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The main plot concerns Mervyn Johns, a harmless-looking architect who claims that a room full of people that he has just met are in fact are all-too familiar to him, since they all participate in his recurring nightmare. Johns insists that it is inevitable that something horrible will occur later the same day.
This grim statement is met by the other guests as if it were a novel party game. Esteemed doctor Frederick Valk is called upon by others to explain it all as hooey, a task that grows increasingly difficult as Johns' predictions, one after another, all prove correct. Valk also has the onus of providing a "scientific" explanation for past curious incidents that the other guests have had in their pasts, which leads us to the five supporting stories.
The first is told by Anthony Baird, who claims he had a premonition of death in the form of working class hearse driver Miles Malleson. This premonition comes in handy when the bus he would otherwise have boarded tumbles off a bridge. His luck improves further when he marries his pleasant nurse, Judy Kelly.
The next tall tale comes from hottie teenager Sally O'Hara, who attended a Christmas party in an old mansion with secret passageways. O'Hara, of course, stumbles upon one, and must explore it to escape obnoxious rake Jimmy Watson. O'Hara comes across a Victorian-era boy badly in need of a mother figure, and learns later that the boy was murdered long ago.
Mary Merrall relates the third story, concerning an antique mirror once owned by a jealous nutcase who murdered his wife. This evil mirror, bought as a present for future hubbie Ralph Michael, soon distorts the mind of the impressionable Michael.
The fourth story is just for fun. Popular movie duo Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, paired for posterity due to supporting roles in Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938), play obsessive golfers. Both fall in love with cutie Peggy Bryan, who in unlikely fashion agrees to be the wife of the rival who wins a round of golf. Radford cheats, Wayne commits suicide, and Radford marries Bryan. Wayne returns from the dead to pester Radford into ultimate revenge.
In the final story, the eminently rational Valk admits he once had a case he couldn't explain. This involves ventriloquist Michael Redgrave, whose dummy Hugo (John McGuire) is out of control. Redgrave turns to drink, and ends up a nutcase, killing fellow ventriloquist Hartley Power for stealing Hugo.
How others will see it. The imdb.com user ratings are unfailingly high, but drop somewhat for viewers over 45. No doubt, some older American viewers are disappointed that there are no familiar Hollywood faces, and the movie is unsettling. Dead of Night was little acclaimed upon release, although it did win in the curious category of Most Interesting Screenplay at the obscure Locarno International Film Festival.
How I felt about it. The ending inspires the question, Was It All Just a Dream, like the entire ninth season of "Dallas." The answer: apparently so.
Aside from the Topper-like comedy of the golfing story, Dead of Night is a cerebral horror movie. Its vignettes were an obvious influence on "The Twilight Zone", which actually borrowed from the stories in several episodes.
Of course, the stories in Dead of Night were not original to the movie. Five writers are credited, including the well known (and well dead) H.G. Wells. There are also four directors, which helps explain why Charles Crichton's comedy ghost story seems out of place among the other more macabre tales. Yet, the quality seems consistent, which must be due to the efforts of producer Michael Balcon.