Night of the Demon (1957)

Country of Origin: USA
Year of Production: 1957
Running Times: 82 mins (USA)     95 mins (UK)
Format: black and white
Ratio:
Sound: mono

CREDITS

PRODUCTION
Production Companies: Sabre Film Productions / Columbia Pictures
Executive Producer: Hal E. Chester
Producer: Frank Bevis
Production Manager: R.L.M. Davidson

SCRIPT
Script: Charles Bennett, Hal E. Chester
Story: Casting the Runes by M.R. James

DIRECTION
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Assistant Director: Basil Keys

PHOTOGRAPHY
Director of Photography: Ted Scaife

EDITING
Editor: Michael Gordon

MUSIC
Music: Clifton Parker
Conductor: Muir Mathieson

SOUND
Sound Recordist: Arthur Bradburn
Dubbing Editor: Charles Crafford

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Hair: Betty Lee

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Special Effects: George Blackwell, Wally Veevers

VISUAL EFFECTS
Special Effects Photography: S.D. Onions

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Production Designer: Ken Adam
Assistant Art Director: Peter Glazier

MISCELLANEOUS
Continuity: Pamela Gayler

LOCATIONS
Locations: Bricket Wood (St Albans - Watford railway line), England, UK; Associated British Pictures Studios, Elstree, England

CASTING
Casting: Robert Lennard

CAST
Dana Andrews (Dr John Holden)
Peggy Cummins (Joanna Harrington)
Niall Macginnis (Dr Julian Karswell)
Maurice Denham (Professor Harrington)
Athene Seyler (Mrs Karswell)
Liam Redmond (Professor Mark O'Brien)
Reginald Beckwith (Mr Meek)
Ewan Roberts (Lloyd Williamson)
Peter Elliott (Kumar)
Rosamund Greenwood (Mrs Meek)
Brian Wilde (Rand Hobart)
Richard Leech (Inspector Mottram)
Lloyd Lamble (Detective Simmons)
Peter Hobbes (Superintendent)
Charles Lloyd Pack (chemist)
John Salew (librarian)
Janet Barrow (Mrs Hobart) *
Percy Herbert (farmer) *
Lynn Tracy (air hostess) *
Walter Horsbrugh (Bates the butler - uncredited)
Ballard Berkeley (1st reporter - uncredited)
Shay Gorman (narrator - uncredited)
Michael Peake (2nd reporter - uncredited)

* missing from US prints

PLOT SUMMARY

American psychologist Dr John Holden arrives in London to attend a symposium on paranormal psychology. A renowned sceptic, Holden intends to expose satanic cult leader Julian Karswell as a fraud. He teams up with Joanna Harrington, whose uncle has recently been killed in bizarre circumstances while investigating Karswell's cult. Eventually, Karswell passes an ancient runic curse to Holden who, after being witness to a number of inexplicable occurences, is now a believer in Karswell's powers. Holden must race against time to pass the rune back to Karswell before he too meets an untimely death...

A remarkable exercise in subtlety and suggestion - the producer mandated rubber monster notwithstanding - Night of the Demon is nothing short of a masterpiece. Jacques Tourneur, the master of the understated horror, turns in a marvellous adaptation of the most subtle of ghost writers, M.R. James, that nevertheless doesn't skimp on moments that are genuinely unnerving.

UK
Video Distributor: Encore

USA
Theatrical Distributor: Columbia
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar

Finland
Rating : K-16

UK
Rating: X

USA
Rating: unrated (the US version, retitled Curse of the Demon, had 12 minutes of footage removed)

1958
February
28: Finland - theatrical release

Horror! Most terrifying story the screen has ever told!

Chosen... singled out to die... victim of his imagination or victim of a demon?

Sceptical? Don't make up your mind till you see this masterpiece of the macabre!

Terrifying!! All the Dark Forces of Black Magic ... Hurled Against a Man And a Woman Who Dare To Scoff!

Curse of the Demon - US title
Der Fluch des Demonen - West German title
The Haunted - early title
La notte del demonio - Italian title

FOOTAGE INCLUDED IN
I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)

SEE ALSO
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

MAGAZINES

Cahiers du Cinema no.190 (May 1967) p.64 (Frabce)
review

Daily Film Renter no.7256 (15 November 1956) p.6 (UK)
note

Daily Film Renter no.7490 (18 October 1957) p.5 (UK)
review

Film Daily vol.113 no.40 (27 February 1958) p.6 (USA)
review

Hollywood Reporter vol.148 no.40 (21 February 1958) pp.3, 6 (USA)
credits, review (by Jack Moffitt)

Kinematograph Weekly no.2619 (24 October 1957) p.21 (UK)
review

Monthly Film Bulletin vol.25 no.288 (January 1958) p.7
credits, synopsis, review

Motion Picture Herald vol.210 no.8 (22 February 1958) pp.724-725 (USA)
review (by William R. Weaver)

Photon no.26 (1975) pp.31-41 (USA)
illustrated review (Curse of the Demon - an analysis of Jaques Tourneur's supernatural masterpiece by Ronald V. Borst and Scott MacQueen)

Positif no.83 (April 1967) p.46 (France)
review

Scary Monsters 1996 Yearbook pp.17-19 (USA)
review

Today's Cinema vol.89 (18 October 1957) p.5 (UK)
review

Variety 26 February 1958 (USA)
review (by Ron)

BOOKS

Hoffman's Guide to SF, Horror and Fantasy Movies 1991 - 1992 p.261
credits, review

Reference Guide to Fantastic Films p.83
credits

KEYWORDS

runes, demons, curses, animals, cats, leopards, seances, short story into film

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008