Endless Night

Starring:Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Britt Ekland, George Sanders, Robert Keegan, Peter Bowles, David Healy, Robert O'Neil, Aubrey Richards, Nicholas Courtney, Windsor Davies, Lois Maxwell, Geoffrey Chater, Helen Horton, David Bauer, Steven Wallen, Mischa De La Motte, Patience Collier, Walter Gotell, Ann Way
Director: Sidney Gilliat
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

True-blue Agatha Christie fans know better than anyone that the creator of Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot did not always write crime-solving procedurals. Endless Night, published in 1968, is a perfect example of the moody, psychological thriller Christie sometimes explored, particularly in the late years of her career. This 1972 adaptation, scripted and directed by seasoned British filmmaker Sidney Gilliat, is indeed a strange duck: a compelling tale of small, unsettling phenomena and events, but with no defining mystery, no apparent crime to pull the details together--not until quite late in the story, that is. Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett, partnered together in several films (The Family Way, Twisted Nerve) during the 1960s and '70s, play an American heiress and an underemployed London chauffeur who marry and move into a dream house designed for them by a world-class architect (Per Oscarsson). In short order, things begin to get mighty weird. A crazy old woman stomps around the couple's property, whispering ambiguous warnings. The bride's nuisance of a sister (Britt Ekland) moves in, and a handful of disapproving relatives keep popping up to belittle the hero. Where this is all leading is entirely unexpected--Christie and Gilliat really have us falling without a parachute for a while--yet it's exciting and tragic all at once. Nice performances all around, with special admiration for Oscarsson's role as the dying architect. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

....some are born to endless night........2007-02-28

This Agatha Christie thriller has adapted very well to the screen. Hayley Mills and Hywel Bennett make an excellent team in this very dark and mysterious story of love, and greed. Bennett has understood what`s wanted from him for the film and gives a fantastic performance. The haunting theme by Bernard Herrman adds colour and depth to this story which although made in the 70's, has aged very well.
Definitely not to be missed. Dir. Sidney Gilliat.
From Meryl Heasman [...]

Endless Night - dated, but still a good watch.......2007-02-08

For lovers of Agatha Christie and Hayley Mills this is a "should see". Although very early seventies in look, especially the Gypsies Acre dream home, this film still satisfies with a twisted plot and good performances by Mills, Ekland and Bennett.

Tricky.......2006-08-29

I'd love to be able to rave about this quirky movie, but it has rather too many flaws to make it a real gripping chiller, and not enough real action. Although saying that, it's flaws are small, and some of it's minor parts are actually quite impressive.

The biggest hurdle to get over as you settle down to watch this film is the problem of just what sort of film is this trying to be? The story takes us on a rambling journey through the life of Michael, a lazy and not entirely honest drifter, who works mostly as a chaffeur - when he's not being fired for being too cheeky to the rich clients. Michael has a strange, listless life, in which he dreams of setting up home in a particularly beautiful spot he has found in the country. In between doing this and visiting his disappointed old mum, he meets and romances an attractive young girl called Ellie, and after a lot of, well nothing really, they marry and get an architecht to build a dream home for them in the idyllic location. It's after they move in that things start to go a bit wrong, which is good news for the viewer because almost an hour of the films running time is gone before anything other than the mildly diverting actually starts to happen.

I can't say any more about the plot, except that if you don't know the story you should hopefully be pleasantly surprised by a few twists in the tale. The film looks good, albeit firmly planted in the 1970's, especially the scenes that show the very dated mod-cons of the supposed "dream house". I'd say this is more than a character study than anything, with Michael being the main focus for your attention. Although many pointers are dropped into the film to suggest that Michael is teetering on the wrong side of insanity, he is played rather vacantly by Hywell Bennett, who, despite giving him the required air of instability, never takes us very far beneath the surface of the character. Despite the fact that Michael also narrates much of the tale with a voice-over, I still ended up very confused about his true character.

Hayley Mills makes a delightful heroine, despite a very poor US accent that all but disappears most of the time, but Britt Ekland makes little of the enigmatic Greta, which is a shame after the film makes such a concerted effort to telegraph the mysterious nature of this character before she ever appears on screen.

What helps the film rise above a rather lacklustre plot are some sumptuous outdoor locations, along with some very daring fast cuts and flashbacks to vivid imagery, such as Michael's childhood frozen lake tragedy, and his memory of an ominous wall-hanging featuring a large eye. Michael's other visions include a nightmare in which Ellie has no face, and another in which he encounters her beside a tree, frozen in a smiling pose almost like a shop mannequin, which I found very eerie. In fact the film as a whole is very good at being odd. It chucks in a few rambling minor weirdos like the crazy old lady, and the main characters are forever asking each other things like: "Why is so-and-so riding his horse past our window even though he lives 15 miles away?"... These little oddities scarcely ever come to anything, but they do have the combined effect of making you think that everything is going to turn out very badly without ever actually spelling anything out.

The film belongs to a long-gone era of British pyschological thrillers from the 1970's, which I would suggest also includes "Neither The Sea Nor The Sand" and "The Beast In The Cellar"... all cold, windy countryside based affairs with lots of atmosphere and earnest British character actors, but not a lot of box office success. "Endless Night" might entertain you on a wet afternoon, and probably best so if you are willing to give time a film that does not seem to fit into any particular genre.

A Shocking Twist For a Well Made Movie.......2005-11-26

Endless Night was not exactly what I would call a horror or a thriller, but the suspense and feeling that I got while watching this film were very strong. This movie had no unneeded scenes, characters, or phrases. Everything played an important part in the plot of this movie. The plot began as the mood was set as dull and sympathetic. Then all of a sudden, about 45 minutes into the film, the twist hit me harder than any I've ever seen before. I had to watch the movie twice to catch all the details. Hywel Bennett successfully portrayed Michael Rogers, and in doing so, captured several important literary elements. After all, a movie is simply a translation of a work of literature onto the big screen. As I was uncovering all of the twists to this movie, I realized that nothing was as it seemed. A perfect symbol was used to represent this movie - an auction. I hope that others may feel the same way as I did about this movie.

See it for Hayley and the Bernard Herrmann score.......2005-09-24

One of Agatha Christie's last and least characteristic novels, "Endless Night" doesn't feature either of her series detectives. In fact, it doesn't really ask the question "whodunit?" so much as "will the guilty ones get caught?" The big problem with the movie is that Hayley Mills is so darn attractive (her future husband's first glimpse of her dancing in a field is heartbreaking)that you can't imagine anyone wanting to do her in, not even for a fortune. Hywel Bennett, a former chauffeur, is one lucky guy. Not only does he marry a beauty, but she's an heiress to boot. And isn't that some kind of house their architect friend builds for them! But when you have a list of co-stars that include an ultra-smooth George Sanders (in one of his last film roles), a disappointingly dowdy Britt Ekland, and an icy Lois (Miss Moneypenny) Maxwell, you know things are about to head south for the happy couple. And once Hayley, as the lovely Ellie, exits the screen, the lights go out and it's endless night for the viewer as well as the bride.

Trapped (Lloyd Bridges) / the Third Eye (Jeff Bridges) / Suddenly , the Man with the Golden Arm (Frank Sinatra) / the Squeeze (Karen Black) / Kansas City Confidential (Lee Van Cleef) / Mister Scarface , the Four Deuces (Jack Palance) / Cry of the Penguins , Deadline (John Hurt) [10 Movie Set]

Average customer rating:

Trapped (Lloyd Bridges) / the Third Eye (Jeff Bridges) / Suddenly , the Man with the Golden Arm (Frank Sinatra) / the Squeeze (Karen Black) / Kansas City Confidential (Lee Van Cleef) / Mister Scarface , the Four Deuces (Jack Palance) / Cry of the Penguins , Deadline (John Hurt) [10 Movie Set]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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