Fear in the Night, 1972.
Directed by Jimmy Sangster.
Starring Judy Geeson, Joan Collins, Ralph Bates, Peter Cushing, Gillian Lind, James Cossins.
SYNOPSIS:
After moving to a private boy’s school with her teacher husband a young woman is attacked by a one-armed assailant, but nobody believes her.
Fans of Hammer have never had it as good as they do right now, what with the resurrected Hammer Films putting out their splendid 4K UHD box sets and StudioCanal giving the titles they have in their catalogue a UHD upgrade, and following on from their wonderful presentations of Horror of Frankenstein and Scars of Dracula last year, StudioCanal have turned their attention to one of the lesser known movies in Hammer’s vault, 1972s Fear in the Night.
Newlyweds Peggy (Judy Geeson) and Robert (Ralph Bates) are about to leave their home in London and move out to the private boy’s school in the countryside where Robert works as a teacher. However, the night before they are due to leave Peggy is attacked by a mysterious assailant with a prosthetic arm, but in the aftermath Robert is not entirely convinced there was an attack.
Nevertheless, they move out to the school where Peggy is introduced to the headmaster Michael (Peter Cushing) and his wife Molly (Joan Collins). After hearing the sound of boy’s talking, Peggy decides to explore the school but finds it deserted, all except for Michael who gives her a guided tour. Still creeped out, Peggy is attacked again by the assailant with the false arm, but Robert appears to be getting less and less sympathetic towards her, as is Molly, but Michael seems nice, albeit a little too nice. Just as well there is a shotgun handy…
The last of Hammer’s psychological horror/thrillers, Fear in the Night was written and directed by Hammer stalwart Jimmy Sangster who, by his own admission, had had enough of re-writing French classic Les Diaboliques for the studio, having already penned the likes of Taste of Fear, Paranoiac, Maniac and Nightmare for them, with all of them following similar themes of people being driven mad for personal gain. Fear in the Night was no different but Sangster’s weariness comes across in that the movie is very workmanlike, offering up very few surprises if you were familiar with his previous scripts, and except for the presence of Peter Cushing adding a little credibility, the actors involved also seem to be feeling that way.
According to Sangster on the accompanying audio commentary, Joan Collins was awkward to work with, being pregnant at the time but not telling anybody, which caused problems for the wardrobe department. Sangster also had to show her how to shoot a rabbit for her introductory scene, which was something the actress – understandably – was not too happy about. Ralph Bates, for a change appearing alongside Peter Cushing instead of trying to replace him, is a bit of a nonentity here, being bland and somewhat disengaged with the material, which is not entirely his fault as the script never really gives him much to get his teeth into until the end, by which time Judy Geeson’s fairly tame persona has grated enough that we’re not altogether totally against him.
That leaves it up to Peter Cushing to give the film some traditional Hammer flavour, which he does, but he is only in the film for a few minutes, totally underused and leaving a charisma vacuum whenever he is not present, although he does get to provide the movie with its iconic image with his shattered round spectacles, which looks a little comical until you realise the context in which it occurs, giving the movie one of its rare scenes of danger.
Packaged with a 64-page book, replica press kits and two posters, StudioCanal have provided some delicious extras to bolster the film, including the ever-knowledgeable Kim Newman offing his insights, two audio commentaries – one by Jimmy Sangster and historian Marcus Hearn, the other with historian Troy Howarth – and an archive featurette carried over from the previous Blu-ray release, featuring contributions from Jonathan Rigby, Kevin Lyons and others.
Overall, Fear in the Night is a serviceable psychological horror but it lives in the shadow of Hammer’s previous outings in that direction, paling in comparison to Taste of Fear and Paranoiac. If you are not familiar with those titles then maybe start with this one, as it is diminishing returns if you watch them in chronological order, and if you already own the previous Blu-ray then the differences in picture quality may not be worth the upgrade to 4K UHD, which makes the extras the real selling point for collectors. Nevertheless, it is a Hammer movie and if you are collecting these box sets then at least this one has some funky artwork to look cool on your shelf.
Flickering Myth Rating –Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
