Enrique Sanchez Today I watched DEFORREST KELLEY's movie debut. Not because of Star Trek, but because of the title of the movie. When I found out it was Kelley, my interest grew.The movie starts out eerily but not unlike a million other noirs. The mood, the music, the main character's narration. The object of the movie unfolds quickly. At first, you think the acting is prosaic. But as it unfolds, the rhythm of the story grabs you.One of the most inconsequential things also made it realistic for me. It was ANN DORAN. Her presence acts as a beautiful balance. She always portrayed a common-sense woman and somehow this made the noirish mood natural. So many times, the noir mood pervades an entire movie to point of suffocation and sometimes makes a noir maudlin. It seems that the writer and director Maxwell Shayne or maybe Cornell Woolrich's great sense of storytelling that made the mood evenly wrought."Fear In the Night" is a fine, interesting, suspenseful movie that I recommend not as a masterpiece but as a very fine example of a good idea very well made. Some would say as a great Saturday afternoon movie... which would be a slight misappreciation of this excellent noir!

merrywater This is a sadly forgotten, but fantastic film noir gem released in 1947, and based on a story by the renowned author Cornell Woolrich . The opening is an amazing and surrealistic dream sequence up along with, say, Polanski's dream sequence in Rosemary's Baby. Straightforward plot, good though perhaps not great actors, and decent directing. It was a low budget production which is apparent, albeit not a nuisance.A remake was made by the same director nine years later. The original had a tenser atmosphere which corresponded well to the surrealistic formula. On the other hand, the remake had Edward G. Robinson starring in a supporting role.An unnecessary detail in the remake was a musical ingredient that was extended to the protagonist being a musician. The upbeat jazz music, absent in the original, actually interfered with the tense atmosphere. However, this was the style in the mid-fifties cf Hitchcock's remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (also released in 1956) that featured one of this year's greatest hits, Que sera sera. Contrary to Hitchcock's successful remaking, Fear in the Night surely didn't need one, and the remake - Nightmare - isn't more of a classic today than its original version.

Michael O'Keefe Very suspenseful and atmospheric. Film Noir based on a short story "Nightmare" by Cornell Woolrich. Vince Grayson(DeForest Kelley)is a bank teller that has a nightmare where he kills a stranger. After he wakes up he finds evidence that he may actually did kill someone. He asks his brother-in-law Cliff(Paul Kelly), who happens to be a detective, to help him make sense of his horrible dream. After Vince is drawn to a mansion, he realizes it has the mirrored room in which he killed the man in his dream. Intrigue and mystery. There actually has been a crime committed, but by whom? Other players include: Kay Scott, Ann Doran, Charles Victor and Robert Emmett Keane.

Spikeopath Fear in the Night is directed by Maxwell Shane who also adapts from Cornell Woolrich's (AKA: William Irish) story titled Nightmare. It stars Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott & Robert Emmett Keane. Music is by Rudy Schrager and photography Jack Greenhalgh. Plot finds bank teller Vince Grayson (Kelley) awoken from a nightmare where he kills a man in a mirrored room. Disorientated and sweaty, Grayson is further startled to find bruises on his neck and items about him that suggest that his nightmare was real. After confiding about the events to his brother-in-law, detective Cliff Herlihy (Kelly), it's presumed he's under stress and a good day out with the girls will do him wonders. But once the picnic with the girls is interrupted by a storm, Grayson finds himself leading the group to a house in the country. A house he doesn't know and a house he's sure he's never been to, but upon the discovery of a mirrored room it becomes evident that something very strange is going on….Low budget across the board but not suffering too much for it. A cracking little film noir mystery neatly condensed into 72 minutes. Maxwell Shane's film is dealing in dreams and a protagonist caught in a circumstance, without understanding, that's out of his control. Tormented not only by the events of what appears to be in his "dream", but also by the heavy cloud of befuddlement that follows him during daylight hours. He himself ponders if he is going insane? It's a good question, and one which Shane and Woolrich do well to not answer for the first half of the film as the atmosphere stays hazy. The tone of the narrative is aided considerably by Greenhalgh's photography, Schrager's music and Shane's box of cheap, but hugely effective, tricks.Much of the film relies on visuals to make its points, even as we get a cool pulpy voice over from Grayson, the blurry shifting images say much more. So too does the use of mirrors, very Hitchcockian: with the actual mirrored room at the core of the story very disambiguation like. There are shadows involved for practically every interior shot and even for much of the outdoor sequences too. While the music comes from the realm of the haunted house. The cast give variable performances, but there's nothing to hurt such a short movie. Lets just say that Kelley (in his first main role) fits the dazed requisite well and it's no bad thing that Doran & Scott don't get a lot of screen time. Kelly (Crossfire) is good value, making a believable copper, while Keane is wonderfully sedate and creepy (check out the candle sequence).True enough there's problems that stop it being a B noir classic, such as the back screen shots and the afore mentioned less than stellar acting. Whilst the film would have benefited more by having a Gothic designed house as opposed to the white picket fence type that is used. But considering the budget and time of its making, it's an admirable film that's easily recommended to noir and murder mystery fans. Shane liked the story enough to remake it as Nightmare in 1956 with Edward G. Robinson & Kevin McCarthy as cop and protagonist respectively. A bigger budget and name actors it has, but the jury is still out on its worth. I'm happy with this version, thanks, even if the DVD print is old and scratchy. 7.5/10