Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

HoldMyEarrings Of all the movies I love, none has had a wider ranging impact than this one. I saw it on late night TV when I was 9, Halloween night, at a sleepover where everyone else was sleeping. I had nothing to do and couldn't figure out how to change the channel on the TV, so I was sitting there grumpily watching something random when this... strange movie came on. It was in black and white, but the people in it were beautiful, as were the clothes, the sets, everything. I was transfixed. I told my mother about this movie rapturously, and when it came on again a couple of years later she woke me at 2:00 in the morning so we could watch it together (my mother understands what it is to love a film). For many years Stephen was my tortured masculine ideal, and I married a man who definitely fits the James Mason physical type. Luckily, he has a sunny temperament and a stronger chin, so I feel like I got the best of both worlds! This movie also led me into the genre of Gothic literature, which was a major component of my reading life for a long time, and I still enjoy. Thank you to the people who made this film with love. They'll never know what it's meant to me.

silverscreen888 I find "The Night Has Eyes", a very personal project by director-scenarist Leslie Arliss and producer and scenarist John Argyle, to be both a seminal and engrossing narrative. To me, it often appears to be an inexpensive but nevertheless effective adaptation of a mystery novel by Alan Kennington. And it is one whose several aspects have been copied and redone many times since. The center of the storyline is a reclusive young man. Injured in war, he has shut himself away in a Gothic-profile house on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. We find that he was a brilliant young composer but that he can no longer access his talent. There is a mystery as to why he regards it as necessary to quit mankind; and we find out about his reason through the agency of a young female teacher, who arrives at the house as a visitor and who with her girlfriend must remain there for several days. There is a "kicker" in her presence in the area; she is seeking the truth of the death of another teacher, her friend, who vanished in the area the year before. Upon these ingredients, Arliss constructs a rather claustrophobic-appearing but well-constructed tale. Revelation follows, revelation, relationships are shifted and changed by actions, words, discoveries and altered purposes. And when the teacher falls in love with the troubled hero, a chain f events is set in motion that ends with a satisfying and interesting conclusion of what I find to be great power. The actors to me are the strongest element in this moody and atmospheric piece from start to finish. Duncan Sutherland designed the low-budget production; Gunther Krampf did the cinematography and interesting music was composed by Charles Williams. Dorothy Black and Amy Dalby show to advantage as teachers in the film's earliest scenes; John Fernald plays a laid-back physician in fine comedic style with Tucker McGuire stealing scenes as a man- happy and sharp-tongued companion to the heroine. The other long roles in the mystery are played by pretty Joyce Howard, as Marian Ives, the teacher seeking her lost friend, Mary Clare as the enigmatic housekeeper to the hero, powerful Wilfrid Lawson as the hero's handyman, and James Mason as the troubled composer. It is Mason's utterly believable and beautifully-timed performance, as in so many other films, that unifies a merely-middling production. Howard is weak in charisma but quite satisfactory as a consort to the angst- ridden recluse; all the rest keep the intriguing psychological mystery moving very nicely, making for a well-acted film. "The Night Has Eyes" with a sufficient budget might have appeared to be a somewhat better as a realized work of cinema; but the main strengths of the script are very well brought out by the accomplished Mason and the rest of the cast as it is; and the simplicity of black-and-white presentation adds to the effectiveness of the characters and to the sense of importance that accompanies their motives and deeds.

mail-671 One of your early critics has a point. Released in the days when the Censor's cert was "U" "A" or "H"for horrific, unusually on its first release "The Night Has Eyes" was given the "A" certificate in its released version. On a later reissue this was changed to "H" because of the ending,then considered excessive but has subsequently been used many times to greater effect. Around the same time,conversely, a reissue of "The Cat & The Canary" which was initially released with the "H" cert was reduced to"A" as part of a double feature with "Miracle of Morgan's Creek". The former thriller gained some popularity because of its theme music based on a romantic piano concerto by Charles Williams whose several compositions often enhanced a film's appeal such as in Billy Wilder's Oscar winner,"The Apartment" except that,unjustly(to my mind),for this film he was denied any screen credit,all of that going to Adolphe Deutch.

RanchoTuVu Two young school teachers (Joyce Howard and Tucker McGuire) venture out to the Yorkshire moors to find out what happened to one of their colleagues who went out there and never came back. The joke is that she met someone and fell in love. Arriving in a convincing looking torrential rainstorm, they slog through the mud, lucky to avoid the deadly bogs, and encounter a brooding James Mason, who plays a shell-shocked veteran of the Spanish Civil War, and who reluctantly lets them spend the night in his country house on the conditions that they lock the bedroom door, and leave the following morning. McGuire is the party girl while Howard plays the sincere and serious part, a nice match for the troubled Mason. Forced to stay more time because of the impassable conditions, Howard and Mason begin to fall in love. Mason's caretakers are two ruthless opportunists played by Mary Clare and Wilfrid Lawson, both of whom are outstanding in their evil roles. The idea that they have convinced Mason that he's a dangerous mental case seems a bit flimsy, but their sinister portrayals are anything but, aided by the shadowy lighting that illuminates their facial closeups. When we find out what really happened to the missing teacher, that she met up with these two, and that the lovely Joyce Howard is next, it creates a tenable level of menace. The final scene on the darkened moors with the treacherous bogs is right out of the textbook.