Welcome! The lobby of the Deranged L.A. Crimes theater is open! Grab a bucket of popcorn, some Milk Duds and a Coke and find a seat. Tonight’s feature is Fear In The Night and stars Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Dorn, and Kay Scott. The movie is based on a story by Cornell Woolrich (under the pseudonym of William Irish). Cornell Woolrich’s stories and novels have made terrific films: Rear Window,The Bride Wore Black, and Phantom Lady. Fear In The Night was directed by Maxwell Shane.
TCM Says:
Bank teller Vince Grayson wakes from a nightmare in which he and an unknown woman murdered a man in a strange, mirrored room. Only a dream…but Vince finds that he has physical objects and bruises from his “dream.” His cop brother-in-law dismisses his story…until the family, on a picnic, takes shelter from a thunderstorm in a deserted mansion containing that mirrored room. Is doom closing in on Vince?
I\’m a doctor, not a bank teller!
Just got done watching it. Good time.
ps. He was later indicted on all counts : )
I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Remade a decade later as the marginally better Nightmare by the same writer-director Maxwell Shane. Said auteur switches the location from L.A. to La: New Orleans, omits the implausible & cruel dumping of the gf at the picnic, & replaces the car chase with a foot chase framed by Spanish moss but minus the redundant fake suicide note. He also adds a scene in a Bourbon Street bar where the protag mistakes a customer for the deceased Mrs Belknap.
Definitely worth a watch if you enjoyed the earlier version (despite the 27-year age difference between Edward G. Robinson & his newly pregnant wife Virginia Christine!)