FEAR IN THE NIGHT

US, 1947, 72 minutes, Black and white.
Paul Kelly, De Forest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott, Robert Emmett Keane.
Directed by Maxwell Shane.

Fear in the Night is a brief film noir of the post-war period. It has a very small budget but capitalises on the story by Cornell Woolrich, adaptation by director Maxwell Shane (who was to remake the film as Nightmare during the 1950s with Edward G. Robinson).

De Forest Kelley (later Bones in Star Trek) is a young man who has a nightmare. He dreams he has murdered someone. When he wakes up, evidence is there that he did commit the murder. He goes to his brother-in-law, a detective, who does not believe him at first, especially when he is able to lead them to the house where the murders took place. However, with the help of a policeman, he becomes suspicious when he hears the story of the murders and sets up his brother-in-law to confront the seeming killer. It appears that hypnotism was used and that the hero killed someone else in self-defence under hypnosis. As with this kind of film, the real killer taunts the alleged killer and it is all captured on tape.

The film experiments with visual styles, black and white photography, multiple screens, distorted images for the nightmare. While the film ingredients are basic, it is an interesting example of a small-budget feature of the style of its time.

1. The impact in its time? Reputation since? Film noir and the post-war period?

2. The city settings, apartments and banks? The countryside? The mansion? Authentic feel? The black and white photography? The experiments in visual style, multiple heads, the camerawork for the nightmares? Editing? Musical score?

3. The title, as experienced by Vince Grayson?

4. The opening, the details of the nightmare, Vince and his experience, the woman, the room with mirrors, the man, the strangling? His waking from the nightmare? Testing whether he had dreamt the episode or not? The marks on his neck? The key? His ringing in sick and not going to the bank?

5. Wandering the city, puzzled? His voice-over comments? Betty and her concern?

6. His going to Cliff? Cliff and his work, restoration, police, his pregnant wife? Vince’s sister? Cliff not believing Vince? Thinking he was having a breakdown?

7. The outing? The storm and Lil’s fear? Vince directing them to the house? The key? Their going in (credible or not?), settling in? The arrival of the policeman?

8. The policeman and the story of the murders, Cliff and his interest, Vince and his fear, collapse?

9. Cliff, his experiments? Setting Vince up? Vince’s story about his neighbour, his way of speaking? The suggestions of hypnotism?

10. Vince and his confrontation with the killer? The killer and his confessing everything, being taped? The attempted hypnotism? Taking him to the water, urging him to kill himself after writing the note? Cliff rescuing him? The pursuit in the car? The crash and the killer’s death?

11. Vince’s vindication – returning to his ordinary life? To Betty? The psychological background of the film, in the 1940s, the role of hypnotism? Guilt and responsibility?