This article is about the 1945 British anthology horror film. For the 1977 American anthology horror television film of the same name, see Dead of Night (1977 film).
Eagle-Lion Films released Dead of Night theatrically in the United Kingdon on 9 September 1945. Dead of Night is one of the few horror films made in England during the 1940s, as horror films had been banned from production in Britain during World War II. It was also one of the few horror efforts from Ealing Studios, who were primarily known for producing comedies.[5] The film was greatly influential on the horror and anthology film genres, and is regarded by film critics and scholars as a classic.[6][7]
Both of John Baines' stories were reused for later films and the ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.
Plot
Walter Craig arrives at a country cottage in Kent, where he is greeted by his host Elliot Foley. Craig is an architect whom Foley has invited to his home to consult on some renovations. Upon entering the sitting room of the cottage, Craig tells Foley and his assembled guests that, despite never having met any of them, he has seen them all in a recurring dream.
Craig appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but is able to predict events in the house before they unfold. Craig partially recalls that something awful will later occur. Dr. van Straaten, a psychologist, tries to persuade Craig that his fears are unfounded. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight and entertain each other with tales of strange events they experienced or were told about.
Racing car driver Hugh Grainger recalls lying in hospital after an accident. One night, the peripheral noises of the ward cease and the time on his bedside clock changes. He opens the curtains to see that it is daytime, and a horse-drawn hearse is parked outside. The hearse driver calls up, "just room for one inside, sir". After being discharged from the hospital, Grainger waits for a bus. The bus conductor, who exactly resembles the hearse driver, tells him, "just room for one inside, sir". Grainger does not board the bus. As it drives away, the bus swerves and plunges down an embankment.
Sally O'Hara remembers attending a Christmas party at a mansion. During a game of hide-and-seek, Sally hides behind a curtain and is found by Jimmy, who tells her of a murder that once happened in the mansion. She finds a door which leads to a nursery, where she hears a young boy, Francis Kent, weeping. She consoles him and tucks him into bed. When she returns to the main room, she is told Francis Kent was murdered by his sister Constance.
Joan Cortland tells of an incident in which she gave her husband Peter a mirror for his birthday one year. Upon looking into it, he sees himself in a room other than his own. Joan learns that the mirror's previous owner, Francis Etherington, killed his wife on a suspicion of adultery, before slitting his own throat in front of the mirror. Peter, too, accuses Joan of being unfaithful and attempts to strangle her, but she breaks the mirror, returning Peter to his normal mental state.
Foley recounts two golfers, George Parratt and Larry Potter, who both fell in love with a woman named Mary Lee. They decide to play a round of golf for Mary's hand in marriage. Parratt wins by cheating, and Potter drowns himself in a nearby lake. When he next plays golf, Parratt is interrupted by Potter's ghost. Potter demands he give up Mary or else he will continue to haunt him, but finds he has forgotten how to vanish. On the night of Parratt and Mary's wedding, Parratt unwittingly causes himself to vanish, leaving Potter the opportunity to charm Mary.
Dr. van Straaten recollects interviewing ventriloquist Maxwell Frere, who performed with a dummy named Hugo. Upon meeting American ventriloquist Sylvester Kee, Hugo continually speaks about abandoning Frere and working with Kee instead. Frere attempts to silence Hugo, but Hugo bites his hand, drawing blood. Some time later at a hotel bar, Hugo insults a woman, and Frere is blamed. Kee brings Frere and Hugo to Frere's hotel room, placing Hugo on Frere's bed. The next morning, Frere accuses Kee of stealing Hugo, and finds Hugo in Kee's room. He shoots Kee (though not fatally) and is arrested. Van Straaten arranges for Hugo to be brought to Frere's cell, where they have an argument that ends in Frere suffocating and smashing Hugo. Later, in an asylum, Frere speaks with Hugo's voice.
In the country home, Craig strangles Dr. van Straaten. Craig then hallucinates about the stories told by the other guests, before awakening in his bedroom as a phone rings. He receives a call from Elliot Foley, inviting him to his country home to consult on some renovations. Craig's wife suggests that spending a weekend in the country might help him get rid of his nightmares. Craig then drives up to Foley's cottage in Kent as in the start of the film.
Cast
Overarching story at farmhouse
Anthony Baird (credited as Antony Baird) as Hugh Grainger
"The Hearse Driver" is based on the short story "The Bus-Conductor" by E. F. Benson, which was originally published in The Pall Mall Magazine in 1906.
"The Christmas Party" is based on the 1860 murder of Francis Saville Kent, for which his half-sister Constance Kent was convicted in 1865.[8]
"The Golfer's Story" is based on the short story on "The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost" by H. G. Wells. The characters of Parratt and Potter, as portrayed by Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in the segment, are derivative of the characters Charters and Caldicott from Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938). The double-act proved to be popular enough for Radford and Wayne to be paired up as similar sport-obsessed English gentlemen (or occasionally reprising their original roles) in a number of productions, including this one.
Universal Pictures distributed the film theatrically in the United States in a truncated cut that excised two segments: "The Christmas Party" and "The Golfer's Story", which resulted in the final product suffering continuity errors.[10]
From a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin praised the tale of the ventriloquist, stating that it was "perhaps the best" and that it was perhaps Cavalcanti's "most polished work for many years".[3] The review praised Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne for "providing excellent comic relief", and concluded that the art direction (Michael Relph), lighting (Stan Pavey and Douglas Slocombe) and editing (Charles Hassey) combine to make the smoothest film yet to come from an English studio".[3] Film critic Leonard Maltin awarded the film 4 out of a possible 4 stars.[18]
Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 93% based on 42 reviews, with a rating average of 8.22/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With four accomplished directors contributing, Dead of Night is a classic horror anthology that remains highly influential."[19]
Legacy
Dead of Night has widely been regarded as a classic film and one of the greatest horror films of all time,[20] as well as significantly influential on the anthology film genre.[21] 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.[22]Dead of Night placed at number 35 on their top 100 list.[23] Director Martin Scorsese placed Dead of Night 5th on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.[24] Writer-director Christopher Smith was inspired by the circular narrative in Dead of Night when making his 2009 film Triangle.[25]
The circular plot of Dead of Night inspired Fred Hoyle's steady state model of the universe, developed in 1948.[26] After Hoyle, Hermann Bondi, and Thomas Gold viewed the film, Gold speculated, "What if the universe is like that?", referring its circular plot. Hoyle initially rejected the idea, saying, "we will dispose of this before dinner", but as the three astrophysicists discussed it further, they found it difficult to dismiss. Bondi later wrote "Dinner was a little late that night, and before long we all said that this was a very possible solution."[27][28]
^Conolly, Jez; Bates, David Owain (2015). "'I'm Not Frightened… I'm Not Frightened….'". Dead of Night. Devil's Advocates. Liverpool University Press. pp. 59–70. doi:10.2307/j.ctv13842kk.7.
Burton, Alan; Chibnall, Steve (2013). Historical Dictionary of British Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. ISBN978-0-810-88026-9.
Cook, Pam, ed. (2019). The Cinema Book (Third ed.). London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN978-1-838-71869-5.
Gregory, Jane (2005). Fred Hoyle's Universe. Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-191-57846-5.
Lant, Antonia (1991). Blackout: Reinventing Women for Wartime British Cinema. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN978-0-691-00828-8.
Livio, Mario (2014). Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe. New York City, New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN978-1-4391-9237-5.
Markusen, Bruce (2021). Hosted Horror on Television: The Films and Faces of Shock Theater, Creature Features and Chiller Theater. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN978-1-476-64328-1.
Murphy, Robert (2003). Realism and Tinsel: Cinema and Society in Britain 1939-48. London, England: Routledge. ISBN978-1-134-90150-0.
Pirie, David (2024). A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema. London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN978-1-350-30381-2.
Waldrop, M. Mitchell (2022). Cosmic Origins: Science’s Long Quest to Understand How Our Universe Began. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature. ISBN978-3-030-98214-0.
Further reading
Jerry Vermilye, The Great British Films, 1978, Citadel Press, pp. 85–87, ISBN0-8065-0661-X
Jez Conolly and David Owain Bates, "Devil's Advocates: Dead of Night", 2015, Auteur, ISBN978-0993238437
