Dead of Night

This article is about the 1945 British anthology horror film. For the 1977 American anthology horror television film of the same name, see Dead of Night (1977 film).
For other uses, see Dead of Night (disambiguation).

Dead of Night
American theatrical release poster
Directed by
Screenplay by
Based onStories
by H. G. Wells, John Baines, E. F. Benson, Angus MacPhail
Produced byMichael Balcon
Starring
CinematographyDouglas Slocombe
Jack Parker
Edited byCharles Hasse
Music byGeorges Auric
Color processBlack and white
Production
company
Distributed byEagle-Lion Films (UK) Universal Pictures[3] (US)
Release dates
  • 9 September 1945 (1945-09-09) (United Kingdom)
  • 28 June 1946 (1946-06-28) (edited version)
  • 16 July 1946 (1946-07-16) (United States)
[1]
Running time
103 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Dead of Night is a 1945 black and white British anthology supernatural horror film, made by Ealing Studios. The individual segments were directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes and Michael Redgrave. The film is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave and an insane ventriloquist's malevolent dummy.

Dead of Night is a rare British horror film of the 1940s; horror films were banned from production in Britain during World War II. It had an influence on subsequent British films in the genre. Both of John Baines' stories were reused for later films and the ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.

While primarily in the horror genre, the film has shades of the comedy horror genre. Comedy would later make the studio's name.

  1. ^ "Basil Radford & Naunton Wayne". Art & Hue. 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
  2. ^ "Dead of Night (Original)". British Film Institute. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference mfb was invoked but never defined (see the help page).