Shudder Saturday: Dead Of Night (1945)

This review originally featured at Flickfeast.

Although there were a number of anthology movies before it, Dead Of Night often feels like the first. That’s partly due to the fact that it came along some time before the likes of Amicus made such an impact with the format, and partly due to the fact that a few aspects of the movie (particularly the framing device and a couple of the main tales) have proven to be so influential over the years.

With four different directors involved, and numerous writers (John Baines and Angus MacPhail get most of the credit for the actual screenplay, but E. F. Benson and H. G. Wells are responsible for some of the source material), the consistency throughout is astonishing, both for the time and also for the format. The only weak spot in the film, a tale of two rival golfers, is itself not a bad little segment to enjoy. It’s just not as good as the others.

Anyway, let’s start at the beginning. Mervyn Johns plays Walter Craig, an architect who starts to get serious deja vu when he pulls up outside the Foley home. Meeting everyone inside, including a Dr. Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), he soon tells them of his feeling. While he tries to explain his unease, and also offer up one or two predictions, the people around him decide to share their own peculiar tales. Anthony Baird is a racing driver who survives a bad crash, only to then have visions of a hearse driver telling him “room for one more inside”. Sally Ann Howes is a young girl who has a spooky encounter during a game of Sardines. Googie Withers is a housewife who accidentally buys a strange mirror for her husband, one that reflects a dark moment from the past as opposed to his usual surroundings. Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne are those aforementioned golfers. And the good doctor himself has a tale to share, one of a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) who seems to be terrified of his own dummy. Meanwhile, Mr Craig seems to be spot on with his predictions.

An undeniable classic of the genre, this may suffer slightly from how dated it is, and how everything plays out in the company of some wonderfully unflappable Brits (stiff upper lips, and all), but it’s an absolute must-see for fans of the horror genre, and fans of anthology movies. The atmosphere throughout, although punctuated by many lighter moments, is one of growing unease, and even dread. Viewers become just as agitated as the central character, curious as to how things will pan out and what explanation there might be for the whole set of circumstances. The structuring is also excellent, with the best saved for last in a one-two punch of the ventriloquist tale and the final act of the framing story, and certain scenes remain powerful, nightmarish, stuff. Age may have worn away some of its effectiveness, but this is still a thoroughly deserving, and rewarding, horror classic.

8/10

Get yourself a shiny version of the film here.

Americans can get the same disc, but here (if multiregion-capable).

April Fools: A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

A Fish Called Wanda is a great comedy. A modern classic, in my opinion, thanks to the mix of dialogue, cast, characters and situations. Unfortunately, it also seemed to start the advertising trend that plagues British hits to this day. Every comedy that came along after it would find someone able to say that it was "the best British comedy since A Fish Called Wanda". Until Richard Curtis came along, at least, and then Four Weddings & A Funeral took over, soon superceded by The Full Monty and, well, every other big British success at the box office since then. But let's get back to Wanda.

It's the story of a daring robbery, and a little double-cross by some members of the team. The lovely Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the woman with the grand plan, and she will use all of her feminine wiles to get what she wants. Her partner is Otto (Kevin Kline), a man pretending to be her brother. Otto is a great man with a weapon, but he's not as smart as he thinks he is. Just don't call him stupid. Wanda and Otto are working together to find out where the diamonds from their big robbery have been hidden. George (Tom Georgeson), the man who planned and led the robbery, has been arrested and, funnily enough, doesn't trust anyone. He has moved the loot, and only Ken (Michael Palin) has the key to use whenever the location is revealed. Meanwhile, Archie Leach (John Cleese) is the man defending George in court. He's the one George may tell about the whereabouts of the diamonds if he needs to make a deal, so he's the one that Wanda needs to get close to. Very close.

Directed by Charles Crichton, with a script written by Cleese, this is a film that stands up alongside his earlier classics such as The Lavender Hill Mob. In fact, it's hard to think of a more fitting final film for the man, so perfectly does it mix the old with the new by juxtaposing the repressed Brits alongside the more outlandish Americans. There aren't too many flourishes, but the material doesn't need it.

The cast are all clearly having a lot of fun (with Kline even snagging a surprising Oscar for his supporting role - the Academy often overlooks/dismisses such comedic material, in my experience) and the clash between Curtis and Kline whenever they're onscreen alongside Palin or Cleese is always as entertaining as it is exaggerated. Georgeson has less to do, but is just fine, while Maria Aitken is excellent in a rather thankless role, playing the rich, self-absorbed, wife of Leach. She's a reminder of what happens to people who allow their dreams and energies to die for the sake of a good place in society and a nice house.

Full of so many great lines and moments, from the many stupid sentences spoken by Otto, to the attempts made by stuttering Ken to kill a key witness (Patricia Hayes), to the famous sight of John Cleese stripping off while speaking in a foreign language, to the even more famous sight of Palin with chips up his nose, this is a film that still proves as rewatchable and laugh-inducing today as it did when first released.

9/10

http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Called-Wanda-Two-Disc-Collectors/dp/B000IONJJ2/ref=sr_1_4?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1397829319&sr=1-4&keywords=a+fish+called+wanda

The Lavender Hill Mob (1951)

A classic caper from the much-loved Ealing Studios, The Lavender Hill Mob holds up today as a charming, amusing film full of great characters and a few fantastic set-pieces. It's overshadowed by a few other movies from the studio (does it get any better than The Ladykillers? I think not), but remains as watchable as ever thanks to uniformly perfect performances from everyone involved.

Alec Guinness is the leading man, he plays a mild-mannered bank employee named Holland. Holland oversees the transport of gold bullion from the refinery to the bank. He is as predictable as he is punctilious, but that hasn't stopped him from coming up with a plan to rob the gold and give himself a lifestyle he could never otherwise afford. He needs the help of an artist named Pendelbury (Stanley Holloway), who spends most of his days making souvenirs out of lead, and two men with experience in criminal activities - Lackery (Sid James, here billed as Sidney James) and Shorty (Alfie Bass). The robbery should be easy, getting the gold out of the country and keeping hold of it might be the hard part.

Directed by Charles Crichton and based on a screenplay by T. E. B. Clarke, The Lavender Hill Mob starts off in an exotic locale with a character about to tell his tale before jumping back into the past to become a low-key character piece. The beauty of the movie is that, for most of its run time, it remains a low-key character piece. You want these criminals to succeed because, well, they're just a good group of blokes aiming to commit a crime without hurting anyone besides the bank. And considering how the banks have failed people in recent years, the whole thing feels much more satisfying.

Alec Guinness gives yet another wonderful performance, Stanley Holloway is a great partner for him and both Sid James and Alfie Bass bring a roguish charm to their roles. Marjorie Fielding and Edie Martin are good as two women who live in the same block/house as the men, the former has a couple of fun scenes while the latter has a lot less to work with. John Salew and Ronald Adam are also enjoyable in their respective roles and there's even the teeny tiniest of roles for one Audrey Hepburn (don't let your attention stray for a moment or you will miss her).

If you're unfamiliar with the output of Ealing Studios then I urge you to change that as soon as possible and you could do a lot worse than starting your exploration of their movies with The Lavender Hill Mob (although there is a risk that it will spoil you when it comes to viewing many of the others).

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lavender-Hill-Mob-60th-Anniversary/dp/B00525QHM8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361404550&sr=1-1