Dead of Night

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Dead of Night
Dead of Night release poster
Directed by	Alberto Cavalcanti Charles Crichton Basil Dearden Robert Hamer
Starring	Michael Redgrave Mervyn Johns Frederick Valk Roland Culver
Release date(s)	September 1945 (UK release)
Running time	102 min.
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

This article is about the 1945 film. For the Fighting Fantasy gamebook, see Dead of Night (Fighting Fantasy).

Dead of Night (1945) is a British portmanteau (or anthology) horror film, rare for the period, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave. The film is probably best-remembered for the "ventriloquist's dummy" episode starring Redgrave.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film opens with architect Walter Craig (Johns) arriving at a country house party where he reveals to the other assembled guests that he has seen them all in a dream and that although he has no prior personal knowledge of them he knows that each has a disturbing story to tell, while he also shows amazing knowledge of events in the house as they unfold. The other party members attempt to test Craig's foresight while also relating their own stories linked to the uncanny. These include a racing car driver's mysterious premonition; a humorous tale of two obsessed golfers; a children's Christmas party ghost; a haunted mirror; and the story of a ventriloquist who believes his dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a disturbing twist ending.

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 following British horror films most particularly the anthology films produced by Amicus 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, as well as serving as the basis for the William Goldman-scripted film Magic.