The Night Has Eyes (1942) Reviews

• Saw this as a small child -- Remembered it for over 50 years

  mullinrt2001-01-29

  By chance, one afternoon in the 1950s, I saw this film as a 4 year old on our first TV. I never forgot it. It takes place near some English moors. James Mason plays a man suspected of brutal murders. The two young teachers who stay at his house are caught up in the mystery. When the mystery is solved and the villain must pay, the moors play an important part in the very unnerving climax -- I remembered those death screams for years. When I finally saw it again, almost 50 years later, I was delighted to be frightened again. This of course was a very young James Mason who went on to have a very long varied career. He did his role justice and his co-stars were talented as well. The film is almost never shown on TV any more, but the film can be purchased from specialty suppliers -- it's worth looking for!

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• formative movie for me

  HoldMyEarrings2010-05-20

  Of all the movies I love, none has had a wider ranging impact than this one. I saw it on late night TV when I was 9, Halloween night, at a sleepover where everyone else was sleeping. I had nothing to do and couldn't figure out how to change the channel on the TV, so I was sitting there grumpily watching something random when this... strange movie came on. It was in black and white, but the people in it were beautiful, as were the clothes, the sets, everything. I was transfixed. I told my mother about this movie rapturously, and when it came on again a couple of years later she woke me at 2:00 in the morning so we could watch it together (my mother understands what it is to love a film). For many years Stephen was my tortured masculine ideal, and I married a man who definitely fits the James Mason physical type. Luckily, he has a sunny temperament and a stronger chin, so I feel like I got the best of both worlds! This movie also led me into the genre of Gothic literature, which was a major component of my reading life for a long time, and I still enjoy. Thank you to the people who made this film with love. They'll never know what it's meant to me.

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• A Brooding Hero Beautifully-Played by James Mason; a Fine "B" Mystery

  silverscreen8882008-01-01

  I find "The Night Has Eyes", a very personal project by director-scenarist Leslie Arliss and producer and scenarist John Argyle, to be both a seminal and engrossing narrative. To me, it often appears to be an inexpensive but nevertheless effective adaptation of a mystery novel by Alan Kennington. And it is one whose several aspects have been copied and redone many times since. The center of the storyline is a reclusive young man. Injured in war, he has shut himself away in a Gothic-profile house on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. We find that he was a brilliant young composer but that he can no longer access his talent. There is a mystery as to why he regards it as necessary to quit mankind; and we find out about his reason through the agency of a young female teacher, who arrives at the house as a visitor and who with her girlfriend must remain there for several days. There is a "kicker" in her presence in the area; she is seeking the truth of the death of another teacher, her friend, who vanished in the area the year before. Upon these ingredients, Arliss constructs a rather claustrophobic-appearing but well-constructed tale. Revelation follows, revelation, relationships are shifted and changed by actions, words, discoveries and altered purposes. And when the teacher falls in love with the troubled hero, a chain f events is set in motion that ends with a satisfying and interesting conclusion of what I find to be great power. The actors to me are the strongest element in this moody and atmospheric piece from start to finish. Duncan Sutherland designed the low-budget production; Gunther Krampf did the cinematography and interesting music was composed by Charles Williams. Dorothy Black and Amy Dalby show to advantage as teachers in the film's earliest scenes; John Fernald plays a laid-back physician in fine comedic style with Tucker McGuire stealing scenes as a man- happy and sharp-tongued companion to the heroine. The other long roles in the mystery are played by pretty Joyce Howard, as Marian Ives, the teacher seeking her lost friend, Mary Clare as the enigmatic housekeeper to the hero, powerful Wilfrid Lawson as the hero's handyman, and James Mason as the troubled composer. It is Mason's utterly believable and beautifully-timed performance, as in so many other films, that unifies a merely-middling production. Howard is weak in charisma but quite satisfactory as a consort to the angst- ridden recluse; all the rest keep the intriguing psychological mystery moving very nicely, making for a well-acted film. "The Night Has Eyes" with a sufficient budget might have appeared to be a somewhat better as a realized work of cinema; but the main strengths of the script are very well brought out by the accomplished Mason and the rest of the cast as it is; and the simplicity of black-and-white presentation adds to the effectiveness of the characters and to the sense of importance that accompanies their motives and deeds.

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• Very good old dark house mystery romance with atmosphere to spare

  dbborroughs2008-06-01

  James Mason stars in the story of two women who go off to try and find out what happened to a friend of theirs a year before when she went off across the moors. While out on the moors the girls get caught in a rain storm and are forced to take shelter in an old dark house where James Mason, a slightly off center composer lives. What happens after that is the movie and frankly its a great deal of fun and worth looking for. This is really an Old Dark House movie-the girls come upon the house when its all dark and shadowy, and you can feel the danger lurking in every shadow. I loved how this film took twist after twist and spun off in new directions that kept you guessing as to what may have happened to the friend and what may happen to the two girls. if you like old dark house movies or really good thrillers this one is for you.

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• Better as a Romance

  Space_Mafune2002-12-11

  A pretty young school teacher named Marian(played by the very lovely Joyce Howard) sets out to investigate the disappearance of her friend Evelyn who had vanished on the Yorkshire Moors a year before. Soon however her and her American friend Doris(enlisted to accompany Marian) get caught in an awful rainstorm but luckily happen upon an unlikely house located in the vicinity. A bizarre young man named Stephen Deremid(played by James Mason), a former composer, offers them shelter for the night but warns the ladies to keep their doors locked at night. We soon learn that Deremid fears he cannot trust himself - fear he might unknowingly do harm to others following his years of fighting in the Spanish war and being held in a prison camp. But Marian soon finds herself in love with Stephen and sets out to help him at any. However others have more ghoulish intentions for the couple. This film works much better in its Romantic settings than it does in its Horror ones. Character changes come rather abruptly and unexpectedly. The Yorkshire Moors does make a creepy setting however--with the fog, muck, dead trees and nothingness certainly contributing a sense of horror to the film. The best thing to watch this one for is the romance...those expecting out and out horror will find disappointment.

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