Customer Reviews

Dead of Night

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Just in case you thought you finally found a reasonably priced DVD of the classic 1945 chiller "Dead of Night", be advised, if you order the single disc edition with the b/w cover and "CV" logo in the upper left corner, as pictured for this listing, this is what you'll end up getting:

The "DVD" is actually a DVD-R, with a transfer that looks like it originated from a fair quality VHS, but with occassional freeze-frames and digital noise due to a spotty render. No extras, no subtitles, and only a basic chapter-selection menu.

It is advertised as "new"... and I supposed that may be technically true, to the extent that it isn't "used". "New" in the sense that after the disc emerged from the DVD-burner, it got put it in a case and shrink-wrapped without anyone watching it first, even in the interest of basic quality control. Not usually what one thinks of when buying a "new" DVD.

The black and white sleeve art appears to be a scan of a 1989 Congress Video Group VHS edition (hence that "CV" logo on the front). There is even a customer service number of "1-800-VHS-TAPE" on the rear of this "new" "DVD" sleeve...

SO... if you really MUST have a copy of this film, don't want to spring for the pricier, out-of-print Dead of Night/Queen of Spades double-feature, and don't mind a dodgy transfer on a DVD-R, go for it.

UPDATE: Looks like they've modified the sleeve art from the description I posted above (perhaps trying to disguise the crappy product...?)

Released by Britain's legendary cinematic power-house, Ealing Studios, in 1945, 'Dead Of Night' is one of the earliest - and still most accomplished - portmanteau horror films ever to be released on an unsuspecting public.

Prefiguring the likes of Twilight Zone - The Movie by nearly forty years or so, each tale within the film is the work of a different director (Alfredo Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton and Robert Hamer), is adapted from an original short story (by luminaries such as H.G. Wells, Angus McPhail, John Baines and E.F. Benson) and is linked together by a very nicely unfurled bridging-tale which compels the audience to keep watching.

Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) arrives at the Kentish farmhouse of the affable Eliot Foley (Roland Culver) in order to measure up the specifications of a remodelling job. But Craig is gripped by an awful sense of foreboding - he's sure he's been to the house before and his sense of deja-vu is compounded upon being introduced to the other guests staying at the house: society wife, Joan Cortland (the stunningly beautiful, if implausibly named, Googie Withers); psychiatrist, Dr. Van Straaten (Frederick Valk); racing driver, Hugh Grainger (Anthony Baird); youthful neighbour, Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) and Foley's mother (Judy Kelly).

Craig informs his fellow guests that he has dreamed the events that are unfolding and Van Straaten, ever the rationalist, attempts to palliate his sense of unease. However, Foley, Cortland, Grainger and O'Hara are less than convinced. You see, they've all had run-ins with the bizarre themselves and, as the film progresses, they recount their stories one by one...

And what stories they are - we are treated to tales of ominous hearse drivers; eerie mirrors; haunted houses; spectral golfers and demented ventriloquists.

'Dead Of Night' is very much a film of it's time. It's production values, although excellent by rationed British post-war standards, may seem dated and rickety to younger audiences and it's incorporation of a musical number may seem antiquated by today's sensibilities, but its elevated above what may be perceived by some as these shortcomings by an excellent script, earnest performances (Johns, Withers, Falk and Michael Redgrave, as a tortured ventriloquist, are particularly good), and a brilliantly demented streak of black humour which is overt not only in the deeply amusing tale of spectral golfers - which satirises the British middle-class obsession with golf and 'fair-play' - but in subtler instances (upon being informed, by her daughter, that Craig has suffered a premonition in which he will hit the child savagely, the deeply horsey O'Hara matriarch responds with an indulgent grin and a rebuff of "Oh well, I'm sure he can hit somebody else instead!")

Whether you're a fan of British cinema, portmanteau horror films in general, or just a more genteel era of film-making, consider 'Dead Of Night' a must-see.

This "CV" version, alas and alack, is the same one being sold on the website of a well-loved three-letter cable network whose genial host, Robert Osborne, introduces most of the films. However, same network shows this gem from time to time, so one might be just as well off making a home copy next time it airs.
Sad, sad, sad.

This film is a nice collection of ghost stories -- all understated, in that veddy British manner -- arranged around a central theme. Typically for a British production, the acting is first rate (as, with such notables as Michael Redgrave involved, would be expected). If you like thoughtful stories and don't subscribe to the slice-and-dice school of ghost stories, you'll like this little gem.

Dead of Night is a terrific film. The DVD I received, however, would not play properly. It skipped, had odd artifacts and would randomly stop at times. Therefore I had to return it for a refund. The picture quality was also poor. It's an old movie and is very difficult to find a good print.

READ THE LAST SENTENCE FIRST.

I bought this 2007 issue (black and white--more or less-- cover (very interesting, too, although there is not a 1 to 1 correspondence between all the fanciful pictures and the 5 episodes, and the monster picture is not of he kind of monster in this film ), bare bones presentation (nothing but the movie and "scenes"--no subtitles). I bought it from Nostalgia Family Video, Movies Unlimited--to which amazon directed me at the bottom of one of their "Dead of Night" pages. Why? Because I was tired of all the grousing around here! I bought it to replace the "Dead of Night" "Queen of Spades" combination (at the moment selling for over $100), because that one was sticking in several places and the soundtrack was wearing out. The contrast in the new one is fine at all times. The movie is JUST...FINE!

It is NOT crystal clear. It is NOT like most of the copies of "The Red Shoes" (1948) I have seen, And a few others. There are some speckles during the first 5 minutes, and though I heard lines I never heard before, there are STILL a few I can't understand. The focus tends to be great up close, but distance shots are not as clear. I would love to say: it hasn't been remastered, except:

I saw this film in a theater, within the last 20 years (I also saw it in 1945), and, since everyone in the main room in the movie was smoking constantly, the air became full of smoke. It actually interfered a little with watching the film at one point. At this point, there was a murmur of laughter throughout the audience around me. That smoke is now gone. Can one remove smoke from a room without remastering? I assume there was little real smoking in "Good Night and Good Luck," (2005) because the room never became full of smoke; it is either this, or that they had the smoke removers working overtime as they filmed.

Mervyn Johns plays the main character, the architect, to whom everything that happens at the house he is to make changes in...is a half-remembered, recurring dream...

BASIL DEARDEN directed the beginning, the end, the connections and the first reported--occult happening ("Just room for one inside, Sir!") Short, sweet and frightening. The psychiatrist (Frederick Valk), we now surmise--is going to object to the actual occult nature of ALL the stories, including the wonderful one he himself tells. At least, he hasn't stopped objecting yet (Johns' recurring dream and the first story).

Do I believe in this supernatural stuff? Hadn't thought about it.

I didn't care for the "Mirror" one very much, except for the antiques seller. I mean, I was glad they solved their problem, and lived happily ever after, but they didn't interest me much. Now the first owner of the mirror, his actions seemed to suit his qualities as a man better. (You'd think the woman would have inquired about the "provenance" of the mirror before she brought it home to her fiance, leaving them both unsuspecting).

I liked Sally Ann Howes' "Sardines" story a lot. The inns and outs of the old house as well as the little boy, soon to be so horribly murdered, and all the young people crowding around in their costumes...and how her mother, who arrives to take her away, when she says the architect has to hit her, so she can't leave, says "I'm sure4 he can find someone else to hit."

Which is plenty of humor, combined with that inherent humor in the last story and various other places so we don't need the golfing story! It is funny, and self-satirizing--but it's too funny for this movie. Unless, of course, your WHOLE LIFE revolves around golf.
It's directed by Michael Creighton, at that time the most famous director of the 4 involved with the film.

Which brings us to the psychiatrist's story, which--although he said it "made him wonder, quite a lot," he has a psychological explanation for. It's about a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave, in perhaps his best role on screen), his dummy (Hugo Fitch, who speaks with Redgrave's voice, although Redgrave is not doing a ventriloquist thing, in spite of having had some experience with it), and Sylvester Kees, another ventriloquist--with whom Hugo flirts, constantly. Hugo teases Frears (Redgrave) unmercifully, calls him nasty names, and even...bites him (sic). Without treating Hugo in any way inappropriate to a dummy, , carrying him or speaking to him--except the one time he slaps him--, Redgrave behaves--like a possessive, jealous lover*, who is constantly belittled by the object of his affections...Cavalcanti, who had directed a few things in England already--made his name with this one!

The end of that one is Wonderful; so is the end of the movie.


*You are by no means required to believe this, but I did think of it before I read Brief Encounters, all only about a month ago. I was glad that someone agreed with me, though.

***

I just saw part of this film on TCM. The picture was clear, though it tended to break up once in a while. The sound was AWFUL. I think we have, some of us, seen one print of this movie, and others have seen other prints...at least TCM showed it with subtitles!

This review is of the Ealing Studios NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom - single disc. It played great on my format-free Toshiba DVD player. This version includes ALL of the stories; in the USA release, one was edited out, and it is my favorite in the film, so I'm happy to have acquired this DVD. As far as the technical complaints of other viewers, I was rather pleased that this version had not been "doctored." I expected it to be exactly what it is: a 1940s movie. I didn't expect it to meet the standards for visual and auditory quality that one would expect from a modern film, so I wasn't disappointed. The stories were interesting, well-acted, and scary without being bloody or violent.

I did not buy this dvd I downloaded this after hearing so much
about it. I am a big horror/mystery collector and can't believe
I never saw this on tv before. It should be considered a classic!
I agree with some of other reviews it's the first anthology of
horror stories like Hitchcock presents or Twilight Zone or Thriller.
I think it's most like Thriller. The stories are so well written and
the acting is fantastic. The ending is incredible. I was surprised
cause it's so strange and weird for the time filmed. You'd expect this
in the 60's or now but not in 1945. How this movie gem isn't considered
a horror mystery classic is amazing. The download quality is quite good
but of course not perfect but that's what i love about old movies. I don't
enjoy them cleaning them up so perfect they don't look the same to me.
I highly recommend this but I don't know about this dvd quality.