Dead Of Night (1945 Cavalcanti, Crichton, Dearden, Hamer)

One of the best (horror) scores anywhere, Georges Auric was always a most unpredictable composer; here he's added a real layer of menace in his orchestrations and themes (monstrous brass, if that makes any kind of sense). I just watched a 75 minute documentary on it and interesting though the comments of Matthew Sweet, Keith Johnstone, John Landis etc. are, the music doesn't get a single mention. And the cinematography gets 60 seconds, where Sweet mistakenly attributes the photography to Douglas Slocombe alone. No mention of the fine work of editor Charles Hasse (also Hue and Cry) either, though that's never a surprise.

Is that a very early zoom in on Miles Malleson as the hearse driver? It could be, but it would be very early.

Is that Michael Redgrave doing the ventriloquist dummy's voice? No - it was ventriloquist Arthur Brough.

Esmé Percy as the antiques dealer. "Perhaps I should have mentioned all this at the time!"

Love those trees and the reflections, photographed by Douglas Slocombe

They sure smoke a lot of cigarettes. I almost expected Sally Ann Howes to start puffing away at one point.

McPhail writes and Dearden directs the interlinking sequences. Note the hush in the room after the Haunted Mirror, and the expert construction to then change mood and give us Golf. It also - I am reliably informed - gets darker after each successive story.

The Francis Kent story is true and was fictionalised as 'The Suspicions of Mr Whicher'.

Expert use of sound in hospital / hearse scene.

19 May 1977: 'Far more scary than countless later versions, the final twist is beautifully pulled off. Cavalcanti's magic makes up for shoddy effects on 'Hearse Driver'.'

19 October 1994: 'He narrowly escaped death by toy bus. Chilling and believable performances add to effect, especially Redgrave and Michael; the former adumbrates Anthony Perkins in Psycho.' 

'Adumbrates' eh? Must have been the time I was a proofreader.

Reece Shearsmith is (of course) a fan, and particularly rates the way it is five separate stories but also one great story.

According to BFI Screen Online, Douglas Slocombe shot the framing story, The Haunted Mirror and Golf. It's also one of Buñuel's favourite films.

Love the daze that Johns is in when he arrives at the house and meets everyone. "Milk and sugar, Mr. Craig?" Walter Craig - seen the film so many times and could not remember that name.