Dead of Night (1945)

Dead of Night is a 1945 British supernatural horror anthology film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer. It stars Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers, Sally Ann Howes, and Michael Redgrave. Produced by Ealing Studios, the film features five segments within a frame narrative in which a group of guests assembled at a country manor recount stories of their own encounters with the supernatural. It is best remembered for the concluding story featuring Redgrave as an insane ventriloquist with a malevolent dummy.

Eagle-Lion Films released Dead of Night theatrically in the United Kingdom on 9 September 1945. Dead of Night is one of the few horror films made in England during the 1940s, as horror films had been banned from production in Britain during World War II. It was also one of the few horror efforts from Ealing Studios, who were primarily known for producing comedies. The film was greatly influential on the horror and anthology film genres, and is regarded by film critics and scholars as a classic.

Both of John Baines's stories were reused for later films and the ventriloquist dummy episode was adapted into the pilot episode of the long-running CBS radio series Escape.