Scary British horror film with a bunch of people in a beautiful British country house sitting around and telling horror stories.
A man in a hospital has a horrific vision that later saves him; a young girl has a ghostly experience at a Christmas party; there's a haunted mirror sequence; a purportedly humorous ghost story involving two golfers and a downright terrifying sequence. This has Michael Redgrave playing a ventriloquist whose dummy seems to have a life of its own. The dummy is terrifying and Redgrave is superb--he actually became a ventriloquist for the role! It all has a framing story which ends with a somewhat predictable ending. However, back in 1945, this ending was probably brand new and must have jolted audiences.
I caught this on TV back in the 1970s. It was on LATE at night (about 1 am) and I was only 13 but I stayed up to watch it. I was fine with it until the Redgrave sequence and the one following it--those two scared me silly and I couldn't get to sleep--Hugo's face kept appearing in front of me! Seeing it now, all these years later, it STILL works on me. The stories have all been redone as episodes of "Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...but none have matched this movie. It's well-acted and has multiple directors doing separate sequences. There's next to no violence and no sudden shocks--it scares you but it sort of creeps up on you. A perfect example of subtle horror. The only misstep this makes is the stupid golfer story--it's not funny and pretty dumb--but this is a small complaint. A true horror classic.
The DVD print is in pretty poor condition. The picture is clear but somewhat faded and the audio drops in and out (music especially). Still it is watchable and that's what counts. A 10 all the way.
A man in a hospital has a horrific vision that later saves him; a young girl has a ghostly experience at a Christmas party; there's a haunted mirror sequence; a purportedly humorous ghost story involving two golfers and a downright terrifying sequence. This has Michael Redgrave playing a ventriloquist whose dummy seems to have a life of its own. The dummy is terrifying and Redgrave is superb--he actually became a ventriloquist for the role! It all has a framing story which ends with a somewhat predictable ending. However, back in 1945, this ending was probably brand new and must have jolted audiences.
I caught this on TV back in the 1970s. It was on LATE at night (about 1 am) and I was only 13 but I stayed up to watch it. I was fine with it until the Redgrave sequence and the one following it--those two scared me silly and I couldn't get to sleep--Hugo's face kept appearing in front of me! Seeing it now, all these years later, it STILL works on me. The stories have all been redone as episodes of "Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"...but none have matched this movie. It's well-acted and has multiple directors doing separate sequences. There's next to no violence and no sudden shocks--it scares you but it sort of creeps up on you. A perfect example of subtle horror. The only misstep this makes is the stupid golfer story--it's not funny and pretty dumb--but this is a small complaint. A true horror classic.
The DVD print is in pretty poor condition. The picture is clear but somewhat faded and the audio drops in and out (music especially). Still it is watchable and that's what counts. A 10 all the way.