The Night Has Eyes

79 minutesCountryUnited KingdomLanguageEnglishBudget£15,000^[1]

The Night Has Eyes, released in the United States as Terror House by Producers Releasing Corporation and re-released in the US by Cosmopolitan Pictures in 1949 as Moonlight Madness, is a 1942 British thriller film directed by Leslie Arliss starring James Mason, Joyce Howard, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare.^[2] and Tucker McGuire. It is based on the 1939 novel of the same title by Alan Kennington.

Plot

Two young female teachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors where their friend had disappeared a year before, and it is not long before they encounter a man they believe to be her murderer.^[3] That night, a violent storm breaks out, and they become stranded in the house where they are staying.

Cast

• James Mason as Stephen Deremid
• Wilfrid Lawson as Jim Sturrock
• Joyce Howard as Marian Ives
• Mary Clare as Mrs. Ranger
• Tucker McGuire as Doris
• John Fernald as Doctor Barry Randall
• Dorothy Black as Miss Fenwick
• Amy Dalby as Miss Miggs

Critical reception

Leonard Maltin called the film an "OK mystery";^[4] Allmovie called it a "taut British chiller" ;^[5] and TV Guide wrote "though melodramatic and soundstage-bound, Terror House is still quite effective and eerie. Fog covers almost every exterior; cinematographer Gunther Krampf spent long periods getting the artificial fog at just the right density...The final film was almost too effective, and after initially getting an A rating from the British censor and being booked on the biggest cinema circuit in Britain, the rating was suddenly changed to H (for "Horrific"), making it off-limits for anyone under 16 years of age. The big circuits had a policy of showing only A films, so the independent cinemas became the big winners, getting an excellent thriller starring Mason, Britain's top leading man at the time."^[6]

References

External links

• The Night Has Eyes at IMDb