Dead of Night
Dead of Night release poster
Directed by	Alberto Cavalcanti Charles Crichton Basil Dearden Robert Hamer
Produced by	Michael Balcon
Written by	John Baines Angus MacPhail
Starring	Michael Redgrave Mervyn Johns Frederick Valk Roland Culver
Music by	Georges Auric
Cinematography	Jack Parker Stanley Pavey Douglas Slocombe
Editing by	Charles Hasse
Distributed by	Ealing Studios
Release date(s)	September 1945 (UK release)
Running time	102 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

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. Image File history File links DeadOfNight1. ... Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. ... Charles Crichton. ... Basil Dearden was an English film director, born Basil Dear in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, in 1911. ... Robert Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter, best known for his work at Ealing Studios in the 1940s, including the celebrated comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), with Dennis Price and Alec Guinness. ... Sir Michael Balcon (19 May 1896–17 October 1977) was a British film producer, best known for his work with the Ealing Studios. ... John Baines is the incumbent Professor of Egyptology at the University of Oxford, England and the author of multiple scholarly articles and publications relating to ancient Egyptian civilisation. ... Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes (1938) Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, KBE (March 20, 1908 — March 21, 1985) was an English actor and the son of the Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. ... Mervyn Johns (1899-1992) was a British film and television character actor. ... Georges Auric (February 15, 1899 – July 23, 1983) was a French composer, born in Lodève, Hérault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. ... Jack Parker (born March 11, 1945 in Somerville, Massachusetts) is the current head coach of the Boston University Terriers mens ice hockey team. ... Douglas Slocombe is a British cinematographer who has enjoyed a long career in the British film industry. ... Ealing Studios, a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London, claims to be the oldest film studio in the world. ... // Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring ghost named Casper With Rossellinis Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... Dead of Night (ISBN 0-14-031708-2) is a single player roleplaying gamebook, written by Jim Bambra and Stephen Hand, illustrated by Martin McKenna and originally published in 1989. ... // Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring ghost named Casper With Rossellinis Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins. ... A portmanteau film or omnibus film is a film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme or premise. ... DVD cover showing horror characters as depicted by Universal Studios. ... Alberto de Almeida Cavalcanti (February 6, 1897 – August 23, 1982) was a Brazilian-born film director and producer. ... Charles Crichton. ... Basil Dearden was an English film director, born Basil Dear in Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, in 1911. ... Robert Hamer was a British film director and screenwriter, best known for his work at Ealing Studios in the 1940s, including the celebrated comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), with Dennis Price and Alec Guinness. ... Mervyn Johns (1899-1992) was a British film and television character actor. ... Googie Withers (born March 12, 1917 in Karachi, Pakistan) is a British actress. ... Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood in The Lady Vanishes (1938) Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave, KBE (March 20, 1908 — March 21, 1985) was an English actor and the son of the Australian silent film star Roy Redgrave and the actress Margaret Scudamore. ...

Plot

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. Ventriloquism is an act of deception in which a person (ventriloquist) manipulates his or her voice so that it appears that the voice is coming from elsewhere. ... Look up Dummy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... A twist ending or surprise ending is an unexpected conclusion or climax to a work of fiction, which may contain an irony, or cause the audience to reevaluate the rest of the story. ...

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. Amicus Productions was founded in the UK by American producer and screenwriter Milton Subotsky, and served primarily as vehicle for Subotskys anthology horror films such as Dr. Terrors House of Horrors (1964), directed by genre stalwart Freddie Francis, and The House That Dripped Blood. ... Escape was radios leading series of high adventure, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. ... William Goldman (born August 12, 1931) is an American novelist, playwright and two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter. ... Magic is a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Ann-Margret. ...

See also

The theme of the mad ventriloquist has been revisited in other works:

• The Great Gabbo, a 1928 film starring Erich von Stroheim
• "The Dummy," an episode of The Twilight Zone television series starring Cliff Robertson
• Magic, a 1978 film starring Anthony Hopkins
• The Ventriloquist, a Batman villain.