Dead of Night premiered in London on 9 September 1945.
It is an early horror anthology film. Sadly, critics don’t give these films the credit they deserve. They claim the film isn’t great because one or more of the shorts wasn’t great. As though every minute of an excellent traditional feature is great!
But this works to the advantage of Dead of Night. That’s because of the final short, “The Ventriloquist’s Dummy.” Critics consider it the best ventriloquist dummy film ever made. I don’t necessarily agree. But I don’t exactly disagree either!
Today, critics almost universally love the film. But that was largely true before. Psychotronic icon Michael Weldon loved it. But so did pretentious British critic Leslie Halliwell. He gave it four stars — on a scale where the vast majority of films got zero stars.
The one short that doesn’t work especially with most viewers is one about golf. According to the documentary Remembering Dead of Night, the US distributor removed this sequence from the film. Not because it was weak; because it was scandalous. It seems to endorse polyamory — and maybe even homosexuality.
What is probably best about Dead of Night is that the frame for the shorts works really well. Usually when this is done, the thread is very thin and we finally learn that everyone is in hell. (Okay, that’s an overstatement!)
If you haven’t seen it, you must. And here is a very good print with the correct aspect ratio from Archive:
Dead of Night (1945) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
That’s hilarious about the US removing the golf one. (It is the weakest. At least in The Lady Vanishes, the same two guys being cricket obsessives realize they were jerks and help save the other passengers at the end!)
Probably about a year or two ago, I had no idea who Michael Redgrave was. Now I’ve seen him in a few things, and he’s terrific! And so’s Vanessa.
I like the Robert Hamer sequence, too. Talented guy.
Wait, they DON’T end up in Hell in this one? It kinda felt like it!
I wonder if the cut didn’t have something to do with a slight homosexual context. But it is the silliest of them!
Remind me: what was the Hamer sequence?
Hamer did the one with the cursed mirror. It’s not a great story but it’s sharp directing. He was a gifted dude. (The end of It Always Rains on Sunday has a thrilling train yard sequence.) But he drank his abilities away. I’d criticize this, but let ye without sin live in a glass house.
I don’t know the film you are referring to. Amicus was like the Hammer of horror anthologies. Is it maybe from them?
It’s Dead of Night! A wife gives her husband a mirror. It turns out the mirror has seen a horrible murder. It’s now a Cursed Mirror! When she breaks it, the curse ends. It’s right before the golfer one.
You probably don’t remember it well because it’s a weak story. But it’s well-made in terms of directing.
Incidentally, Dead of Night is also a song by the fun fringe-masked country singer Orville Peck, about male prostitutes. It has the line “spending Johnny’s cash” which is really just awesome. And the high note in the chorus! Damn, I wanna be reincarnated as somebody who can sing like that!
Oh, right! I did watch it again (Twice!) last week. I actually like it. It’s like one of the segments in Body Bags where Mark Hamill gets an eye transplant from a serial killer and starts seeing himself doing terrible things. And I thought the mirror smash at the end was a good way to wrap it up.
Interesting song. I assume it wasn’t played on CMT!
Nope, I doubt it was CMT material. Nor was Peck’s duet with Willie Nelson, “Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other.” But Willie’s a badass.