Dead of Night
1945, UK, Directed by Charles Crichton/Alberto Cavalcanti/Basil Dearden/Robert Hamer
Black & White, Running Time: 103 minutes
DVD, Region 1, Anchor Bay, Video: 1.33:1, Audio: Mono
Invited to a country house for a mysterious social gathering, architect Walter Craig feels an uncanny sense of deja-vu when he meets the other guests. He tells them that he already knows each of them because he has dreamt about that exact situation on a recurring basis, to a point where he progressively recalls more details from the dream before they are about to happen in reality. As his story is vehemently refuted by a present psychologist, the other guests feel encouraged to relay their own tales of the inexplicable: a racing driver’s car crash leads him to have a hallucinatory experience that proves to be prophetic; a girl finds a secret room while playing hide and seek with friends, subsequently discovering what may be the ghost of a child; a man whose antique mirror reveals another location and time in its reflection, but only he can see it; a pair of competing golfers whose desire to prove themselves to superior to each other continues even beyond death; finally, the psychologist’s own story of a ventriloquist whose dummy appears to acquire a personality of its own, with homicidal results. But the day’s events are not the summit of Craig’s visions as he warns that his dream then turns to a nightmare and this is what he apprehensively suggests is to happen at the gathering.
An early example of the anthology film (a sub-genre later coming into its own in the 60s/70s with the likes of Amicus products) Ealing’s Dead of Night has survived to become a minor cult piece for a few good reasons. There are admittedly aspects that are silly and dated (some of the dialogue as well as character/actor reactions to various situations), but in equal measure there are aspects that function efficiently. The antique mirror segment is quite unnerving while the sandwiching story provides an involving and classically atmospheric set up. The chapter about the ghost boy could have been improved with a more convincing lead (the girl playing the part comes across as rather feeble) and the golfing story, while intended to provide comic relief, is out of place and simply not funny (though that’s not to say it wasn’t in 1945). The best part, as often acknowledged by viewers, is the tale of Hugo the malevolent dummy. It’s never established whether the dummy really has acquired a supernatural spirit or his owner has simply gone insane and that’s part of why it works so well. Hugo is also quite a sinister looking thing and scenes such as his owner slapping him round the face during a ‘disagreement’ are both chilling and strangely dramatic. The film’s conclusion is unlikely to astound nowadays but it probably caused a few people to walk away with philosophical ideas formulating in their minds back in the 40s.
Almost a bare-bones disc in the US, Dead of Night looks quite good, though the picture quality varies once or twice possibly indicating the utilisation of more than one source. It’s available on a 2-discer with another British film, Queen of Spades (1949), making it well worth a purchase but there’s also a UK disc containing Dead of Night by itself, though I’ve heard that the image is inferior.