This film is so British if it was cut it would bleed red white and blue. The framing concept sees Mervyn Jones's character - an architect - arrive at a crowded country house filled with a dreadful premonition of impending doom, death and murder. The other gathered guests try to break him out of his dread by sharing ghost stories including a psychiatrist, Dr. Van Straaten as played by Frederick Valk who ends up sharing the most terrifying story of them all.
This anthology features five ghost stories in total and there's not really a duff one among any of them. Two of the tales truly stick out as the pick of the crop. The first is a comical story of two friends, both golf fanatics, who battle over the affections of a woman, which ends with one of the men committing suicide only to come back to haunt the other leading to a very surprising and funny ending.
However the true highlight of Dead of Night is The Ventriloquist's Dummy segment. It features ventriloquist, Michael Redgrave, and his domineering dummy, Hugo who wants out of their partnership.
Although this segment is the most successful, it's what happens next to Jones's character that's the most unsettling of all, especially when Hugo does something most unexpected. The film finally and very cleverly links all the separate chapters together and in doing so delivers a lovely and deeply satisfying ending.
A brisk 99 minutes long and not a wasted second. A most satisfying movie and well worth a visit if you're bored of binging on boxsets or yet another bloated Marvel slugfest.
I'm really enjoying revisiting these old classics, they have a quality that gets better with age, theirs and mine.
10/10
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