Dead of Night/Queen of Spades

One of the most successful film anthologies in the horror genre, the 1945 British shocker Dead of Night benefits from a wonderful framing device, in which an architect named Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) responds to an invitation to a country manor--only to discover that he's seen both the house and the people present in a recurring nightmare. Initial discussion about the supernatural leads to the telling of five tales. Two are classics: director Robert Hamer's "The Haunted Mirror," chronicling the gradual disintegration of a man who's soul is being taken over by the mirror's previous owner; and director Alberto Cavalcanti's concluding tale, "The Ventriloquist's Dummy," which chillingly recounts the story of a poor ventriloquist who is at the mercy of his dummy Hugo (later the inspiration for William Goldman's Magic, the book and the film). Comic relief is provided by Charles Crichton's (A Fish Called Wanda) delightful "Golfing Story," centering on the war between two golfers for the affection of a woman (when one man loses a match for her hand, he calmly walks into the water and drowns himself--until he realizes the other cheated; then he comes back to haunt the cheater). I won't reveal Dead of Night's double take ending, except to say that it's a classic. Paired here with Thorold Dickinson's 1949 British thriller Queen of Spades (an intriguing, atmospheric mindbender, set in 19th century Russia, about a broke, gambling-addicted army captain who is determined to learn a countess's--played by Dame Edith Evans--secret for winning at cards), Anchor Bay's double-disc presentation features solid (if far less than Criterion quality) transfers on both films, and little in the way of extras (photo galleries). Still, this double feature is a bargain. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman) [Blu-ray/DVD Review—July 16, 2019—Kino Lorber, 103 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $29.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1945’s Dead of Night features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas and a retrospective documentary (76 min.). Bottom line: an excellent edition of a horror classic.] [Blu-ray/DVD Review—Oct. 22, 2019—Kino Lorber, 95 min., not rated, DVD: $19.99, Blu-ray: $29.99—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 1949’s The Queen of Spades features a great transfer and a DTS-HD 2.0 soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by film critic Nick Pinkerton, an analysis by film critic/author Philip Horne (20 min.), a 1951 interview with director Thorold Dickinson at the British Federation of Film Societies (18 min.), a 1968 screening intro by Dickinson (15 min.), and an intro by filmmaker Martin Scorsese (2 min.). Bottom line: this haunting minor classic sparkles on Blu-ray.]