Review of Fear in the Night (1947) by Matt T — 13 Dec 2010

Nightmares. I remember once having a nightmare where I was on top a speeding train. It was dark and I was clinging on to save my life. I my lost grip, fell and BANG! I woke up in a cold sweat and convinced myself it was only a dream. Phew..! But what happens when you have a dream where you find yourself in a room full of mirrored doors, discovering a man and a woman, surprising them, tangling with the man and finally killing him. You wake up, yes? In your own room, right? Well yeah, but where did the bruises on your neck come from? Why is there blood on your wrist? And whose unidentified key and button are in your hand? Well all this happened to Vince, a weak willed man who after an initial panic begins to investigate this strange occurence.

Fear In The Night is a low budget bargain basement Film Noir. Based on a story by Cornell Woolrich, a favourite author of mine, who was able to wring suspense out of every nook and cranny with his masterly style of writing. This is typical of his output. The film is noticable for starring Deforest Kelley better known as Dr 'Bones' McCoy of Star Trek fame. Even as a young man Kelley had an old face and his eyebrows are on overdrive jumping all over his forehead. In many ways he is right for the part as possible the wimpiest character ever to be found in a film. Luckely he has a hard boiled copper of a brother in law to hold his hand and help him through the mess. The overall acting is mediocre at best with the girlfriends of each man being pretty bad almost killing the scenes in which they appear.

With a brisk running time of 70 minutes, cheap sets, and dodgy acting the film is able to move along with it's silly over the top but plausable plot and there is enough mystery and suspense to keep you mildly interested. Dream sequences, suicide attempts and chase scenes add to the limited action.

The main problem is the quality of the DVD. The transfer to disc is terrible. The picture is shoddy and the sound is often inaudable. Some of the dialogue is hard to pick up. The music is probly suspensful but complety ruined. If your eyes are used to the detail of BluRay, HD and all that modern jazz then this will be a big turn off. A real museum piece. A lot is taken away from the enjoyment of the film. I'm going to name and shame - Glass Key. Thanks for releasing it but bad job.