Not at Night links to Ealing's Dead of Night?

[jezconolly]

Hello - I'm currently in the throes of writing a book about the 1945 Ealing Studios film Dead of Night. I'm at the stage of compiling a contextual chapter which will seek to chart the film's antecedents and influences.

I have to confess that I'm not an expert on the Not at Night series or Christine Campbell Thomson's work, so I thought I would pose some questions on this board!

Would anyone consider NaN to have been in any way influential on DoN? I note that one of the collections is titled 'At Dead of Night' although this may have little bearing on things - however I also note that one of the stories to feature in one of the later books is called Scarred Mirror, which may just relate in some way to the Haunted Mirror story in DoN. My thinking is it's likely that the DoN writers were broadly familiar with the horror anthology literature of the 20s and 30s and that the prospect of being able to identify some specific parallels between NaN and DoN stories is less likely. However I'd be interested to read peoples' opinions.

Best wishes,

Jez

[dem bones]

Hi Jez, thank you for registering and I hope you enjoy your time with us.

Now, much as I'd love to think so, i'm not sure there's any relation between the film and the Not At Night's, though there is a smidgeon of Charles Birkin's Creeps series in there. For some reason, it's buried on a Robert Bloch thread, but here's as far as we got with the antecedents of the stories for Dead Of Night. And you may also be the first person ever to find something of interest in E. F. Benson, 'The Bus Driver'. Lord Dufferin's curse, etc.!

Good luck with the book!

[ramseycampbell]

It hadn't occurred to me either. Seems a bit unlikely given that the only authors adapted are E. F. Benson and H. G. Wells, neither of whom figured in the Thomson books. The trouble is that neither Baines nor MacPhail seems to have said much about the film on the record.

[jezconolly]

Thanks folks. Are you familiar with Robert Chambers' 1896 novel The King in Yellow? One of the sections is remarkably reminiscent of Benson's The Bus Conductor from 1906 and the Hearse Driver episode in DoN - here's a bit below. I've written to the Friends of Tilling (the E.F. Benson fanboys) to try to find out if he might have been familiar with Chambers' book. It is strikingly similar:


"One night last winter I was lying in bed thinking about nothing at all in particular. I had been posing for you and I was tired out, yet it seemed impossible for me to sleep. I heard the bells in the city ring ten, eleven, and midnight. I must have fallen asleep about midnight because I don't remember hearing the bells after that. It seemed to me that I had scarcely closed my eyes when I dreamed that something impelled me to go to the window. I rose, and raising the sash leaned out. Twenty-fifth Street was deserted as far as I could see. I began to be afraid; everything outside seemed so—so black and uncomfortable. Then the sound of wheels in the distance came to my ears, and it seemed to me as though that was what I must wait for. Very slowly the wheels approached, and, finally, I could make out a vehicle moving along the street. It came nearer and nearer, and when it passed beneath my window I saw it was a hearse. Then, as I trembled with fear, the driver turned and looked straight at me. When I awoke I was standing by the open window shivering with cold, but the black-plumed hearse and the driver were gone. I dreamed this dream again in March last, and again awoke beside the open window. Last night the dream came again. You remember how it was raining; when I awoke, standing at the open window, my night-dress was soaked."

"But where did I come into the dream?" I asked.

"You—you were in the coffin; but you were not dead."

"In the coffin?"

"Yes."

"How did you know? Could you see me?"

"No; I only knew you were there."

[Dr Strange]

Aug 4, 2014 12:59:07 GMT jezconolly said:

Thanks folks. Are you familiar with Robert Chambers' 1896 novel The King in Yellow? One of the sections is remarkably reminiscent of Benson's The Bus Conductor from 1906 and the Hearse Driver episode in DoN - here's a bit below. I've written to the Friends of Tilling (the E.F. Benson fanboys) to try to find out if he might have been familiar with Chambers' book. It is strikingly similar

It's just another re-telling of an old story -

vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/5013/benson-night-terrors-ghost-stories?page=1&scrollTo=36525