TV and Movies

[Oznell]

6:00 p.m. Eastern--  "Dead of Night". Mervyn Johns, Sir Michael Redgrave, Googie Withers

Another British "horror" film, quirky and with twists.  An architect (Mervyn Johns) drives down to a prospective client's country house, to discuss some possible renovations.  There's a whole gaggle of people there, things feel oddly familiar to him, somehow, and he has an increasingly alarming sense that something terrible is going to happen in that house.  But he stays on, and learns of various spooky stories affecting the other guests.

One of the stories has to do with a Victorian mirror that seems to taking a role in a couple's marriage and home;  another concerns an unstable ventriloquist (Michael Redgrave in a wonderfully cracked performance) and his relationship with his malevolent dummy; and so on.

The architect takes center stage, and the movie starts to fold in on itself like an origami mirror-- very unsettling.  But in the English Forties' movie tradition, nothing's TOO graphic, just chilling and spooky.  This is about as lurid as I can get with scary movies.  It's very well done.

Fun fact:   Welsh actor Mervyn Johns, was the father of the marvelously 'fizzy' actress, Glynis Johns (spacey "Mrs. Banks" in Mary Poppins).

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/214012/Dead-of-Night-Movie-Clip-The-Haunted-Mirror.html

[Oznell]

Oh, and right now, 9:00 a.m. Eastern,  that eerie, beloved classic "Cat People" is on.  Sorry for the late alert!