DeForest Has a Nightmare

Vince Grayson (DeForest Kelley) awakens from a nightmare - he dreamed he killed a man who was trying to strangle him. However, his nightmare enters the world of reality when he notices finger marks on his neck, and finds a key and button in his pocket. This week, we'll be talking about Fear in the Night (1947).

Based on a story by Cornell Woolrich, this taut noir took some of its inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock.  Certainly, it is not of the caliber of a Hitchcock film, but the elements are there. And it is an enjoyable film - short, tightly crafted, and well-acted.

DeForest Kelley makes his feature film debut as the tortured innocent who cannot dismiss the idea that he may have killed someone.  He puts just the right amount of angst into the character; though his brother-in-law, police detective Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly) poo-poos the idea that Vince's idee fixe is anything more than a dream, Vince cannot escape from the clues that point to a very real murder.

As a fan of classic Star Trek, Mr. Kelley has become inexorably linked for me (and for many others) to the character of Leonard "Bones" McCoy. But he had a long and varied career prior to joining the Star Trek universe. He did a great deal of episodic television, films, and also did some work on radio.  In 1960, he appeared in an episode of Alcoa Theatre titled "333 Montgomery". It was written by Gene Roddenberry. In 1967, he appeared in another Roddenberry piece, Police Story, a pilot that never came to fruition. But Mr. Roddenberry liked what he saw, and offered Mr. Kelley his choice of either Spock or McCoy in Star Trek (Remembering DeForest Kelley). His choice helped to create in one of the most successful franchises in TV history.  Mr. Kelley died in 1999 at the age of 79 - his legacy, as he saw it, was the number of people who had become physicians because of McCoy (New York Times obituary).

When the film was released, Paul Kelly got lead billing. If you find a copy of it these days, you’ll notice a different Kelley listed first.  Regardless, Mr. Kelly does a good job as a dedicated police officer and loving husband whose concern for his wife includes looking out for her younger brother. 

The two women in the cast, Ann Doran (Lil Herlihy) and Kay Scott (Betty Winters) don't get a lot to do except look anxious.  It's a shame in the case of Ms. Doran, who's a wonderful actress with an impressive list of credits, usually in character parts.  For Ms. Scott, it's hard to know - this was her first film. She only made seven more, all uncredited, at which point she seems to have retired.

Robert Emmett Keane (Lewis Belknap) is worth mentioning - his performance is quite menacing and very convincing.  The audience is pretty certain from the moment we see him that he is up to no good, but we really enjoyed watching him hover over the story like a dark cloud.

This film fell into the public domain some time ago, and thus the prints that you see are not really of superior quality.  The film is very dark, and it's hard to know how much is the decision of the cinematographer, and now much is deterioration.  Regardless, we found the opening of the film, with its dark, almost blurry look to be effective - its fits the mood of the film, rather like walking into a haunted house on Halloween.

When Fear in the Night was reviewed by Bosley Crowther of the New York Times, he not only expressed his disdain for it, he didn't even sign the review, which was credited to B.C. The subsequent years have been kinder to the movie, as you can see from this discussion by the Toronto Film Society

The director of this film, Maxwell Shane, decided he wanted one more try at the story, and remade in 1956 as Nightmare, starring Edward G. Robinson (AFI Catalog). While Fear in the Night is not the best film ever made, it is an enjoyable 72 minutes and worth a viewing. 

We'll leave you with a scene with Kelly and Kelley: