Dead of Night

Dead of Night (1945) is a British anthology horror film, rare for the period, directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dreaden and Robert Hamer. The film stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave. 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 possesed 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 Hammer Films and Tigon in the 1960s and early 1970s. Both of the segments by John Baines were recycled for later films with the possessed ventriloquist dummy being the basis of the William Goldman scripted film Magic.