Dead of Night (1945) is a British portmanteau horror film (a gothic or horror anthology) made by Ealing Studios; the individual stories were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave. The film is probably best-remembered for the ventriloquist's dummy episode with Redgrave.
Dead of Night stands out from British film of the 1940s, when few horror films were being produced in the country (horror films had been banned from production in Britain during the war), and it had an influence on subsequent British films in the genre. Both of the segments by John Baines were recycled for later films, and the possessed ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted as the audition episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.
Plot
Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at a country house party where he reveals to the assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream. He appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but he is able to predict spontaneous events in the house before they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining each other with various tales of uncanny or supernatural events that they experienced or were told about. These include a racing car driver's premonition of a fatal bus crash; a light-hearted tale of two obsessed golfers, one of whom becomes haunted by the other's ghost; a ghostly encounter during a children's Christmas party (a scene cut from the initial American release); a haunted antique mirror; and the story of an unbalanced ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) who believes his amoral dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a twist ending.
Cast
Linking narrative
(directed by Basil Dearden)
- Anthony Baird (credited as Antony Baird) as Hugh Grainger
- Roland Culver as Eliot Foley
- Renée Gadd as Mrs. Craig
- Sally Ann Howes as Sally O'Hara
- Mervyn Johns as Walter Craig
- Barbara Leake as Mrs O'Hara
- Mary Merrall as Mrs Foley
- Frederick Valk as Dr. van Straaten
- Googie Withers as Joan Cortland
Hearse Driver sequence
(directed by Basil Dearden; based (uncredited) on "The Bus-Conductor", a short story by E. F. Benson published in The Pall Mall Magazine in 1906)
- Anthony Baird as Hugh Grainger
- Judy Kelly as Joyce Grainger
- Miles Malleson as Hearse Driver / Bus Conductor
- Robert Wyndham as Dr. Albury
Christmas Party sequence
(directed by Alberto Cavalcanti; story by Angus MacPhail)
- Michael Allan as Jimmy Watson
- Sally Ann Howes as Sally O'Hara
- Barbara Leake as Mrs O'Hara
Haunted Mirror sequence
(directed by Robert Hamer; story by John Baines)
- Ralph Michael as Peter Cortland
- Esmé Percy as Mr. Rutherford â€" the Antiques Dealer
- Googie Withers as Joan Cortland
Golfing Story sequence
(directed by Charles Crichton; story based (uncredited) on a story by H.G. Wells)
- Peggy Bryan as Mary Lee
- Basil Radford as George Parratt
- Naunton Wayne as Larry Potter
- Peter Jones as Fred the barman (uncredited)
Ventriloquist's Dummy sequence
(directed by Alberto Cavalcanti; story by John Baines)
- Allan Jeayes as Maurice Olcott
- Magda Kun as Mitzi
- Miles Malleson as Jailor
- Garry Marsh as Harry Parker
- Hartley Power as Sylvester Kee
- Michael Redgrave as Maxwell Frere
- Frederick Valk as Dr. van Straaten
- Elisabeth Welch as Beulah
Legacy
The circular plot of Dead of Night inspired Fred Hoyle's Steady State model of the universe, developed in 1948.
Dead of Night also currently holds a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
In the early 2010s, Time Out conducted a poll with several authors, directors, actors and critics who have worked within the horror genre to vote for their top horror films. Dead of Night placed at number 35 on their top 100 list. Director Martin Scorsese placed Dead of Night on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time. Writer/Director Christopher Smith was inspired by the circular narrative in Dead of Night when making his 2009 film Triangle.
Related
The theme of a recurring nightmare has been visited in other works and media:
- "Shadow Play", a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone.
- "The Secret Miracle", a short story by Jorge Luis Borges also contains a recurring nightmare inside a framing story
The theme of the mad ventriloquist has been visited in other works and media:
- The Great Gabbo, a 1929 film starring Erich von Stroheim
- Knock on Wood (1954), a Danny Kaye musical-comedy
- "The Glass Eye," a 1957 episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents television series, starring Jessica Tandy
- "The Dummy", a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone television series, starring Cliff Robertson
- "Caesar and Me", a 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone television series, starring Jackie Cooper
- Devil Doll, a 1964 film starring Bryant Haliday
- Magic, a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins
- It Couldn't Happen Here, a 1988 film by the Pet Shop Boys
- The Ventriloquist, a Batman nemesis appearing in 1988
- "The Puppet Show", a 1997 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- The Beaver, a 2011 film starring Mel Gibson.
The theme of the fatal crash premonition has also been visited in other works and media:
- "The Bus-Conductor", a short story by E. F. Benson published in The Pall Mall Magazine in 1906 which was the basis for the segment in Dead of Night
- Famous Ghost Stories, a 1944 anthology by Bennett Cerf which retells the Benson short story but changes the main character to a woman and transfers the action to New York City
- "Twenty Two", a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone inspired by the Cerf story
The theme of a mirror casting a murderous spell has been visited in other works and media:
- "The Mirror", a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone.
