Director: Four Directors - mainly Alberto Cavalcanti
Stars: Michael Redgrave as Maxwell Frere
Plot Summary
Architect Walter Craig (played by Mervyn Johns) arrives at a country house in Kent for a weekend gathering. He’s struck by a powerful sense of déjà vu—he’s seen these people and this house before, in a recurring nightmare. As he tries to piece together the dream, each guest recounts a strange, often supernatural tale of their own, forming the anthology.
Structure:
The film contains a framing story (Craig’s dream and the country house) and five separate stories told by the guests:
"The Hearse Driver" – A chilling story of premonition and a ghostly vision.
"The Christmas Party" – A young girl sees the ghost of a murdered child during a holiday game.
"The Haunted Mirror" – A man sees another room in an antique mirror and becomes obsessed with it.
"The Golfer's Story" – A comedic ghost tale involving two friends and a golf match over a woman.
"The Ventriloquist’s Dummy" – The most famous and disturbing segment, featuring Michael Redgrave as a troubled ventriloquist whose dummy seems to have a mind of its own.
Personal History
Never heard of it.
Current Review
I have learned what a Portmanteau film is and you can see that this is the original. You can see the influence in later horror/anthology stories like Creep Show. And possibly TV Series like Tales of the Unexpected and Inside Number 9.
We have very middle class English people with clipped tones getting into horror scrapes, all linked by an architects visit to a potential job at a Kentish farm house.
"How do you do?"
Overlong, I defy anyone not to lose interest by the final story - which does have some rather excellent drunken antics by a young Michael Redgrave. The Golfers story stood out as a knockabout comedy that didn't feel in sync with the tone of the other stories of descents into madness. That could be dropped with no determent to the overall film. And that was written by HG Wells, no less.
Some rather interesting special effects for an 80 year old film - a racing car crash that looked like it came from real footage and a bus crash that was obviously a model.
The ending, pulling everything neatly back together again, along with some tricky camera angles and repeating characters, such as the undertaker/bus driver worked very well. Creepy end too. Ventriloquist dummies are always sinister.
Just room for one inside, Sir.
Quirky Facts
The film's U.S. distributor thought that it was too long; therefore, two of the five segments, "Christmas Party" and "Golfing Story", were both cut. This confused U.S. audiences, who could not understand at all what Michael Allen from "Christmas Party" was doing in the nightmare montage at the end of it. The two segments have since been restored to all U.S. releases of the film. They were correct in their assessment of length.
This was Ealing Studios' only attempt at making a horror film.
Quotes
Hearse Driver: Just room for one inside, sir.
Future Inspiration
One day, I will restart Inside Number 9. There is a podcast - both unofficial and official (starts at S5). And I will think of this film. Tales of the Unexpected, the Twilight Zone and Creepshow (film), should also be considered.
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