DEAD OF NIGHT

'''Dead of Night''' (1945) is a British portmanteau (or compendium) horror film, rare for the period, its various episodes 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.
''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''.

Contents

Plot

See also

External links

Plot

The movie 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 recurring dream. He has no prior personal knowledge of them, but he knows that each has a disturbing story to tell, while he also shows amazing knowledge of spontaneous events in the house as they unfold. The other guests attempt to test Craig's foresight, while entertaining themselves by recounting various stories of the uncanny and supernatural. These include a racing car driver's mysterious premonition; a humorous tale of two obsessed golfers; 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 (Redgrave) who believes his amoral dummy is truly alive. The framing story is then capped by a disturbing twist ending.

See also

The theme of the mad ventriloquist has been visited in other works and media:

★ ''The Great Gabbo,'' a 1928 film starring Erich von Stroheim

★ ''Knock On Wood'' (1954), a Danny Kaye musical-comedy

★ "The Dummy," an episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' television series, starring Cliff Robertson

★ ''Magic,'' a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins

★ The Ventriloquist, a Batman nemesis

External links

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