Watch Fear in the Night For Free

Such a frustrating disappointment

Beautiful, moving film.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Bank teller Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelly) wakes from a murderous nightmare that seems all too real with concrete evidence that it may well be true. Unable to shake the images from his mind his behavior at work becomes suspect as he irrationally bolts the job seeking to settle his confusion. He turns to his brother in law Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly) for help but even he has his suspicions.With it's intriguing nebulous opening Fear in the Night makes a decent effort at working noir tropes that evoke The Lady from Shanghai, DOA as well as masque the case building against Grayson well into the story. Even Grayson begins to believe he may be guilty and attempts suicide.As the confused Grayson, DeForest Kelly is an everyday benign working slob that in most circumstances seems harmless but director Max Shane saddles him with damning doubt early and Shane plays the character and the evidence to sustain suspense well into the film. Paul Kelly's cop brings balance to the story with his just the facts sobriety contrasting Grayson's free fall and incertitude. Left up to Grayson, he'd fry so it is left to Herlihy to advance the film.Jack Greenhalgh's cinematography remains strong most of the way after a bravura opening of strong expressionistic imagery that sets the stage. But overall the supporting cast remains weak and the shoestring budget glaring at times before a far-fetched denouement waters down matters even further. Still the artistry in this cheapskate makes it an interesting watch.

This one is a suspenseful little mystery-thriller - a crime noir. For me, this is one of the better, more mysterious mystery-thrillers I've seen from the 1940s. Worth watching if you like these types of films.Vince Grayson (Kelly) is a young man who is easily hypnotized and he's had a horrible nightmare that he murdered someone and a mirrored room but it seemed all to real to him. "It was dream, no it's real" - he kept debating himself, yet he knew it had to be real so he enlisted the help of his detective brother-in-law Cliff to find out the answers.The questions are: Did Vince really kill someone? Is Vince making all this up as reality when it was only a dream? Is Vince having premonitions? If Vince didn't kill anyone then who did? 8.5/10

Today I watched DEFORREST KELLEY's movie debut. Not because of Star Trek, but because of the title of the movie. When I found out it was Kelley, my interest grew.The movie starts out eerily but not unlike a million other noirs. The mood, the music, the main character's narration. The object of the movie unfolds quickly. At first, you think the acting is prosaic. But as it unfolds, the rhythm of the story grabs you.One of the most inconsequential things also made it realistic for me. It was ANN DORAN. Her presence acts as a beautiful balance. She always portrayed a common-sense woman and somehow this made the noirish mood natural. So many times, the noir mood pervades an entire movie to point of suffocation and sometimes makes a noir maudlin. It seems that the writer and director Maxwell Shayne or maybe Cornell Woolrich's great sense of storytelling that made the mood evenly wrought."Fear In the Night" is a fine, interesting, suspenseful movie that I recommend not as a masterpiece but as a very fine example of a good idea very well made. Some would say as a great Saturday afternoon movie... which would be a slight misappreciation of this excellent noir!

DeForrest Kelley has "Fear in the Night" in this 1947 low-budget B film, also starring Paul Kelly and Ann Doran. Kelley plays Vince Grayson, who has a vivid dream that he has committed murder. In fact, he wakes up and finds a key and a button, which were part of the dream, and also blood on his wrist. He tells his cop brother-in-law Cliff about the dream, but Cliff brushes it off as just that, a dream.Later on, Vince goes on a picnic with his sister Lil (Ann Doran) and husband Cliff. When the rain starts coming down in buckets, they jump in the car and Vince directs them to a house, which turns out to be the murder house, down to the octagonal mirrored room that Vince described to Cliff. Cliff now believes that Vince committed murder and lied when he described the dream.Very good story that makes use of hypnosis as part of the plot. It is very well done, but you can't help thinking of what someone like Hitchcock would have done with the story. Instead, we have grainy film and footage of downtown Los Angeles, including, I think, the Commodore Hotel. The shots of old LA are wonderful - sometimes when films are done cheaply there is city shooting and use of the city in process shots, which always adds authenticity to the movie.When I showed my sister one of the screen shots and announced it was DeForrest Kelley, I thought her eyes would bug out of her head. Yes, he was once that young. He does a very good job, too.Well worth seeing, and if you're a fan of "Star Trek," it's a must!