Things Happen at Night

Wilfred Prescott (Alfred Drayton) and his wife Joyce (Beatrice Campbell) find that their large country estate house is haunted. Pictures are found turned to the wall, a bearskin rug catches fire, and a window is broken. What's worse, their daughter, Audrey (Gwyneth Vaughan) seems possessed sometimes by this female spirit.

With the help of friend Vincent Ebury (Robertson Hare), insurance investigator Joe Harris (Gordon Harker), and self styled ghost buster Spenser (Garry Marsh), Prescott tries to get rid of the poltergeist.

What follows is a night of comedic slap stick spiced with some clever special effects as the ghost raises windows, levitates plates and vases, and generally bamboozles the ghost hunters. Spenser tries to get a photo, Harris uses a bottle of bug spray as a weapon, and Prescott tries shooting it with a shotgun. It's all quite lighthearted and amusing. Can they ever get this spirit out of the house?

Although uncredited and never seen on camera, Patricia Owens provides the laughing voice of the poltergeist.

I just watched Things Happen at Night (1948) on YouTube. The complete movie is available there. I don't know think it's ever been released on DVD. It's a pleasant way to spend an hour or so.

This film has a wonderful cast of comedy actors but alas in the end they are let down by an uninspired script and some fairly amateurish "Special effects".Despite the fact that Harker,Hare and Drayton are amongst my favourite actors of this era even they fail to cause me to burst out laughing during this rather lame effort.Basically the story is of an attempt to exorcise a poltergeist which is terrorising a family.It of course is very easy to guess where the spirit emanates from.The writers unfortunately seemed to have run out of ideas once they had thought out the basic premise.It can be seen on the new satellite channel in the UK ACTIONMOVIES.Lots more 50s British films on this and MOVIES4MEN if you are interested

My father hated "English" films. This may have been what he was talking about. Starting with a silly premise, having a bunch of hangdog British comedians react to it, over, and over, and over, and you have this dullard. The plot involves a house that is being haunted by a poltergeist. Chunks of hot coal burn holes in things, pots smash to the ground, things tip over or move, the usual. Enter an insurance agent and an expert on paranormal events. Sound like fun? Unfortunately, it's neither exciting or funny; it just becomes endless. The conclusion is grossly unsatisfying and the reason the poltergeist is in the house is never dealt with. The master of the house a silly, ineffectual man. The daughter, who becomes possessed, is equally dull. The wife is beside herself. Don't bother with this one.

The last and least of the screen comedies made together by Aldwych farce duo Alfred Drayton and Robertson Hare, this is mildly amusing in its quirky way, but should have been funnier. Hare in particular has little material to work with, slightly more humour emerging from Gordon Harker's dry exchanges with Wylie Watson's butler. Francis Searle's direction is pedestrian and the night-time confrontation with the poltergeist clumsily handled though ending in quite satisfying fashion. Searle told Brian McFarlane how Drayton suffered a heart attack in the ballroom scene - missing from some prints - where Harker is being sawed in half, and to complete it had to be brought back from hospital; he can be seen lying on the floor having supposedly fainted. Can't imagine they could get away with this today.

A low key comedy about an impish poltergeist who has invaded the large home of Wilfrid and Hilda Prescott. The imp plays harmless tricks but one of them damages a bear skin rug for which Prescott makes an insurance claim. The always watchable Gordon Harker plays the insurance investigator looking into the merits of the claim. Also on hand is a potential business partner, Vincent Ebury, a paranormal researcher, the two Prescott daughters and the fiancé (and Ebury's son) of the elder daughter. Some of the funniest scenes are those in which the cook and butler appear. Things go bump all through the night and while all this is mildly amusing, it doesn't add up to a really funny or memorable movie. I'm a Harker fan but this isn't one of his better movies. Still, I'm glad I saw it.