"Night of the Demon!" Dana Andrews, (1957)
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Ed Augusts
Jul 1, 2008, 8:46:22 AM7/1/08
to BOOK & MOVIE ADVENTURES with Ed Augusts
Interesting how British horror and sci-fi movies of the 1950's seem
far more advanced and more intelligent, built upon better material
than American productions of the same era. In this case, by author
Charles Bennett, writer of some good Hitchcock movies, and based upon
"Casting the Runes" by M.R. James). One ultimately realizes the Ed
Wood and Roger Corman-type 'cheapos' with rubber monsters are done
strictly for laughs, and as an exercise in making a few million at the
box office for a film that cost $20,000 to $40,000 to make.
But far superior to the American horror and sci-fi schlock of the day,
is the British entry "Night of the Demon" (1957), released in the U.S.
as "Curse of the Demon" (1958), a stand-out British import which uses,
as do many such films of that day, a solid, stolid, not very bright,
American 'lead' actor backed-up by an excellent British cast. Directed
by Jacques Tourneur and starring scientist and skeptic author Dana
Andrews as an 'occult debunker', it also features Peggy Cummins as
the intense kindergarten teacher whose beloved uncle's mangled body
was recently found, after he'd been cursed by a Satanist whose sect he
was exposing to ridicule. It is the Peggy Cummins character who tries
and keeps trying to get the not-as-bright-as-he-thinks-he-is Andrews
to admit that something supernatural is going on... But Andrews just
doesn't "see it", not even when it is obvious to everyone else that
something wicked and evil is going on, such as when a cursed strip of
parchment that have been slipped into his papers tries to wriggle
through a fireplace grate to burn itself into ashes .
Niall MacGinnis is Karswell, the former stage magician who has
mysteriously obtained a lovely baronial mansion in the country... but
it is not so mysterious... it is thanks to the followers of his black
magic sect who are in terror of his powers... It is from Karswell
that deadly little slips of paper inscribed with runic symbols are
coming from... As an example of Andrews' foolish reliance on science
and skepticism, Karswell touches the bridge of his nose while
squinting his eyes for 2 seconds, says, "There!" and immediately a
frightening windstorm comes out of nowhere, lightning strikes and
fells a tree limb only 20 feet away, and everyone, the dumbfounded
Andrews included, runs for cover, and Andrews STILL doesn't get it,
two minutes later is shrugging the whole thing off, and STILL thinks
the Satanist is a phony who's pulling everyone's leg.
It was Cummins' uncle who left a journal indicating that he'd been
scared out of his wits about a curse on a rune-covered strip of
parchment that he'd die on a certain night and at a certain time...
Once he gives them to an intended victim, that person, unless they can
get rid of the piece of parchment, puts them on the short-list to be
mangled by a face-to-face encounter with a demon, a few nights
later. (The actual "night of the demon", in this movie, is October
28, by the way!)
Favorite scenes:
* The windstorm and lightning strike, all coming out of nowhere at the
Karswell estate which is so intense and sudden it ought to make a
believer out of a dead man or turn a believer into a dead man...
Andrews: "I didn't know you had cyclones in England!"
McGinnis: "We don't!"
* The various illustrated versions of WINGED DEMONS, described as to
what ancient cultures the depictions are from...especially the last
one, in which a human being has been stuffed into his jaws...
* The Reading Room at the British Museum where the Satanist first
contacts his intended Victim... ANY scenes from the British Museum,
Bodleian Library, etc., are always highly appreciated. Schlocky,
drab, low-budget Hollywood movies DO NOT have scenes of scholars at
the British Museum or Oxford, looking at ancient and medieval texts
about the occult!
* The parchment not quite escaping into the flames of the fireplace,
as intense background music plays... and as the first glimmer of an
idea crosses the intended victim's mind that the "curse" might be more
than a psychological trick.
* The two little girls at McGinnis' party playing "Snakes and
Ladders", later metamorphosed into "Chutes and Ladders", I believe.
"Snakes and Ladders" comes up again in "Lair of the White Worm",
starring Hugh Grant (1988), another excellent, more ribald, movie...
In what other movie about Dragons-that-Live-in-the-Mountain can you
see two flight attendants wrestling on the floor of an airplane,
dressed mainly in blue nylon stockings and garter belts?
(By the way, after seeing the intense and changing expressions on her
face, you want to see pouting, up-tight Cummins make impassioned love
with Dana Andrews, or someone, but these 1950's films never seemed to
go that way... Not even married couples made love in THESE movies...)
At 95 minutes, the British original version, "Night of the Demon" is
agreed-upon as much superior to "Curse of the Demon" which was cut to
just 82 minutes for American release. I watched the American version
this last time, and some scenes I'd noted previously, such as a trip
to Stonehenge, are missing. So I definitely suggest the "Night"
version. But even the cropped and mutilated "Curse" version is better
than not seeing this fine occult and psychological thriller at all!
More good movies of M.R. James material ought to be released in the
future. "Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad", is another example of
an excellent story, which was filmed in a small way for BBC';s
"Omnibus" some years ago, (1968), but it really needs expanding into
a full-length feature... the story is a bit scant, it needs more
action, more danger, probably more carnage... But even "as is", it's
another example of a VERY creepy British ghost story! I've read the
story but haven't seen the BBC feature. From what I can remember, an
archaeologist on vacation, stopping to have a little dig near the East
Coast of Great Britain at a former Templar preceptory, discovers an
ancient metal whistle with latin words, which when translated, read:
"Who is this? Who is coming?" He blows the whistle and, that night,
strange and creepy things start happening...: See? THAT needs to be
filmed again, it would make a GREAT movie!
Happy Viewing, ------Ed
www.eduaugusts.com
http://stores.lulu.com/edaugusts
http://stores.ebay.com/mysticbooks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASTRO_PSYCHIC/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/occult_imagery/
http://get-rich-buying-at-yard-sales.com
far more advanced and more intelligent, built upon better material
than American productions of the same era. In this case, by author
Charles Bennett, writer of some good Hitchcock movies, and based upon
"Casting the Runes" by M.R. James). One ultimately realizes the Ed
Wood and Roger Corman-type 'cheapos' with rubber monsters are done
strictly for laughs, and as an exercise in making a few million at the
box office for a film that cost $20,000 to $40,000 to make.
But far superior to the American horror and sci-fi schlock of the day,
is the British entry "Night of the Demon" (1957), released in the U.S.
as "Curse of the Demon" (1958), a stand-out British import which uses,
as do many such films of that day, a solid, stolid, not very bright,
American 'lead' actor backed-up by an excellent British cast. Directed
by Jacques Tourneur and starring scientist and skeptic author Dana
Andrews as an 'occult debunker', it also features Peggy Cummins as
the intense kindergarten teacher whose beloved uncle's mangled body
was recently found, after he'd been cursed by a Satanist whose sect he
was exposing to ridicule. It is the Peggy Cummins character who tries
and keeps trying to get the not-as-bright-as-he-thinks-he-is Andrews
to admit that something supernatural is going on... But Andrews just
doesn't "see it", not even when it is obvious to everyone else that
something wicked and evil is going on, such as when a cursed strip of
parchment that have been slipped into his papers tries to wriggle
through a fireplace grate to burn itself into ashes .
Niall MacGinnis is Karswell, the former stage magician who has
mysteriously obtained a lovely baronial mansion in the country... but
it is not so mysterious... it is thanks to the followers of his black
magic sect who are in terror of his powers... It is from Karswell
that deadly little slips of paper inscribed with runic symbols are
coming from... As an example of Andrews' foolish reliance on science
and skepticism, Karswell touches the bridge of his nose while
squinting his eyes for 2 seconds, says, "There!" and immediately a
frightening windstorm comes out of nowhere, lightning strikes and
fells a tree limb only 20 feet away, and everyone, the dumbfounded
Andrews included, runs for cover, and Andrews STILL doesn't get it,
two minutes later is shrugging the whole thing off, and STILL thinks
the Satanist is a phony who's pulling everyone's leg.
It was Cummins' uncle who left a journal indicating that he'd been
scared out of his wits about a curse on a rune-covered strip of
parchment that he'd die on a certain night and at a certain time...
Once he gives them to an intended victim, that person, unless they can
get rid of the piece of parchment, puts them on the short-list to be
mangled by a face-to-face encounter with a demon, a few nights
later. (The actual "night of the demon", in this movie, is October
28, by the way!)
Favorite scenes:
* The windstorm and lightning strike, all coming out of nowhere at the
Karswell estate which is so intense and sudden it ought to make a
believer out of a dead man or turn a believer into a dead man...
Andrews: "I didn't know you had cyclones in England!"
McGinnis: "We don't!"
* The various illustrated versions of WINGED DEMONS, described as to
what ancient cultures the depictions are from...especially the last
one, in which a human being has been stuffed into his jaws...
* The Reading Room at the British Museum where the Satanist first
contacts his intended Victim... ANY scenes from the British Museum,
Bodleian Library, etc., are always highly appreciated. Schlocky,
drab, low-budget Hollywood movies DO NOT have scenes of scholars at
the British Museum or Oxford, looking at ancient and medieval texts
about the occult!
* The parchment not quite escaping into the flames of the fireplace,
as intense background music plays... and as the first glimmer of an
idea crosses the intended victim's mind that the "curse" might be more
than a psychological trick.
* The two little girls at McGinnis' party playing "Snakes and
Ladders", later metamorphosed into "Chutes and Ladders", I believe.
"Snakes and Ladders" comes up again in "Lair of the White Worm",
starring Hugh Grant (1988), another excellent, more ribald, movie...
In what other movie about Dragons-that-Live-in-the-Mountain can you
see two flight attendants wrestling on the floor of an airplane,
dressed mainly in blue nylon stockings and garter belts?
(By the way, after seeing the intense and changing expressions on her
face, you want to see pouting, up-tight Cummins make impassioned love
with Dana Andrews, or someone, but these 1950's films never seemed to
go that way... Not even married couples made love in THESE movies...)
At 95 minutes, the British original version, "Night of the Demon" is
agreed-upon as much superior to "Curse of the Demon" which was cut to
just 82 minutes for American release. I watched the American version
this last time, and some scenes I'd noted previously, such as a trip
to Stonehenge, are missing. So I definitely suggest the "Night"
version. But even the cropped and mutilated "Curse" version is better
than not seeing this fine occult and psychological thriller at all!
More good movies of M.R. James material ought to be released in the
future. "Whistle And I'll Come To You, My Lad", is another example of
an excellent story, which was filmed in a small way for BBC';s
"Omnibus" some years ago, (1968), but it really needs expanding into
a full-length feature... the story is a bit scant, it needs more
action, more danger, probably more carnage... But even "as is", it's
another example of a VERY creepy British ghost story! I've read the
story but haven't seen the BBC feature. From what I can remember, an
archaeologist on vacation, stopping to have a little dig near the East
Coast of Great Britain at a former Templar preceptory, discovers an
ancient metal whistle with latin words, which when translated, read:
"Who is this? Who is coming?" He blows the whistle and, that night,
strange and creepy things start happening...: See? THAT needs to be
filmed again, it would make a GREAT movie!
Happy Viewing, ------Ed
www.eduaugusts.com
http://stores.lulu.com/edaugusts
http://stores.ebay.com/mysticbooks
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASTRO_PSYCHIC/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/occult_imagery/
http://get-rich-buying-at-yard-sales.com
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