DIRECTED BY
Charles Crichton, Alberto Cavalcanti,
Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer
STARRING
Michael Redgrave, Googie Withers & Mervyn
Johns
***** ***** *****
EMPIRE TIME OUT RADIO TIMES
“A classic of English cinema” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian.
This classic portmanteau from Britain’s legendary Ealing Studios is
justifiably one of the most revered and successful horror anthologies ever made.
Composed around a group of strangers that is mysteriously gathered at a country
estate where each reveals their chilling tale of the supernatural, it features
appearances by many of the best British actors of its day, including Mervyn Johns, Ralph Michael, Basil Radford
and Michael Redgrave.
Featuring four directors and four writers, each
responsible for one of the individual flashbacks that are loosely worked together
with immense psychological sophistication, Dead of Night is one of just a
handful of ‘true’ British horror films of British cinema’s first half-century,
paving the way for the AMICUS and HAMMER horror cycles a decade later.
The tales begin, and circle around, architect Walter Craig (Mervyn
Johns, Went The Day Well, The Halfway
House). Invited to the country mansion of a wealthy patron (Roland Culver, Thunderball, The Life and Death of Colonel
Blimp). On arriving the assembled guests each tell him of their ghostly
experiences. A racing car driver is given a warning of death, a young girl
meets a boy who was murdered 100 years ago, a woman's husband is possessed by
an evil mirror, a man's friend is haunted by the spirit of his golfing partner
and a psychologist encounters a ventriloquist whose dummy has a mind of its
own.
Weaving through these stories is the Walter’s dread, for he realised on
arriving he knows the house, knows the host and knows the other guests even
though he has never seen any of them before. He knows them in his nightmare, a
nightmare he has had over and over. One of the guests, Dr. van Straaten
(Frederick Valk), is a psychoanalyst who has a reasonable explanation for all
the stories. But as they are told and as Walter’s premonitions of events at the
mansion materialise, van Straaten's rationales become shakier. Even after the
last of the terrifying tales are told, does one final nightmare await them all?
The answer lies in a psychedelic climax centring on the terrified Walter Craig.
The film was a truly collaborative venture,
including many of the figures who dominated Ealing's output during and after the War.
Directors Charles Crichton and Robert Hamer, writer T.E.B.
Clarke and cinematographer Douglas Slocombe represent the
popular Ealing comedies. Basil Dearden would pioneer
the postwar 'social problem' film and veteran Alberto Cavalcanti
had already made his mark with Went the Day Well? (1943) and was a
hugely influential figure at Ealing
Voted as one of his best horror films
of all time by Martin Scorsese, Dead of Night's influence has been keenly felt
ever since its launch on British screens, via the work of Hitchcock, The
Twilight Zone and a host of imitators of its masterful anthologized structure.
Special Features;
- Remembering DEAD OF NIGHT featurette (75 mins).
- Restoration comparison.
- Stills gallery.
- Trailer.
DVD
tech specs: Cert: PG / Region 2 / Total Running Time: 100 mins / B&W PAL /
Feature Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 / Feature Audio: Mono 2.0 / English Language / Catalogue
No: OPTD2670 / RRP: £17.99.
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