La nuit a des yeux

A pretty young school teacher named Marian(played by the very lovely Joyce Howard) sets out to investigate the disappearance of her friend Evelyn who had vanished on the Yorkshire Moors a year before.

Soon however her and her American friend Doris(enlisted to accompany Marian) get caught in an awful rainstorm but luckily happen upon an unlikely house located in the vicinity.

A bizarre young man named Stephen Deremid(played by James Mason), a former composer, offers them shelter for the night but warns the ladies to keep their doors locked at night. We soon learn that Deremid fears he cannot trust himself - fear he might unknowingly do harm to others following his years of fighting in the Spanish war and being held in a prison camp. But Marian soon finds herself in love with Stephen and sets out to help him at any. However others have more ghoulish intentions for the couple.

This film works much better in its Romantic settings than it does in its Horror ones. Character changes come rather abruptly and unexpectedly. The Yorkshire Moors does make a creepy setting however--with the fog, muck, dead trees and nothingness certainly contributing a sense of horror to the film. The best thing to watch this one for is the romance...those expecting out and out horror will find disappointment.

The Night Has Eyes (AKA: Terror House/Moonlight Madness) is directed by Leslie Arliss who also adapts the screenplay from the novel written by Alan Kennington. It stars James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, Joyce Howard and Tucker Maguire. Music is by Charles Williams and cinematography by Gunther Krampf.

"You seem to regard me as some sort of male sleeping beauty who is restored to life by your kiss"

During the school term break, two lady school teachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors in the hope of finding out what happened to a fellow work colleague who vanished there a year previously. Arriving on the moors at night time, a storm breaks and the two women are thankful to stumble upon an isolated house where somebody is at home. The inhabitant is Stephen Deremid (Mason), a mysterious man who may just hold the key to what happened to the ladies' missing colleague.

OK! It's a stage bound "Old Dark House" film that has noir shadings but is more in keeping with classic Gothic offerings like Jane Eyre, Uncle Silas and Gaslight. The setting is a doozy, a creaky and shadowy mansion with a secret room, add in a storm from hell, the foggy moors that hold secrets along with the patches of quicksand (quickbog?), a seriously brooding leading man greatly troubled by his past, a spunky heroine fronting up for love interest and some possible perilous shenanigans… and you are good to go for some dark deeds and closeted skeletons.

Director Arliss builds the suspense very slowly, dangling snippets of information that teases the audience as to what might be going on in this shadowy abode. Stephen is a music composer, he is also a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the effects of which has left him scarred. Why does he take tablets? Why is the moon significant? Now that his house servants have turned up, do they know what happened to the girl last year? It all builds towards the film's chilling climax, where all is revealed, and not insultingly so.

The cast all perform well under Arliss' direction, with Mason honing the brooding lead man act that would serve him so well in his career. Cinematographer Gunther Krampf (Nosferatu/The Hands of Orlac) creates an eerie atmosphere of fog-bound menace out on the moors, and also a foreboding darkened house of shadows for the interior of the Deremid mansion. The slow pace may put some off, and you are asked to forgive one or two dumb character reactions to certain situations, but this rewards the patient and very much it's a film for Gothic thriller fans to seek out. 7/10

James Mason stars in the story of two women who go off to try and find out what happened to a friend of theirs a year before when she went off across the moors. While out on the moors the girls get caught in a rain storm and are forced to take shelter in an old dark house where James Mason, a slightly off center composer lives. What happens after that is the movie and frankly its a great deal of fun and worth looking for. This is really an Old Dark House movie-the girls come upon the house when its all dark and shadowy, and you can feel the danger lurking in every shadow. I loved how this film took twist after twist and spun off in new directions that kept you guessing as to what may have happened to the friend and what may happen to the two girls. if you like old dark house movies or really good thrillers this one is for you.

By chance, one afternoon in the 1950s, I saw this film as a 4 year old on our first TV. I never forgot it. It takes place near some English moors. James Mason plays a man suspected of brutal murders. The two young teachers who stay at his house are caught up in the mystery. When the mystery is solved and the villain must pay, the moors play an important part in the very unnerving climax -- I remembered those death screams for years. When I finally saw it again, almost 50 years later, I was delighted to be frightened again. This of course was a very young James Mason who went on to have a very long varied career. He did his role justice and his co-stars were talented as well. The film is almost never shown on TV any more, but the film can be purchased from specialty suppliers -- it's worth looking for!

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.