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C&L's Sat Nite Chiller Theater: 'Dead Of Night' (1945)

This is the tale of the ventriloquist's dummy starring the great Michael Redgrave in a movie that was years ahead of its time.

"Dead of Night," is considered by many critics as being one of the greatest horror movies ever made.

I rated it as my #40 all time horror movie and called it "Lynchian" because of the mind games it played on the audience

The Guardian listed it as their #15 all time horror movie:

Despite the cut-glass delivery and country house setting, it was ahead of its time, combining the Victorian affection for ghost stories with a sharp psychological edge that would later be developed by Hitchcock and the shockers that followed Psycho in 1960.

It begins with an architect, Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns), spending the weekend at a remote mansion, consumed by a feeling that he has been there before – and that the visit had ended in violence. Another guest, a psychiatrist (Frederick Valk), claims there is a logical reason for this, inviting the others to share their paranormal experiences, which they do via tales of ghosts and premonitions. The climactic story of a ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave) and his sinister dummy stands out. The film then generates a haunting eeriness that makes the unsettling, back-to-the-beginning twist ending all the more effective.

I was able to grab the segment of one of the first evil "ventriloquist dummy" stories ever put on the screen.

Enjoy!

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