Dead of Night (1945)
Almost by definition this is a potpourri, with four directors, four writers, and a series of individual flashbacks loosely worked together into a psychologically spooky master structure. It's a product of the very English Ealing Studios, soon to be producing a series of famous comedies with a thoroughly English sensibility in great contrast to the film noir high drama of Hollywood of the same period.
And the best of these are really great--all a hair lighthearted or canned enough we aren't scared to death, but all clever and stylish enough to never drag. The core of it is a kind of British (seeming) contrivance a la Agatha Christie--a small group of people are caught up in something together, and each has a different story or fear or problem they bring to the mix. And while people are giving their individual parts, the whole is gradually assembling in the present tense, too. Vincent Price movies, even the later "Murder by Death" in its parody of the format, all work this out well. I suppose in a way even "Lifeboat" is similar, or going back to "Stagecoach," a ship of fools scenario, tightly packed and with growing suspicions between the players.
It isn't total brilliance for sure, and some of what seemed fresh at the time has been replayed so much it's not easy to see its freshness any more. But it still has some consistent acting, great archetypes, and a few surprises, including the inclusion of a gag (comic) narrative as one of the flashbacks. All very realistic, on that level, compensating for the exaggerations of the ideas otherwise. Check it out.
By the way, a parallel Hollywood film (not for its series of flashbacks, but because it was made the same year and it uses psychological horror in a contrived, non-Hitchcock sense), is "Spiral Staircase." Check that out, too.
Almost by definition this is a potpourri, with four directors, four writers, and a series of individual flashbacks loosely worked together into a psychologically spooky master structure. It's a product of the very English Ealing Studios, soon to be producing a series of famous comedies with a thoroughly English sensibility in great contrast to the film noir high drama of Hollywood of the same period.
And the best of these are really great--all a hair lighthearted or canned enough we aren't scared to death, but all clever and stylish enough to never drag. The core of it is a kind of British (seeming) contrivance a la Agatha Christie--a small group of people are caught up in something together, and each has a different story or fear or problem they bring to the mix. And while people are giving their individual parts, the whole is gradually assembling in the present tense, too. Vincent Price movies, even the later "Murder by Death" in its parody of the format, all work this out well. I suppose in a way even "Lifeboat" is similar, or going back to "Stagecoach," a ship of fools scenario, tightly packed and with growing suspicions between the players.
It isn't total brilliance for sure, and some of what seemed fresh at the time has been replayed so much it's not easy to see its freshness any more. But it still has some consistent acting, great archetypes, and a few surprises, including the inclusion of a gag (comic) narrative as one of the flashbacks. All very realistic, on that level, compensating for the exaggerations of the ideas otherwise. Check it out.
By the way, a parallel Hollywood film (not for its series of flashbacks, but because it was made the same year and it uses psychological horror in a contrived, non-Hitchcock sense), is "Spiral Staircase." Check that out, too.