Dead of Night (1945)

Director: Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer

Year: 1945

Country: United Kingdom

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Summoned to a strange house, a man welcomes five strangers together as one reveals he's dreamed about them. When the others confess to the same strange feeling, one of them offers to hear their stories and figure out why they know each other.

Review:

Hearse Driver-Suffering from a motorcycle accident, a racer awakes in a hospital, lucky to be alive. Tending to his injuries, he keeps having recurring nightmares about a hearse driver coming in the night for him. Convinced it's nothing more than leftover feelings from the crash, he gets over the feelings and leaves the hospital, only to feel it is still after him. This one really could've been quite good, as the premise is solid and is balanced out by two rather well-done action scenes in the carriage chasing after him, but unfortunately, it's too short to mean anything. Barely twenty minutes long, it feels incredibly chopped down and doesn't offer much time for anything, and although it's creepy, not a lot happens in that time, which knocks it down considerably.

Christmas Party-Living in a giant house, a girl decides to play hide-and-seek with the other children there and goes off hiding. Selecting a strange bookcase, she finds it leads to a bedroom that she doesn't recognize, and when she returns, she finds that she's been the subject of a ghostly encounter. Again, although this one is much too short and features one of the most laughable weak endings ever, it's also quite enjoyable. The house has a fantastic Gothic atmosphere to it that lends a lot of credence to it. The ghost action is nice, if again a little short and definitely should've been more chilling, especially with the wraparound, but there are some nice scenes in here courtesy of the game. It's certainly a watchable story.

Haunted Mirror-Stuck for a present, a woman finds a rare picture frame and gives it to her fiancée for his birthday. Immediately loving it, he begins to act strangely as the wedding day approaches, not like himself, and a little worn out. Crediting it to stress, he claims it to be the mirror, and as time goes on, he starts to become obsessed with the mirror to the point of madness. This is the first actually well-done entry in the series and certainly satisfies on many levels. There's an abundance of atmosphere in this, which is always nice to have and really works in its favor. The mystery with the mirror here takes centerstage, and it's done well, slowly building up with the reflected image that only appears within and how it affects the sole viewer, which is the proper way to handle this seemingly ridiculous storyline seriously, and the early scenes showing him alone viewing the image within are inherently creepy. It's taken over the edge in the spectacular sequence where they both look into it, reflecting the normal version for her and then the same trick for him, despite her insistence at it's fallibility. The scenes that come in from the backstory are just great as well. The main issue with this is that it does seem to take an incredibly long time to get to something that should've been done much earlier, since it's clear what it's going to take to take it out, and taking so long to get there is a little troublesome for a few out there. Otherwise, this one here is a winner all-around.

Golfing Story-Both obsessed with their friendship, two pals decide to put it on test over the woman who is the object of their affections. Managing to cheat his way to her heart, he offs himself on the golf course, returning as a ghost to haunt him. When they both get tired of the situation, he tries to vanish, only to forget how and tries to remember how, to their annoyance. This one here really should've been much better. The set-up is brilliant, the suicide sequence is classic, and the initial hauntings are pretty nice, especially on the golf course. However, once it starts with the ghost forgetting how to disappear, it gets incredibly campy and ruins the feel and flow of the segment before. It's a one-note joke played out for far too long, rendering the whole thing a disappointment and hampering the segment considerably.

Ventriloquist's Dummy-Given a new case-study, a psychologist finds that a fellow prisoner has gone mad and tries to get to the bottom of the whole thing. Since his ventriloquism act is gaining popularity, he finds many admirers of him and his puppet's work, enough to believe that a fellow ventriloquist wants to steal him away for his own act, resorting to deadly means to keep the puppet away from the others. This one here is the hugest let-down, given its history, especially since the puppet is repeatedly made out to be alive. The fact that it's never definitively proved is part of the problem, but also because the segment doesn't really have any effective moments to make us think otherwise. Most of the segments supposedly to depict it as being alive are either just lame or not all that effective at generating suspense. The story has potential, the puppet is creepy-looking, but the wrap-around following it is much more effective, and that alone is enough to watch this one.

Overview: **.5/5

Overrated but still watchable early anthology entry, there's still more than enough to enjoy here than expected, as some of the segments are incredibly effective despite the few duds that lower this one overall. Give it a shot if you're a fan of this era of genre fare, are a hardcore anthology fan, or are curious about it, while most others out there should heed caution.