Can a movie more than 60 years old still give you the creeps? A well told story, no matter how old it is, can always send chills up your spine. “Dead of Night” is an omnibus, four different directors telling five different stories linked together with another to tell a complete tale. The linking story is strong and fascinating by itself; more than a link, it is the foundation. Four of the five are genuine ghost stories, with the last being more a tale of possession. The linking story is, well…

Architect Walter Craig has been invited to spend the weekend in the English countryside at the home of Eliot Foley, whom he has never met, in order to design some additions to the house. As he drives his car up the lane and sees the house for the first time, he shakes his head in confusion and disbelief. When Foley ushers him into the house he seems to know the exact layout of the rooms, and everything his host is going to say before he says it. When introduced to the four other guests, he says nothing, but looks enigmatically at each of them.

Finally, he seems to wake from his trance, and tells them that he has seen this place and all of them in a recurring dream. He has dreamed of these events, of the house and its occupants, although the details are hazy. The dream never stays in his head long, he doesn’t remember it until the next time he has it, and he doesn’t know how it all ends. He is sure of only one thing - that he will be facing death and possibly worse if he stays and sees it through.

The guests all support him and encourage him to stay, saying they believe him. To them, it seems like a delightful parlor game - how exciting to be a part of someone else’s dream, over and over! Each of the guests then shares a supernatural experience of their own. One of the guests is Dr. Van Straaton, a psychiatrist. His is the voice of reason and skepticism which offers a rational explanation for each mystery. But finally, he also admits that he has had his own brush with the inexplicable.

The doctors story, about dual personality involving a ventriloquist and his dummy, is the one many people may find familiar. The dummy is the stronger personality, and eventually takes over the mind of the ventriloquist, leading to murder and madness. Or was it all just in the twisted mind of the ventriloquist all along? This theme was used in the 1978 movie “Magic”, with Anthony Hopkins, as well as in other movies and television shows. Even “Chucky” probably owes something to it. The last scene is very reminiscent of the final scene in “Psycho”.

The ventriloquist’s story is considered the best by many, but it’s not my favorite. As well done as it is, and as extraordinary as Michael Redgrave is in the part, it is a bit too cold for me. Maybe because it is the one being told by the skeptic. I don’t feel the same sympathy with or connection to the characters.

My own favorite story is “The Haunted Mirror”. It’s told by Joan Cortland, who relates what happened when she gave her fiancé an antique mirror which last had been owned by a man who went insane, murdered his wife in a jealous rage then cut his own throat. Her fiancé starts to see the previous owners’ Victorian room in the mirror, instead of his. He is enthralled by the spell, until he finally accuses Joan of being unfaithful and tries to murder her, recreating the last scene the mirror witnessed. The story, with its superb musical score, top notch acting, appealing characters, and crisp dialogue draws me in, just as the lovers are drawn into the evil of the mirror. The music, by Georges Auric, works brilliantly by putting you side by side with Peter, cueing you to react as he does, making you not an observer but a fellow participant and victim.

The other stories are – a sweetly melancholy tale of a girl who meets the ghost of a long ago murdered little boy; a man who has had a premonition of his own death; and my least favorite, a bit of comic relief about two golfers who compete to the death on the links and for the woman they both love.

Finally, after the other stories have been told, Craig’s reality starts to merge with his dream, turning it into a true nightmare. Over the end credits we come full circle and see him driving up to the house just as we did at the beginning. Which is the reality? Which is the dream? Maybe the dreamer never wakes up, and we have merely sunk deeper into the dream. This makes Craig’s linking story the most chilling of all.

This film was made by Britain’s Ealing Studios, which was better known for comedies such as “The Lavender Hill Mob”. England had a ban on horror movies during the war and this was the first one released after the ban was lifted. Evidently, the thinking was not to scare a population already under attack. It seems ironic to me, since horror offers a release from real world tension. If you’ve lived through the Blitz, how could you be frightened by fiction?

It can be difficult to judge an old movie by the standards and experiences of today, especially when many of the devices used by the writers/directors are tropes that have been used over and over in the years since. So, looking at the original, it’s easy to think, ‘well, I’ve seen that before, it’s not original’. But, actually, you ARE looking at the original, not the copies. This was (I believe) the first horror movie to use the omnibus format. It has been used many times since; from “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors”, through “Creepshow”, and others.

“Dead of Night” may not be terrifying, but it is disturbing. I highly recommend it, and give it four danglers. Watch it late at night, alone in the dark, just before you enter your own dream world. It’s like curling up on a rainy night with a good book of ghost stories.