Crime Street presents
Fear in the Night(1947)

Director – Maxwell Shane
 

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Plot
Film Notes
Cast and Production Credits

The Plot

Vince Grayson (Deforest Kelley) a meek and mild bank teller wakes up in a cold sweat after what he thinks is a nightmare where he has killed a man in room of mirrors. But he discovers an unfamiliar key in his pocket and blood on his wrist. Was it a just a dream? He talks to his detective brother-in-law, who thinks nothing of it until they walk into the room of mirrors and the reflections of a real murder appear.

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Film Notes

Seamy, Neurotic and Enjoyable

Fear in the Night, has an explanation for the apparent neurotic insanity of Vince Grayson, and it has a happy ending typical of American movies of its time. If however, you can ignore the overly neat and implausible plot and finish and feel the seamy character study of regular guy losing his way in a big way, you might enjoy this minor Paramount movie more than it deserves on surface.

Reflections of Madness

The novels and stories of Cornell Woolrich were the basis for a number of famous and not so famous films. Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black and Mississippi Mermaid are among the former, Fear in the Night, falls into the later. Sometimes writing under the name of William Irish, Woolrich was a pulp fiction Edgar Allen Poe, his protagonists compulsivley waltzing with fate in a lurid post-war paranoid dark ballroom that reflected his own dance into madness.

The New Clark Cable

It's hard to believe now, but at one time Deforest Kelley was being promoted as the "New Clark Gable." Maybe it was something about the ears. Kelley's career, however, went pretty much nowhere until he hitched a ride on the Starship Enterprise. The next thing he knew, his future was rocketing at warp speed for science fiction history as Doctor McCoy on Star Trek.

Time and Again

Remakes of films are not rare, but directors seldom get to remake their own work. Director/screenwriter Maxwell Shane got another chance at the same story with a bigger budget – the 1956 Nightmare starring Kevin McCarthy and Edward G. Robinson.

Better Than a Movie

Paul Kelly (the cop brother-in-law) had a long Hollywood career. Real life became more interesting than his film roles when he was convicted of manslaughter in the killing of fellow actor Ray Raymond. Four years later he was out of prison and he married Raymond's widow - Dorothy MacKaye, who did a stretch herself. In 1941, she was killed in an auto accident. Kelly, however, moved right along with his acting career and won a Tony award in 1947.

Inner Trivia

• Ann Doran played James Dean's mother in Rebel Without a Cause
• Cinematogrpher Jack Greenlaugh was also the man behind the camera for Lost Continent, yet another of Alameda film legend Robert L. Lippert's films.

-- Ed Schneider - Alameda TV

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Cast

Production Credits

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For more on...

Cornell Woolrich

Deforest Kelley

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