Dead of Night/The Queen of Spades

Starring:Mervyn Johns, Roland Culver, Mary Merrall, Googie Withers, Frederick Valk, Anthony Baird, Sally Ann Howes, Robert Wyndham, Judy Kelly (II), Miles Malleson, Michael Allan, Barbara Leake, Ralph Michael, Esme Percy, Basil Radford, Naunton Wayne, Peggy Bryan, Allan Jeayes, Michael Redgrave, Elisabeth Welch
Director: Charles Crichton, Robert Hamer, Basil Dearden
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Description
DEAD OF NIGHT A group of strangers is mysteriously gathered at a country estate where each reveals a chilling tale of the supernatural. First, a racer survives a brush with death only to receive terrifying premonitions from beyond the grave. Then a teen's innocent game of hide-and-seek leads to an encounter with the macabre. Next, a young couple purchases an antique mirror that unleashes a horrific power from its past. In a lighter vein, two competitive golfers play for stakes that may haunt the winner forever. Finally, a renowned ventriloquist descends into an abyss of madness and murder when his dummy develops a mind of its own. But even after these frightening tales are told, does one final nightmare await them all? Britain's venerable Ealing Studios brought together four brilliant directors -Charles Crichton (THE LAVENDER HILL MOB), Basil Dearden (THE MIND BENDERS), Alberto Cavalcanti (NICHOLAS NICKLEBY) and Robert Hamer (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS) to create this classic chiller that remains one of the most influential horror films ever made. This is the uncut and complete UK version of DEAD OF NIGHT, now newly restored from original archival materials for the first time in decades.

Description

DEAD OF NIGHT A group of strangers is mysteriously gathered at a country estate where each reveals a chilling tale of the supernatural. First, a racer survives a brush with death only to receive terrifying premonitions from beyond the grave. Then a teen's innocent game of hide-and-seek leads to an encounter with the macabre. Next, a young couple purchases an antique mirror that unleashes a horrific power from its past. In a lighter vein, two competitive golfers play for stakes that may haunt the winner forever. Finally, a renowned ventriloquist descends into an abyss of madness and murder when his dummy develops a mind of its own. But even after these frightening tales are told, does one final nightmare await them all? Britain's venerable Ealing Studios brought together four brilliant directors -Charles Crichton (THE LAVENDER HILL MOB), Basil Dearden (THE MIND BENDERS), Alberto Cavalcanti (NICHOLAS NICKLEBY) and Robert Hamer (KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS) to create this classic chiller that remains one of the most influential horror films ever made. This is the uncut and complete UK version of DEAD OF NIGHT, now newly restored from original archival materials for the first time in decades.

Customer Reviews:

Oldie but goodie.......2007-06-27

Black and white. 1949. Actors you may or may not know. No matter, this is a keeper!

Dead of Night/The Queen of Spades.......2007-01-14

Dead of Night is probably one of the best horror/mystery movies that I've seen. I had not seen The Queen of Spades before I bought this set as I was interested in Dead of Night and found it to be just as frightening. I would recommend these two movies to all true horror/mystery fans who can appreciate the more subtle approaches to horror and suspense produced by these British studios.

Two fine, unsettling movies to watch late at night.......2006-10-25

--Dead of Night - Dead of Night remains, sixty years after it was made at Ealing Studios, one of the creepiest and most intelligent of supernatural films. No, it doesn't have creaking coffins, or pale hands edging through a doorway, or Ruritanian vampires. It has a country home set in the warm Kentish countryside, civilized house guests with excellent manners, five stories of unhinged supernatural happenings, and one guest who suffers from nightmares. This is an anthology film, with the stories ranging from ghosts to premonitions to savage possession. They are told by the people who experienced them, and they are all wrapped around by the one guest who 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. "It always starts exactly the same as when I arrived, just now," architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) says. "I turn off the main road into the lane. At the bend in the lane, the house comes into view, and I stop as I recognize it. Then I drive on again. And Foley meets me at the front door. I recognize him, too. And then, while I'm taking off my coat, I have the most extraordinary feeling. I nearly turn and run for it, because I know I'm going to come face-to-face with the six [other guests]." Four of the guests and the host, we learn, have stories of their own.

There's the race car driver's story, directed by Basil Dearden. Hugh Grainger (Anthony Baird) survives a crash but sees from his hospital window a horse-drawn hearse. The driver looks up at him. "Just room for one more, sir," he says with a smile. That's just the beginning.

There's the schoolgirl's story, directed by Alberto Calvalcanti. Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) plays hide-and-seek at a party and discovers a hidden room, a small boy crying...and an older sister.

There's the wife's story, directed by Robert Hamer. Joan Cortland (Googie Withers) buys an antique mirror for her fiancee. It's not long before he sees in the mirror another room from another age, and we learn of a crippled, jealous husband and a strangled wife.

For a chance to exhale and smile, there's the story of two golf fanatics, directed by Charles Crichton, who decide how to have the woman they both love. Elliot Foley (Roland Culver), our host, tells us this story.

And there is undoubtedly one of the most unnerving of horror tales, the story of ventriloquist Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave) and his dummy, Hugo, directed by Calvalcanti. Redgrave gives a tour de force performance as the dominated ventriloquist...but is he dominated by Hugo or by a separate personality. All we know for sure is that Hugo bites.

Weaving through these stories is the dread of Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), who insists he has met the other guests. He knows that he will slap one, that another will break his glasses, that a sixth guest will soon appear. He knows he will do something terrible to someone who has never harmed him. One of the guests, Dr. van Straaten (Frederick Valk), is a psychoanalyst who has a reasonable explanation for all the stories. As the stories are told and as Craig's forecasts happen, van Straaten's rationales become shakier. This connecting story, directed by Dearden, reaches a climax in a psychedelic nightmare of leering faces emerging from the stories, of madly off-balance staircases and dark windows...and of a terrified Walter Craig.

And then a telephone rings. It's morning and we're in Walter Craig's bedroom. He wakes, realizes this was another nightmare and takes the phone. He's invited to spend the weekend looking over a house that needs an addition built. His wife asks who was calling. "Eliot Foley, Pilgrim's Farm...I wonder why that sounds so familiar," he says. "A weekend in the country? I should go." she says. Craig takes a coin and says, "I'll toss for it. Heads I go, tails I don't." Mrs. Craig looks at the coin. "Heads." He smiles and says, "I go." She gives him a hug. "That's just what you need, darling. It'll help you get rid of those horrible nightmares." But was it a nightmare? Or is it still?

Despite there being five tales, the linking narrative and four directors, Dead of Night works as one unified story. Everything fits seamlessly. Even after all these years the stories hold up, particularly those of Frere and Craig. Coming in a respectable second, for me, are the stories of the race driver and the wife. But even the weakest, the schoolgirl's story, is well done. The golfer's story is there to provide some eased tension and it serves it's purpose. The acting is all of a high order, with Michael Redgrave just about extraordinary. I've always been fond of Roland Culver's brisk competence. He's very good as the host. If you watch this movie, bear in mind that up until Dead of Night, ventriloquists' dummies in the movies had always been seen as charming, funny and harmless. Hugo's DNA changed all that forever.

--The Queen of Spades - It's comforting to think that Alexander Pushkin, had he been born a hundred years later than he was, could undoubtedly have found employment writing screenplays for Val Lewton. As it is, we'll just have to put up with all those plays, novels, poems, operas and short stories he wrote.

The Queen of Spades, based on a story by Pushkin, is a marvelously atmospheric and menacing tale of obsession and greed. It takes places in 1806 St. Petersburg. Captain Herman Suvorin (Anton Walbrook) is a poor German engineer serving in the Czarist army. Gambling has become the rage and faro is the card game of choice for all the rich, aristocratic and arrogant young officers who laugh at Suvorin. He hasn't the means to gamble and he hasn't the means to purchase advancement. Then he hears the story of Countess Ranevskaya (Edith Evans), who, a generation earlier, is supposed to have sold her soul for "the secret of the cards"...the three cards to choose which will win a fortune at faro. Amazingly, the Countess is still living, almost a recluse, with a beautiful ward. Suvorin determines to find a way to woo the young woman as a method to gain entry into the Countess' palace and to the Countess herself. He is determined to learn from her the three cards. He does, or thinks he does, and we witness madness and death. Says one character, "I believe all human beings are fundamentally good. I'm convinced of it. Yes, and I believe that evil is a force, a mighty force, that is abroad in the world to take possession of men's souls, if they will allow it to." Oh, Suvorin.

Now if Val Lewton had produced this we might have a cult classic on our hands. As it is, we have a movie which has been nearly forgotten. Too bad. The film might have been made with little money but it doesn't look it. Snow and slush cover the frigid St. Petersburg streets. Candles flicker and gutter. Deep shadows hide cubbyholes and doorways. There are ragged peasants and beggars, an ornate opera house and a dazzling ballroom filled with dancing aristocrats. There is the Countess' palace with it's decorated rooms, angled staircases, bare kitchens and cold servants quarters. There is the Countess' bedroom with it's secret passage and the stone steps leading to a hidden entrance. The black-and-white cinematography is excellent; everything shadowed might hold madness or a threat. Making everything work are the two mesmerizing performances by Walbrook and Evans. With these two actors it's a pleasure just to observe Suvorin's growing obsession and to hear the tap of the Countess' cane and the slow, steady swish of her silk gown.

Anton Walbrook was one of the great actors of his time. Sometimes he would almost teeter on the brink of mannerism, but he'd invariably deliver performances of startling quality. With his intensity, his Austrian accent and his ability to draw out a vowel for effect, it was difficult not to keep your eyes on him. At 53 he is playing 20 years younger and does so with ease. Edith Evans was 57 when she made this, her first film after years of stardom in the theater. She plays a selfish, irritable 90-year-old woman, querulous and suspicious. When Suvorin and the Countess finally meet in the Countess' bedroom, an acting student could learn much just by watching the two. Walbrook has all the lines; Evans watches and reacts. It's a toss-up as to which betters the other.

I think both Pushkin and Lewton would have enjoyed this movie.

The DVD transfer of Dead of Night is fine, although the movie shows its age a bit. The DVD transfer of The Queen of Spades is better than acceptable. It's an old film and looks it, but the picture and audio quality are satisfying. There are no significant extras. There is an eight-page booklet included in the case.

Two British movies.......2006-02-24

"Dead of Night" is a thrilling horror movie with wonderful actors. It has an episodic structure; each member of a group gathered at a country house tells an uncanny story, one more gripping than the next (with one comic exception to relieve the tension). Then the conclusion has a startling twist.

"Queen of Spades", based on a Pushkin short story, is also good, but not quite as effective. Edith Evans gives an impressive performance as the old Countess, but the direction is not as interesting as it is in "Dead of Night".

Dead of Night.......2005-08-10

A literate, British chiller that is more unsettling than scary. Though Rod Serling is not around to confirm it, this could have inspired his wildly inventive Twilight Zone series which followed over a decade later. Hang on particularly for Michael Redgrave's paralyzing turn as a ventriloquist whose dummy controls him.

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