Dead of Night
Encyclopedia
Dead of Night is a British portmanteau horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 made by Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...

, its various episodes directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.-Early life:Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a...

, Charles Crichton
Charles Crichton
Charles Crichton was an English film director and film editor. He became best known for directing comedies produced at Ealing Studios...

, Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...

 and Robert Hamer
Robert Hamer
Robert James Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter. He was the son of the actor Gerald Hamer ....

. The film stars Mervyn Johns
Mervyn Johns
Mervyn Johns was a Welsh film and television character actor. He was a mainstay of Ealing Studios.Among his dozens of film roles were Walter Craig in Dead of Night , the Church Warden in Went the Day Well? and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge...

, Googie Withers
Googie Withers
Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

 and Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...

. The film is probably best-remembered for the ventriloquist's dummy episode starring Redgrave.

Dead of Night stands out from British film of the 1940s, when few genre films were being produced, and it had a huge influence on subsequent British horror films; most particularly, the anthology films produced by Amicus
Amicus Productions
Amicus Productions is a British film production company, based at Shepperton Studios, England. It was founded by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg.-Horror:...

 in the 1960s and early 1970s. Both of the segments by John Baines were recycled for later films, and the possessed ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted as an episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape
Escape (radio program)
Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense, it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed...

.

Plot

Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns
Mervyn Johns
Mervyn Johns was a Welsh film and television character actor. He was a mainstay of Ealing Studios.Among his dozens of film roles were Walter Craig in Dead of Night , the Church Warden in Went the Day Well? and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge...

) arrives at a country house party where he reveals to the assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream. He appears to have no prior personal knowledge of them but he is able to predict spontaneous events in the house before they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining each other with various tales of uncanny or supernatural events that they experienced or were told about. These include a racing car driver's premonition of a fatal bus crash; a light hearted tale of two obsessed golfers, one of whom becomes haunted by the other's ghost; a ghostly encounter during a children's Christmas party (a scene cut from the initial American release); a haunted antique mirror; and the story of an unbalanced ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave
Michael Redgrave
Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...

) who believes his amoral dummy
Dummy
Dummy may refer to:*Military dummy:**dummy round—a cartridge that is inert, i.e. contains neither primer nor gunpowder**decoy—fake military equipment intended to deceive the enemy...

 is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a twist ending.

Linking narrative

(directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...

)
  • Anthony Baird (credited as Antony Baird) as Hugh Grainger
  • Roland Culver
    Roland Culver
    Roland Culver OBE was a British stage, film, and television actor.-Life and career:...

     as Eliot Foley
  • Renée Gadd
    Renee Gadd
    Renee Gadd was an Argentine-born British film actress. She acted mostly in British films.-Early life:Gadd was born on a ranch in Bahía Blanca, Argentina in 1908 to immigrants from Jersey. Her father Talbot Gadd was a railway executive who abandoned the family, after which they moved to England in...

     as Mrs. Craig
  • Sally Ann Howes
    Sally Ann Howes
    Sally Ann Howes is a British actress and singer, who currently holds dual British-American citizenship. Her career on stage, screen and television has spanned over six decades...

     as Sally O'Hara
  • Mervyn Johns
    Mervyn Johns
    Mervyn Johns was a Welsh film and television character actor. He was a mainstay of Ealing Studios.Among his dozens of film roles were Walter Craig in Dead of Night , the Church Warden in Went the Day Well? and Bob Cratchit in Scrooge...

     as Walter Craig
  • Barbara Leake as Mrs O'Hara
  • Mary Merrall
    Mary Merrall
    Mary Merrall , born Elsie Lloyd, was an English actress whose career of over 60 years encompassed stage, film and television work.-Stage career:...

     as Mrs Foley
  • Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen...

     as Dr. van Straaten
  • Googie Withers
    Googie Withers
    Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

     as Joan Cortland

Hearse Driver sequence

(directed by Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden
Basil Dearden was an English film director.-Life and career:Dearden was born at Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. He graduated from theatre direction to film, working as an assistant to Basil Dean...

)
  • Anthony Baird as Hugh Grainger
  • Judy Kelly
    Judy Kelly
    -Selected filmography:* Adam's Apple * Money Talks * Crime on the Hill * L'argent par les fenêtres * Hawley's of High Street * Their Night Out * The Love Nest...

     as Joyce Grainger
  • Miles Malleson
    Miles Malleson
    William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly known for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the...

     as Hearse Driver / Bus Conductor
  • Robert Wyndham as Dr. Albury

Christmas Party sequence

(directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.-Early life:Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a...

)
  • Michael Allan as Jimmy Watson
  • Sally Ann Howes
    Sally Ann Howes
    Sally Ann Howes is a British actress and singer, who currently holds dual British-American citizenship. Her career on stage, screen and television has spanned over six decades...

     as Sally O'Hara
  • Barbara Leake as Mrs O'Hara

Haunted Mirror sequence

(directed by Robert Hamer
Robert Hamer
Robert James Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter. He was the son of the actor Gerald Hamer ....

)
  • Ralph Michael
    Ralph Michael
    Ralph Michael was an English actor. He was born in London, United Kingdom.His film appearances include: A Night to Remember, Children of the Damned, Khartoum, Grand Prix, The Assassination Bureau, and Empire of the Sun.Television credits include: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Dixon of Dock Green,...

     as Peter Cortland
  • Esmé Percy
    Esme Percy
    Saville Esme Percy was an English film actor. He appeared in 40 films between 1930 and 1956. He was born in London and died in Brighton.-Selected filmography:* Murder! * The Lucky Number...

     as Mr. Rutherford - the Antiques Dealer
  • Googie Withers
    Googie Withers
    Georgette Lizette "Googie" Withers CBE, AO was an English theatre, film and television actress. She was a longtime resident of Australia with her husband, the actor John McCallum, with whom she often appeared.-Biography:...

     as Joan Cortland

Golfing Story sequence

(directed by Charles Crichton
Charles Crichton
Charles Crichton was an English film director and film editor. He became best known for directing comedies produced at Ealing Studios...

)
  • Peggy Bryan
    Peggy Bryan
    Margaret Eileen "Peggy" Bryan was an English film and stage actress, born in Birmingham, England. She appeared in many films, including most notably as the screen wife of George Formby in the comedy film Turned Out Nice Again...

     as Mary Lee
  • Basil Radford
    Basil Radford
    Basil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance in July 1924...

     as George Parratt
  • Naunton Wayne
    Naunton Wayne
    Naunton Wayne , was a British character actor, born in Llanwonno, South Wales. He was educated at Clifton College....

     as Larry Potter

Ventriloquist's Dummy sequence

(directed by Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto Cavalcanti
Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti was a Brazilian-born film director and producer.-Early life:Cavalcanti was born in Rio de Janeiro, the son of a prominent mathematician. He was a precociously intelligent child, and by the age of 15 was studying law at university. Following an argument with a...

)
  • Allan Jeayes
    Allan Jeayes
    Allan Jeayes was a British stage and movie actor.He starred as Howard Joyce in the original 1927 Broadway production of The Letter and played Sir Lawrence Wargarve in the 1943 London production of And Then There Were None.Jeayes made his film debut in the 1918 Nelson as Sir William Hamilton...

     as Maurice Olcott
  • Magda Kun as Mitzi
  • Miles Malleson
    Miles Malleson
    William Miles Malleson was an English actor and dramatist, particularly known for his appearances in British comedy films of the 1930s to 1960s. Towards the end of his career he also appeared in cameo roles in several Hammer horror films, with a fairly large role in The Brides of Dracula as the...

     as Jailor
  • Garry Marsh
    Garry Marsh
    Garry Marsh was a British film actor. Marsh began acting on the stage at the age of fifteen. He started off in films as a leading man but later became a character actor playing self-important roles.-Filmography:* Long Odds...

     as Harry Parker
  • Hartley Power
    Hartley Power
    Hartley Power was an American-born British film and television actor. He is best remembered for two roles: "Sylvester Kee" the ventriloquist who is shot and almost killed by "Maxwell Frere" as a rival for his "dummy"'s affections in Dead of Night; the chief of the news agency that Gregory Peck...

     as Sylvester Kee
  • Michael Redgrave
    Michael Redgrave
    Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, CBE was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author.-Youth and education:...

     as Maxwell Frere
  • Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk
    Frederick Valk was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen...

     as Dr. van Straaten
  • Elisabeth Welch
    Elisabeth Welch
    thumb|right|200pxElisabeth Welch was an American born singer, actress, and entertainer whose career spanned seven decades, many years of which she was based in Britain....

     as Beulah

Legacy

The circular plot of Dead of Night inspired Fred Hoyle's Steady State model of the universe, developed in 1948.

Director Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...

 placed Dead of Night on his list of the 11 scariest horror films of all time.
Dead of Night also currently holds a 96% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

.

See also

The theme of the mad ventriloquist has been visited in other works and media:
  • The Great Gabbo
    The Great Gabbo
    The Great Gabbo is an American early sound film musical drama film directed by James Cruze, based on a story by Ben Hecht and starring Erich von Stroheim and Betty Compson....

    , a 1928 film starring Erich von Stroheim
    Erich von Stroheim
    Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work.-Background:...

  • Knock on Wood (1954), a Danny Kaye
    Danny Kaye
    Danny Kaye was a celebrated American actor, singer, dancer, and comedian...

     musical-comedy
  • "The Dummy
    The Dummy
    "The Dummy" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:The episode opens with ventriloquist Jerry Etherson and his dummy Willie in the middle of one of his acts, somewhere in New York City. After the act, he goes back to his dressing room and begins to...

    ", a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
    The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

     television series, starring Cliff Robertson
    Cliff Robertson
    Clifford Parker "Cliff" Robertson III was an American actor with a film and television career that spanned half of a century. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film PT 109, and won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the movie Charly...

  • "Caesar and Me
    Caesar and Me
    "Caesar and Me" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:Jonathan West is an unsuccessful Irish ventriloquist. He is perpetually broke, selling valuable keepsakes like his grandfather's watch to pawn brokers to get some money...

    ", a 1964 episode of The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
    The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

     television series, starring Jackie Cooper
    Jackie Cooper
    Jackie Cooper was an American actor, television director, producer and executive. He was a child actor who managed to make the transition to an adult career. Cooper was the first child actor to receive an Academy Award nomination...

  • Devil Doll
    Devil Doll (film)
    Devil Doll is a horror film about an evil ventriloquist, "The Great Vorelli", and his dummy Hugo. Decades after its initial release, it was featured on a 1997 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.-Plot:...

    , a 1964 film starring Bryant Haliday
    Bryant Haliday
    Bryant Haliday was an American actor, as well as producer, of film and stage, who was instrumental in providing a showcase for international film titles in the United States by co-founding Janus Films with his partner Cyrus Harvey Jr.-Early Life and Stage Career:After entering Harvard to study...

  • Magic, a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins
    Anthony Hopkins
    Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...

  • It Couldn't Happen Here, a 1988 film by the Pet Shop Boys
    Pet Shop Boys
    Pet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....

  • The Ventriloquist
    Ventriloquist (comics)
    The Ventriloquist is a fictional character, a supervillain and enemy of Batman in the . The Ventriloquist first appeared in Detective Comics #583 and was created by Alan Grant, John Wagner and Norm Breyfogle...

    , a Batman
    Batman
    Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

     nemesis appearing in 1988
  • "The Puppet Show", a 1997 episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  • The Beaver
    The Beaver (film)
    The Beaver is a 2011 drama film directed by Jodie Foster and starring Mel Gibson and Foster in their first film together since 1994's Maverick.-Plot:...

    , a 2011 film starring Mel Gibson
    Mel Gibson
    Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

    .


The theme of the fatal crash premonition has also been visited in other works and media:
  • "The Bus-Conductor", a short story by E. F. Benson published in The Pall Mall Magazine
    The Pall Mall Magazine
    The Pall Mall Magazine was a monthly British literary magazine published between 1893 and 1914. Started by William Waldorf Astor as an offshoot of the Pall Mall Gazette, the magazine included poetry, short stories, serialized fiction, and general commentaries, along with extensive artwork...

    in 1906
  • Famous Ghost Stories, a 1944 anthology by Bennett Cerf
    Bennett Cerf
    Bennett Alfred Cerf was a publisher and co-founder of Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?.-Biography:Bennett Cerf...

  • "Twenty Two", a 1961 episode of The Twilight Zone
    The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
    The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...

    .

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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