Fear in the Night

Starring:Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott, Charles Victor, Robert Emmett Keane, Jeff York, Michael Harvey, Janet Warren, Richard Keene, John Harmon, Joey Ray, Jack Collins (III), Loyette Thomson, Stanley Farrar, Chris Drake, Leander De Cordova, Gladys Blake, Julia Faye
Director: Maxwell Shane
Studio: Alpha Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Later Hammer Thriller With Sterling Cast And Good Story
Last Hammer thriller from writer/director Jimmy Sangster
GOOD THRILLER FROM HAMMER!!!
Great tension!
Title mix-up

Fear in the Night
Starring: Judy Geeson , Joan Collins , Ralph Bates , Peter Cushing , and James Cossins
Director: Jimmy Sangster
Manufacturer: Starz / Anchor Bay
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00005UW7J
Release Date: 2002-10-08

Customer Reviews:

Later Hammer Thriller With Sterling Cast And Good Story.......2003-11-19

I've long wanted to see this little thriller which was produced in the "twilight" period of Hammer Productions highly successful run with horror and mystery tales. While not the greatest of that famous studios efforts it nevertheless is an intriguing tale that on first viewing does keep you guessing with it's surprise twists and great atmosphere. Written and directed by Hammer's Jimmy Sangster, he is none to flattering of it in his interesting book "Inside Hammer" however I feel this film is long due for a reappraisal.

Blessed with the usual Hammer Studios trademarks of a fine cast and great atmosphere "Fear in the Night", makes enjoyable viewing for thriller watchers without it ever creating "edge of the seat" suspense. In the early seventies Ralph Bates was being touted as the "new Christopher Lee" by Hammer Studios and here he has a good showcase for his excellent acting talents. The story is set in a mysterious school for boys hidden away in the English Countryside. But like so much else in this film as the story unfolds the school is not what it first seems to be. The opening shot of the school grounds with the boy's choir singing in the backgound with the camera panning onto a body hanging from a tree gives you some idea of the "mixed signals" this story gives off. "Fear in the Night", relates the story of Peggy Heller (Judy Geeson), a girl who has suffered a nervous breakdown but has recently married and plans to join her school teacher husband Robert (Ralph Bates) at his new teaching appointment at a boys school. Just before leaving she is attacked by a strange man with one arm and as no one will believe her she joins her husband and tries to put it out of her mind. Settling into a cottage on the campus grounds the school appears to have a strange funeral-like atmosphere to it which is not helped by the unsettling presence on campus of the headmaster Michael Carmichael (Peter Cushing in a smaller than usual role) and his seductive wife Molly (Joan Collins in a very effective performance). Left alone in their small cottage while Robert attends a conference in London Peggy is attacked again by the one armed man and the suspicion is placed on Michael who only has the one arm. As it turns out he is completely innocent of the crime and as the story progresses it is reveled that Robert and Molly are involved in an affair and are using Peggy and Michael in an elaborate scheme to get possession of Michael's property and money. Michael however turns the tables on the scheming pair and in an exciting climax to the story their murderous plans fall in a heap with both Robert and Molly getting their just desserts.

"Fear in the Night" is really one of the better later day efforts by Hammer Studios and what is an essentially 4 character story is acted with great polish by the four leads. Joan Collins is very effective in her small role of the scheming Molly and Judy Geeson displays just the right vulnerable qualities as the young bride who thinks she might or might not, be actually going insane. Ralph Bates delivers a first rate performance as the villian of the piece. His earlier scenes as the loving and concerned husband make way beautifully to reveal the deadly murderer he actually is. The surprise twist in the story while not totally unexpected does still deliver a jolt and the build up to the climax as Peggy now finds herself in danger from all quarters is first rate. One of this films great strengths is it's evocative atmosphere, from the eerie halls of the "fake" school to the shots on the somehow sinister grounds of the estate both during the day and night scenes. A genuine feeling of menace and apprehension is felt in particular in the earlier scenes as we are introduced to this school and its strange inhabitants. My one regret is that horror veterans Peter Cushing and Joan Collins as husband and wife never share any scenes as the combination of these two talents would have greatly benefited the story.

As a later day Hammer effort this film is essential viewing for all lovers of this studio's work. With a story deliberately unfolding at a slower pace and then building up to an exciting climax with numerous suitable red herrings thrown in along the way for good measure it makes enjoyable viewing for those that like good atmosphere and believable characters even in an unbelievable story such as this. Boasting seasoned talents such as Peter Cushing, long a star of many fine Hammer horror efforts, combining well with developing talent such as Ralph Bates, at that time seen as a future star of the studio's productions helps make "Fear in the Night", a great piece of mystery viewing.

Last Hammer thriller from writer/director Jimmy Sangster.......2003-06-02

Hammer referred to them as "mini-Hitchcock's". Fear in the Night is the last in a series of fine thrillers Hammer made during their long successful run. Director/writer Jimmy Sangster (screenwriter on Horror of Dracula, Curse and Revenge of Frankenstein among many others)creates a fine atmospheric thriller.

The story centers around a young woman (Judi Geeson) who has recently had a nervous break down and a one armed man that may or may not be still stalking her. Her husband (Ralph Bates) is given a post at a new boy's school. The stalkings continue and she suspects at one point that the headmaster (nicely played by Peter Cushing in a glorified cameo)may have something to do with all that's going on. Joan Collins also appears as the flirty headmaster's wife.

Adapted from a script that Sangster had sold to Universal years before, Fear in the Night has been seldom seen since its initial release in 1972. While it isn't the best thriller produced by Hammer, it recaptures some of the studio's more atmospheric productions from the early to mid-60's. The cinematography is evocative and helps create both the mood and tension of the piece. While Hammer puttered on for a number of years after Fear in the Night was produced, it was truly the last strong production from the studio. When it was released it was paired with another thriller Straight On Till Morning and the double bill failed to find an audience. Shortly after its release, Jimmy Sangster and Hammer severed their long partnership. It's a pity as Fear is an intelligent suspense thriller the type that Hollywood has forgotten how to produce.

The DVD transfer is crisp althought I found the colors to be a little washed out. Given the stock used and the time when the film was produced, it's not that much of a surprise. Still, the print is clean and in almost prisitine condition all things considered.

The DVD also has a running commentary by writer/director Jimmy Sangster that is most enlightening. He provides both the context within which the film was produced at Hammer and a good overview as to why it may have failed to find an audience. Given that it came out around the same time as Hitch's brutal Frenzy, it probably suffered in comparison.

GOOD THRILLER FROM HAMMER!!!.......2003-05-01

Judy Geeson ("TO SIR, WITH LOVE") is a newly married young woman who keeps getting attacked by a one-armed man and nobody believes her, probably because she just had a nervous breakdown. She and her hubby (RALPH BATES) move into a cottage at the country school where he is a teacher and more attacks occur. This is a well cast, well writen thriller and one of Hammer's better film's of the 70's. Geeson is very good as the jumpy heroine as is Peter Cushing as the odd headmaster of the school. Joan Collins (pregnant at the time) is also good as Cushing's wife in a small role. I liked the creepy atmosphere of the empty "school" and found the story and it's surprise ending very satisfying. The DVD is the usual fine disc I've come to expect from ANCHOR BAY. The anamorphic widescreen picture is crystal clear and the sound is very pleasing. A trailer, audio commentary with writer/producer/director Jimmy Sangster and liner notes are the extra's. If your looking for a fine, old-fashioned thriller, this is it. Highly recommended! Enjoy! -George Bauch.

Great tension!.......2003-01-14

Overall I would rate this as a very good film. It's filled with a lot of tension and suspense and you expect things to jump out at every corner. The review of this film at the top gaves away the whole story so whatever you do, don't read it! I have read some negative reviews of this film from people who say that it's very slow moving, but that just adds to the suspense. And what Hammer film isn't slow moving?? Check it out for yourself. I was pleasantley surprised.

Title mix-up.......2002-09-01

It says clearly at the top of the page Fear in the Night (1947).
But what is actually for sale here is the British remake from 1979. Buyer beware.

Average customer rating:

A++++++
A solid bottom half for a double bill, thanks to Paul Kelly and Cornell Woolrich
"Last night I dreamed I killed a man."
Oneiric Little B-Noir. One Man's Bad Dream Becomes His Real-Life Nightmare.
Nice film noir

Fear in the Night
Starring: Paul Kelly , DeForest Kelley , Ann Doran , Kay Scott , and Charles Victor
Director: Maxwell Shane
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000098ZT0
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Customer Reviews:

A++++++.......2007-01-19

Problem free transaction. Product as described, very nice. Will buy from this seller again

A solid bottom half for a double bill, thanks to Paul Kelly and Cornell Woolrich .......2006-12-06

Fear in the Night may be just another B movie designed to fill out a double bill, but it has some good things going for it. And that makes it a watchable, interesting noir.

Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelly), a pleasant, unexceptional young bank teller, wakes up one morning after a horrendous nightmare. He dreamed he was in a mirrored room, locked in a terrible fight with a strange man. He finds himself with a sharp-pointed awl in his hand and he drives it into the other man's chest. Then he drags the body into one of the small rooms behind one of the mirrored doors. When he wakes he's covered with sweat. He makes his way to the bathroom in the small hotel room he rents and finds thumbprints on his throat and blood on his hand. In his coat pocket he finds a blue button and an odd-shaped key. He makes his way to his sister's house to talk with her husband, Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly), a police detective. Herlihy just puts Cliff's story down to stress. But a couple of days later, driving out for a picnic with his girl friend, his sister and Cliff, Vince suggests they go to Salado Canyon, a place he's never been to before. In a downpour, Vince directs them to a large, dark house he's never seen. He knows where the key is under the mat. The house is empty, with the furniture and curtains covered by large, white drop cloths. He goes upstairs with Cliff and finds a small, mirrored room, and behind one of the mirrored doors, bloodstains.

Vince's nightmare is just beginning. Did he kill a man in the house? Why would he? Who were the two people killed there when Vince and Cliff talked with a local cop? Cliff Herlihy now is convinced that murders took place, that Vince wasn't responsible...and that Vince still might be a killer. Clever deductions take place, traps are set, and Vince almost pays with his life.

The movie may have been made to be the bottom half of a double bill, but is still is a lot of fun to watch. First of all, it's efficient. At just 72 minutes, the movie doesn't waste a moment. Blink your eyes and you'll lose a clue, miss a motivation or lose out on some affectionate by-play between the detective and his wife. Second, the movie has several nicely constructed moments. Vince's nightmare is well-handled. The house where the murder took place is big and a little creepy. Vince's hotel, the New Commodore, and the downtown street where it's located looks exactly like a lot of similar places in the late Forties. Vince's encounter with a man who is holding a candle is odd and unsettling. The relationship between Vince's sister, Lil Herlihy (Ann Doran) and her husband is a nice combination of affectionate bickering and genuine love. Third, while all the actors do nice jobs, Paul Kelly as Cliff Herlihy is a standout. Kelly was a fixture in B movies and he almost always was better than his material. He played bad guys and good guys, but his style was confident and tough. And he was tough. In the Twenties he spent two years in San Quentin for killing a man in a fist fight. He was a fine actor who, if given a chance, was just as good playing off-kilter or cowards. The scenes he has with Gloria Grahame in Crossfire are weird and memorable.

Most of all, the story has that terrific pulp noir feel; not great, perhaps, but satisfying. The story came from "Nightmare" by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish. Woolrich's pulp mysteries are still among the best, and I doubt if anyone had more noirish movies made from his books and stories. Here are some, from Wikipedia:

Original Sin (2001 film) (novel "Waltz into Darkness")
Union City (1980 film) (short story "The Corpse Next Door")
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972 film) (novel Rendezvous in Black)
Nightmare (1956) (story)
Rear Window (1954) (story "It Had to Be Murder")
No Man of Her Own (1950) (story "I Married a Dead Man")
The Window (1949) (story "The Boy Who Cried Murder")
Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948) (novel)
I Wouldn't Be in Your Shoes (1948) (novel)
The Return of the Whistler (1948) (story)
Fear in the Night (1948) (story "Nightmare") (as William Irish)
The Guilty (1947) (story "He Looked Like Murder")
Fall Guy (1947) (story "Cocaine")
The Chase (1946 film) (novel The Black Path of Fear)
Black Angel (1946 film) (novel)
Deadline at Dawn (novel) (as William Irish)
The Mark of the Whistler (1944) (story)
Phantom Lady (1944) (novel) (as William Irish)
The Leopard Man (1943) (novel Black Alibi)

Read 'em and enjoy. See 'em and enjoy.

The Alpha Video DVD release of this public domain movie is no better than you'd expect. It's watchable. There are only six chapter stops and they're arbitrarily placed. The back-cover blurb on the DVD case talks about Cliff Herlihy being "stricken by horrific nightmares." It's Vince Grayson who has the nightmares; Herlihy is Grayson's brother-in-law cop. This will give you some idea of the attention being given to these old films.

"Last night I dreamed I killed a man.".......2006-10-11

I didn't expect much when I picked up the DVD "Fear in the Night" but was pleasantly surprised by this gripping little psychological thriller. Based on a Cornell Woolrich story and directed by Maxwell Shane, the film is the story of mild-mannered bank teller Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelley) who wakes up one morning after an extremely disturbing dream. In the dream, Vince is inside an octagonal shaped, mirrored room, and here he struggles with, and then kills a man. The dream lingers even after Vince wakes up, and to his horror, he finds thumbprints on his throat and blood on his hands.

Vince is convinced there's something real to his dream, and he's so disturbed about it, he can no longer function in his job. His girlfriend, Betty (Kay Scott) would like to help, but Vince won't confide in her. Instead, he turns to his brother-in-law Cliff (Paul Kelly), a homicide detective, for help. Cliff initially dismisses Vince's nightmare, but then when several bizarre incidents take place, Cliff begins to take Vince's nightmare seriously. Together, Cliff and Vince discover a trail of murder, deceit and skullduggery, and they begin to piece the mystery together.

The story perfectly complements the nightmare scenario. Memories gradually return to Vince through subconscious recognition, and the nightmare sequences are filmed very cleverly. This Alpha DVD version is acceptable quality. Some of the scenes are a little dark, but not unwatchable, and a couple of white flashes appear in the print. The sound quality is good, and just a few minor break-ups of the film fritter at the seams--displacedhuman

Oneiric Little B-Noir. One Man's Bad Dream Becomes His Real-Life Nightmare. .......2006-07-15

"Fear in the Night" is a semi-supernatural thriller adapted by the film's director Maxwell Shane from Cornell Woolrich's story "Nightmare". This is a true B-movie, complete with clumsy but not ineffective visual effects, clocking in at only one hour and 10 minutes. As in so many B-movies of the 1940s, the economical narrative gives us a lot of movie in a short time. It lacks the hard edge and stylistic sophistication of many film noirs, but "Fear in the Night" probably falls within the noir style. Its introverted, chaotic, paranoid universe inside the protagonist's mind is the stuff that both existential and surrealist thinkers found to love in film noir.

"Fear in the Night" opens with a puzzling, vaguely lit scene inside an octagonal room with mirrored walls. It hardly seems real. A man and a woman are trying to drill a safe when another man interrupts them. The two men struggle, and the second man kills the first. The next morning, Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelley) awakes from a nightmare of killing a man in that room. But evidence suggests that it may not have been a dream. Unsure if his memory is real or imagined, tormented by violent visions, he seeks the advice of his police detective brother-in-law Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly). Cliff insists that the dream could not be real. Vince's uneasy, muddled mental state persists, so Cliff to browbeats him into accompanying the family on a picnic in the country. Vince begins to remember the landscape . Seeking shelter from a thunderstorm, he leads them to a house with the octagonal mirrored room. Now Cliff is convinced that Vince is a murderer and a liar.

It's unfortunate that Vince's character is not fleshed out more. But the confusion, torment, and alienation that bring him to the brink of self-destruction come across strongly. That's why "Fear in the Night" works. Vince is an Everyman suddenly plunged into a nightmare, unsure of his own mind, unable to connect with the people who care for him. He doesn't even know if the situation is one of his own making or something that fate has cruelly thrust upon him. His life is suddenly out of his control. I can't say that DeForest Kelley is anything more than adequate. Credit for what this film does well has to go to its director. It's not a polished film. The score is overbearing. But "Fear in the Night" gets us inside of Vince's living nightmare. The Alpha Video DVD (2003) is full of specks and spots and has generally poor picture and sound quality, including some clipped dialogue. It's watchable but nothing more. No bonus features.

Nice film noir.......2005-03-10

As it has been mentioned before, the quality of this movie isn't very good. It's only a B-movie and it looks like they saved money by not using enough light and cutting the film with an axe.
But - the actors are great. I bought the movie because I'm a DeForest Kelley fan and interested in his early work. I was impressed. He's very believable as a man who doesn't know if he's commited murder. Paul Kelly gives a solid performance and the story is unusual. The movie is not as good as "Laura" or "The Woman in the Window" but has it's moments. If you like old fashioned movies or want to know what Kelley did before he made westerns and science fiction, "Fear in the Night" is worth your time and money.

Film Noir Triple DVD Feature (Fear In the Night / D.O.A. / The Hitch-Hiker)

Average customer rating:

Film Noir Triple DVD Feature (Fear In the Night / D.O.A. / The Hitch-Hiker)
Starring: Ida Lupino , DeForest Kelley , and Edmond O'Brien
Manufacturer: Good Times Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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