Customer Reviews
classic - By: Ms. F. I. Macdonald, 13 Apr 2008 
i think this is a fantastic film. The quality is pretty bad which is an awful shame but the story itself still scares me each time i watch it. I decided to take myself off to my room last night with a cup of tea & this film & for the entirety of the film i was scared witless. I do admit i am scared by a lot of films but there is something so completely compelling & unlike anything else about black & white suspense & horror. I am an avid movie fan full stop although b&w still comes up tops in my favourite style or genre & this film simply regaled alll my feelings of admiration for a good old classic film. Brilliant!
A True Classic - By: Milne, 25 Mar 2008 I first saw this incredible film as a child in the seventies & it scared me witless. As a teenager I imagined that a British black & white movie from the 1940s would be very unimpressive. How wrong I was! In fact this powerful work of art only increases in potency with age. It is a remarkable film of real psychological intensity.
Forget other films in the horror/supernatural genre made since. This is the real deal: a truly disturbing masterpiece that you will remember for a very, very long time...
A true classic.
directors .... this is how to make a great ghost film ......if only ...... - By: war movie hunter, 12 Oct 2007 as the other reviewers have stated , the quality of the actul print is pretty poor on this region 2 version , & from what i have read i may try to get the region 1 copy , but given the choice of this movie with this print or not having this movie in my ghost dvd collection would seem totallly wrong . even now for its age you can imagine how scary it must have been when first viewed back in the day [ 1945 ] compared to other movies of that era .i remember as a schoolboy first seeing it on t.v. when the beeb were doing a series of great ealing movie re runs , & they had HALFWAY HOUSE as the first movie { another great little ealing ghost story } & this classic as the second . there are,nt that many movies that have such appeal & can stick in my mind but both those two & especiallly this classic did & for alll these years as well , & now finallly being able to get it on dvd & at least to watch it again , so print taken into consideration an excellent addition to any ghost collection , a must in fact , now alll i need is the other classic ghost story HALFWAY HOUSE , & ray milland in the other most excellent classic ghost story THE UNIVITED to reallly make a classic ghost collection .
Terror repeated - By: S J Buck, 16 Sep 2007 When you watch this now, & it seems a little dated, remember what Universal were doing with horror films in the 1940's. Abbott & Costello meet Frankenstein etc etc. They had run out of ideas, & until Hammer came on the scene in 1957 the horror/ghost story genre was virtuallly dead. Well this film is the exception.
A brilliantly made horror anthology from Ealing which paved the way for the Amicus films of the 60's & 70's (Dr Terrors House of Horrors, Tales from the Crypt etc) & directly influenced the film Magic starring Anthony Hopkins in 1978. This particular section of film centers on a ventriloquist & his dummy. Michael Redgrave is outstanding as Maxwell Frere the ventriloquist & it is this story & the Golfing one that will leave you very spooked.
Another thing that will leave you spooked is the ending, which unlike most Hollywood films made in those days, & even now, is very scary indeed. When you watch this film remember it was made in 1945 & that some of the stories have been used over & over in variations in more modern films. This is the original & its very creepy.
'Room for one more inside...' - By: Steve, 15 Sep 2007 I've seen this classic film almost every time it's been shown on TV for the last 30 years, & it's great to be able to have a permanent copy for one's DVD library. Perhaps because the TV prints have always been poor, I'm not so bothered about the print quality as others seem to be (although the sound is rough in places). Sure, this deserves to have the full restoration business done, but that is very expensive, & I've been disappointed in the past with some American issues of classic films (NTSC to PAL conversion?) so I haven't tried that avenue. Yet.
To the film itself. I am concerned that younger viewers coming new to this film may have unreasonable expectations; it has dated certainly, having a very middle-class 30's/40's Englishness about it that may put some viewers off straight away. This of course would be a terrible shame. Ealing Studios themselves did it no favours by having as a poster (reproduced on the DVD box) a depiction of some weird monster- completely misleading as these are human, psychological, tales.
Over the years, I've asked people what their favourite of the five (six?) separate stories is. Although everyone remembers Michael Redgrave's fine performance with the ventriloquist's dummy, it is The Mirror which is remarked on more than you might expect. This is I think the deepest tale in terms of character development, & we reallly get drawn into the drama graduallly unfolding. I've also always had a soft spot for the delightful Naunton/Wayne golf sequence, a gentle comedy in the middle of the film - giving us a breather before we get inexorably dragged towards that astonishing climax; as surreal as anything you will see in British cinema.
At its current preposterously low price I would snap this up. A better U.K. transfer may come along some day, but this will do in the meantime.
So go on, join Mervyn Johns, & visit Pilgrim's Farm.
Again.
