Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63707 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-08
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Formats: Box set, Black & White, Colour, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 4
• Running time: 403 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
While horror conventions may change from generation to generation, there are ideas that will scare us no matter what time period we inhabit. Dead of Night is a classic horror anthology that effectively plays on those timeless fears. Mervyn Johns stars as a man who has been summoned to a house with a group of strangers he has never met but has seen in his dreams. As they convene, he predicts certain events will happen as they do in his dreams and when they do, the other guests relate their own experiences with the supernatural, including tales of a possessed mirror, a sinister ventriloquist's dummy and an eerie premonition of death. Throughout the group meeting, the protagonist fears something horrible will happen to him and we are left to wonder what it might be. The film's final, revelatory sequence offers an unexpectedly horrific surprise. It may have been made in 1945 but Dead of Night is still spooky. --Bryan Reesman

Amazon.co.uk Review
The Ealing Classics Collection presents four films from the great British studio, which, unlike the two sets devoted to Ealing Comedy, have at first glance little in common. Apart from many of the same names before and behind the cameras, what really connects Went the Day Well? (1942), Dead of Night (1945), Nicholas Nickleby (1947) and Scott of the Antarctic (1948) is Ealing's commitment to well-written, high-quality drama realised with the best possible production values.

British patriotism at its best links Went the Day Well? with Scott of the Antarctic. The former is a wartime propaganda morale-booster that doesn't shirk from showing the cost of the conflict, but provides genuine excitement as a small German advance force take over a Midlands village--a plot later reworked in The Eagle Has Landed (1977). Director Alberto Cavalcanti handles events with neo-documentary efficiency and William Walton's score cannot fail to stir. No less a composer than Vaughan Williams scored Scott, delivering one of the finest in film history, while Ealing spared no expense on Technicolor location filming. The result is occasionally too tableau-like and historically inaccurate--the mini-series Shackleton (2002) is more commendable in this respect-–but remains a gripping and ultimately very moving drama.

The darker side of life is explored by Cavalcanti in a suitably stark version of Charles Dickens' Nicholas Nickleby, a film unfortunately overshadowed by David Lean's double whammy of Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). Here Derek Bond is fine as Nicholas and a superb supporting cast, including Cedric Hardwicke and Stanley Holloway, ensure this is a first-rate production. Dead of Night offers one of the earliest examples of the anthology horror film, all wrapped in a decades-ahead-of-its-time framing narrative that nightmarishly twists reality inside-out. Most famous is the sequence with Michael Redgrave as a ventriloquist possessed by his own dummy, an idea later expanded to feature length with Anthony Hopkins in Magic (1978). Still unsettling six decades on, this all-time horror classic is only marred by a terrible comedy golf skit.

On the DVD Ealing Classics presents each film on its own DVD without extras. All four are in the original 4:3 ratio, in black and white, apart from Scott of the Antarctic. The audio is functional mono, and, while dialogue and sound effects are very clear, the music tracks are often distorted.

Picture quality is very variable, with Went the Day Well? being taken from an excellent print. Dead of Night, though, is constantly beset by small sparkles, with much more serious print damage being in evidence, making this a very below-par presentation for such a classic film. Nicholas Nickleby ranks somewhere in between, with a print showing various forms of constant but minor damage and offering a rather indistinct image in the darker scenes. The big budget Technicolor of Scott of the Antarctic is a little muted and the many snow scenes show a considerable amount of grain, but otherwise the print is in very good condition. --Gary S Dalkin

DVD Description

WENT THE DAY WELL? (1942)
Snug little Bromley End seemed safe from World War II, and the villagers welcomed the lorry loads of Royal Engineers rolling onto their quiet green acres. They didn't know they were disguised German parachutists installing radar apparatus to disrupt England's entire network. Nor did they suspect their community leader was a traitor. But gradually they learnt the sinister truth and bravely fought the Nazi occupation at the highest cost of all. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Elizabeth Allan, Leslie Banks, Frank Lawton, Basil Sydney, Mervyn Johns, Valerie Taylor, Edward Rigby, Marie Lohr and David Farrar.

DEAD OF NIGHT (1945)
Five separate ghost stories are embedded in the framework of a country house party where an architect, Walter Craig, is experiencing sinister sensations of deja vu. The ghost stories are narrated in turn by the other guests and Walter gradually recognises them as the people and the house that constantly recurs in a dream that ends in unspeakable horror. Events gradually move into the realm of the nightmare... See it with a friend, it may have been made in 1945 but Dead of Night is still spooky. Winner of the Locarno International Film Festival Award for Most Interesting Screenplay. Features stories directed by Alberto Cavalcanti Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer. Lead stars Michael Redgrave, Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Basil Radford and Roland Culver.

NICHOLAS NICKELBY (1947)
The classic Charles Dickens tale of 'Nicholas Nickleby,' played here by Derek Bond, a man who is deprived of his inheritance and travels to seek his fortune with a group of gypsies is brought to the screen by Ealing. Directed by Alberto Cavalcanti and starring Cedric Hardwicke, Stanley Holloway, Sybil Thorndike, Bernard Miles, Derek Bond and Sally Ann Howes.

SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (1948)
Sir John Mills is Captain Scott in a thrilling account of the dangerous 1912 expedition to conquer the South Pole. Scott's intrepid team was beaten by Norway in the arctic race and the heroic journey ended in catastrophe. But the bravery of the ill-fated explorers as they battled blizzards on the treacherous glaciers captured the hearts of the British public and became a legend. Directed by Charles Frend and starring James Robertson Justice, John Mills, Kenneth More and Christopher Lee.

Customer Reviews

Awful transfer!
As mentioned before this truly is a British Classic and it is great that it has been made available on DVD. The film shows just what can be accomplished with minimal special effects and budget yet still come across as totally captivating and in some parts downright nerve tingling.

Where this DVD suffers tho is in its presentation which is shoddy and shows a total lack of care, appreciation and understanding of the product.

The transfer is from the original VHS release from over 10 years ago now and it has in no way been properly remastered or restored. As to be expected the image is softer than you expect for new transfers and there are many blemishes and frame splices and cuts from the old print. These can be forgivable however the sound is atrocious. Wooly, muffly, distorted and heavily dampened down to eliminate the inherent hiss of the RCA original this audio really lets the film down.

I will say tho that it is slightly better than the even worse print that Channel 4 has shown in the past!

A great pity.

try amazon.com for a better transfer
Great film but, as other reviewers have noted, this transfer is very poor. You will get a much better transfer if you buy the region 1 Dead of Night/The Queen of Spades double release available from amazon marketplace sellers or from amazon.com.

Finally available!
This film scared me as a teenager when I saw it on TV. Many years later it scared me again. Finally I have it on DVD and it can now scare me again whenever I want.

The film itself is stitched together like a quilt from a set of individual stories all of which show that horrow needs merely acting and writing, not CGI. I defy anyone to watch this and ever be comfortable with ventriloguist's dummies again;-)