden still has a few tricks up his sleeve. The film's finale turns increasingly surreal and then stuns viewers with two sequential twists that were highly original at the time, though both oft-imitated since.

Themes: The preeminent theme in this film is the same as for all of the Twilight Zone kind of supernatural thriller films: there are mysteries that defy rational explanation. It's not an assertion that I personally buy, in relation to real life, but I support it as a premise for tales of the occult and supernatural. It's an idea that makes for some colorful and fascinating storytelling. I've never personally encountered a single experience in life necessitating a supernatural explanation and I don't trust such experiences related by others, since many people have an emotional investment in furthering irrationality. I'm all for "ghost stories" and other supernatural tales, however, as a variety of literature and good fun.

Production Values: Considering that this film stitched together contributions from four different directors, it has a very respectable degree of continuity. The wraparound story is much better than for most horror anthologies. The only obvious inconsistency in style and tone is in the Golfing Story segment, which has a far lighter and comedic quality than the other segments. It's not such a bad diversion, however. It can be viewed as a bit of whimsy to set the stage for the dark finale. The pace is quick throughout the film, even if part of that derives from the lesser weight of the first two segments. There's little that's special about the look of this film except that it looks somewhat dated. The surreal finale is considerably better than routine stuff, however. I thought segments 3, 5, and the linking story very effective, segments 2 and 4 just adequate, and the first segment rather weak.

There are plenty of strong performances scattered around this film. Michael Redgrave's performance in the Ventriloquist's Dummy segment is the film's highlight and rightfully acclaimed. Redgrave had a great career in such films as The Stars Look Down (1939), The Browning Version (1951), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), The Innocents (1961), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Battle of Britain (1969), and The Go-Between (1971). Mervyn Johns is effective as the protagonist, Walter Craig. He later appeared in Moby Dick (1956) and The Day of the Triffids (1962). I was impressed with Googie Withers as Joan Cortland. She has one of those elegant long necks that I so much enjoy. Her other work includes One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1941) and Shine (1996).

Frederick Valk is very imposing as Dr. van Straaten. Sally Ann Howes, who played the schoolgirl, later appeared as Kitty in the 1947 version of Anna Karenina. Basil Radford and Larry Potter, from the golfing segment, previously appeared in very similar roles in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). Elisabeth Welch belts out a pretty good nightclub number in the Ventriloquist's Dummy segment. Miles Malleson, who plays the hearst driver, is a famous old character actor, appearing in such films as The Thief of Bagdad (1940), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), and I'm All Right Jack (1959).

Bottom-Line: This film's foremost weakness derives from its own success. There have been so many rip-offs of its ideas and format that it no longer seems fresh and original. Dead of Night is 103 minutes in length and filmed in black-and-white. You can acquire the film either as a solo VHS or laser disc or as a two disc DVD set from Anchor Bay (see ChrisJarmick's Review). This is a must-see classic film for horror buffs. Others might give it a pass.

Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older