La nuit a des yeux

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

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.

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.

A very young James Mason plays a mysterious man who may know something about a young girls disappearance. Her friends try to find out what he knows.

I caught this on a cable TV station in the early 1980s. Back then there were a number of small cable stations starting up and they put on anything that they could get cheaply. The print I saw on this station was dreadful--VERY faded with some scenes so dark you could barely make out anything. The sound wasn't much better. Still I did like it and the final revelation of the killer (and the look on their face) chilled me. Also Mason was very good in an early role and it was a delight seeing him so young and full of energy.

This is a pretty obscure little film but worth seeing if you get the chance.

This is a wholly satisfying romantic mystery tale, with excellent performances all round, well directed by Leslie Arliss, even though it was only his second film. James Mason delivers a powerful, brooding, mysterious performance as a tormented composer living a life of isolation in an ancient house in the moors, playing Schubert in the dark, surrounded by peat bogs, 'cut off from the world', and often flooded in. It is hard to believe that Mason made one of the worst films ever, with one of the worst performances ever ('Secret Mission'), in the very same year. Must be the directors. Mary Clare is amazingly eerie and haunting in her character role, and Joyce Howard is a charming, fresh-faced ingenue with eyes full of hope - frightened eyes, but hopeful. Wifred Lawson is a marvellous character study of a thicko in thrall to Mary Clare. Plenty of mist, lots of full moons, mysterious deaths, secret rooms, it's all there. Oh yes, and let's not forget the maidens in distress who conquer their fears for love, and the good time gal who wants to get back to town where 'all those delicious men in RAF uniforms' are. This really is a good one.