Movies - Dead of Night

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	Movies - Dead of Night

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.

Plot

The film opens with architect Walter Craig (Johns) arriving at a country house party where he reveals to the other assembled guests that although he has no prior 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 humorous tale of two obsessed golfers, a children's christmas party, a haunted mirror and the story of a demonically possessed ventriloquist's dummy. The various story chapters are 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 served as the basis for the William Goldman scripted film Magic
.

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