American psychologist John Holden, a determined sceptic of the paranormal, arrives in London for a conference only to find his colleague Professor Henry Harrington is dead. Some of Harrington's friends believe that Harrington had a demonic curse placed on him because he was attempting to expose Satanist Julian Karswell, but Holden dismisses the notion. However as Holden encounters Karswell, he experiences a series of frightening phenomena which leave him uncertain as to whether they are real or just in his imagination. He then discovers that Karswell has passed him a piece of paper which contains a runic curse that will bring about his death in three days time unless he can pass the piece of paper onto someone else.

The two strongest episodes are "The Haunted Mirror" and "Ventriloquist's Dummy", both of which take the implied horror elements one more notch up the scale before reaching the horrendous climax. The former is a cleverly executed ghost story that creates just the air of mystery needed. The audience never experiences anything beyond the strange room in the mirror, but the other worldly presence is felt through the eyes and mannerisms of Ralph Michael's superb performance. When we are finally told of the mirror's past by the antique dealer, it comes as no surprise, but his chilling account is nevertheless a memorable moment.
Michael Redgrave's virtuoso performance as the neurotic ventriloquist is also extremely memorable, but this is a story of madness as ventriloquist Maxwell Frere slowly, but surely becomes completely insane when he adopts the personality of his dummy Hugo with whom he is completely at odds with. (John Maguire portrays the ventriloquist's dummy when it comes to life. He was 25 and only 4 foot high). Although this episode is frequently praised, and has been copied several times since including MAGIC (1979) starring Anthony Hopkins, this elaborate episode fails to invoke quite the same foreboding as "The Haunted Mirror". The reason lies in the fact that Redgrave's character is already highly strung and neurotic from the start, so his complete insanity is not entirely unexpected.

Overall Dead of Night works well due to the juxtpositioning of humour and terror, elements of which can be found in each of the stories, even though different directors were responsible for their own episode. This suggests a strong guiding hand by producer Michael Balcon who helped bring this experimental idea into full focus.

The inn appears as it was to the guests, but slowly they realise the truth of their surroundings when they notice that all the newspapers are a year old, the radio plays year old news and the landlord and his daughter cast no shadow. The time slip and the guiding words of the ghostly owners affords each in turn a chance to redeem themselves and mend their ways as they await the ghostly bombing of the inn to reoccur. They leave the ruins of the inn with a better understanding of their lives and their faith.

This extremely enjoyable film does tend to end rather too neatly, but the cast and crew excel themselves by maintaining an other worldly atmosphere. Basil Dearden, (1911-1971), began his career as an editor before becoming a co-director on the later Will Hay comedies for Ealing. He later co-directed on Dead of Night (1945), Ealing's second and highly successful supernatural release.
Welsh actor Mervyn Johns appears for the first time with his real life daughter Glynis. Born in Pembroke on February 18th., 1899, Mervyn attended Llandovery College before abandoning his dentistry studies in 1923 for the lure of the stage and married Alys Steele, an Australian pianist that same year. Glynis was born in Durban, South Africa on October 5th. 1923 and took to the London stage in 1935. In 1948 Glynis found fame in MIRANDA, as a mermaid who enchants Griffith Jones and by 1954 she was voted one of the top money making British stars by the Motion Picture Herald-Fame Poll.

Also in the cast is Francoise Rosay in her first British film after fleeing France when the Nazis invaded. This fiercely patriotic, but internationally renowned star married French director Jacques Keyder and followed him to Hollywood where she made twelve films. In Britain she enchanted audiences with her one woman show at the Haymarket as well as her several screen appearances.

The Halfway House is both charming and chilly, perfectly capturing the many facets of society during wartime while weaving a satisfying supernatural yarn that was strongly supported by The Church of England for its spiritual message.

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