Leofwine_draca This intriguing tale benefits from some strong characters, who really make you want to keep watching to the end of the film, plus an unnerving sense of impending doom. Based on an Agatha Christie story, the film is extremely slow-moving which will probably be a put off to many modern movie goers. Indeed, not much in the way of action happens at all, as the film is dialogue based. Thanks to a good script, if you concentrate then you'll find yourself rewarded by the time the credits close.Some really beautiful locations help to add to the visual quality of this film, which is incidentally top-notch. While not a horror film exactly, there are plenty of spooky moments, such as a mysterious old woman who stands around and shouts forebodings of evil, plus a chilling scene or two. These nightmarish moments are achieved without any special effects whatsoever, and it's very effective. There's also a fantastic twist in the tale which I certainly didn't see coming, I won't spoil it, except to say it's a good one.The film also benefits from a very good cast, seemingly populated by loads of British character actors and actresses. Hywel Bennett excels in the lead role of a poor dreamer, who admires art and beauty. You can really feel for his character and understand his various actions, and Bennett makes his character likable. Hayley Mills is very good as the young, innocent wife, while Britt Ekland enjoys her role (which, unsurprisingly, calls for nudity) as a housekeeper. Filling out various roles are Lois Maxwell (Miss Moneypenny from the Bond films) as a crabby old aunt, Walter Gotell, Windsor Davies in a small role as the village policeman, and finally George Sanders, who brings an air of respectability to the proceedings, playing a distinguished lawyer.For fans of mysteries and thrillers, this is unmissable viewing. While it might not be the best of the best, it's still superior in just about every way, a mature, convincing film which hooks you from the start and lulls you into a false sense of security before smacking you in the face with shock after shock. One to watch...

gridoon2018 "Endless Night" may not as fun and exciting as other films based on Agatha Christie books, but it is more psychologically complex and artistically inventive than many of them. The emphasis here is not on the twists and the red herrings (although there are certainly enough of them), but on the characters and their relationships. The movie plays out like a novel, taking its time in telling the story, and thanks to fine performances by the cast, especially the two leads, Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills (who is lovely and charming), the characters feel like real people. Writer-director Sidney Gilliat (who had worked with Alfred Hitchcock earlier in his career, as had of course composer Bernard Herrmann and actor George Sanders) carefully sets up a creepy mood, and gives us some striking shots (especially the "painting coming to life"). Some details near the end get a little muddled (who and why took that photograph, when did the police come into the house, etc.), but the movie works above all as a psychological study of a split personality. *** out of 4.

rowmorg I think heavy drinking must have fuelled this movie, otherwise how to explain the lurid colour-clashes in the art direction, the amateurish accents (American and Welsh), the deliriously out-of-place music, and the insane and incomprehensible plot? Drunken producers must have green-lighted it, drunken casting directors picked the actors, and a drunk directed it, indeed directed it so incoherently that parts of it seem to have been inserted from a different movie. Only someone bordering on the deranged could have found the new house installed at Gypsy's Acre attractive; and a prop was never more artificially inserted for plot reasons than the in-lounge swimming pool in which the naked Britt Ekland sinks (why?), and the horrid truth about the hero's childhood crime is revealed. The drunken delirium is complete in this climax, which unveils a series of half-a-dozen layers of deception, each more perplexing and unsubstantiated than its predecessor. The cumulative effect is of a somnolent viewer getting slapped repeatedly to wake him up. Two gorgeous actresses have rarely been so wasted in a feature film. They have horrible hair, lousy accents, sexist roles, bad lines, and inexplicable motivations. Both are humiliatingly murdered, Hayley without revealing an inch of skin, while Britt (although naked) remains obstinately reversed. With those dreadful US accents, I am not at all surprised that US distributors refused it. The phony Welsh accent of the family doctor, by contrast, went unpunished.

Coventry Well, this definitely wasn't what I initially expected, but nonetheless "Endless Night" is a respectable and slow-brooding mystery thriller from the pen of the legendary Agatha Christie. This is actually one of those films of which the impact mainly comes afterwards, when the subject matter had its time to sink in. It probably won't ever become one of my personal favorite thrillers because the pacing is too slow, the screenplay is overly talkative and there aren't any memorable shock sequences, but you have got to admire director Sidney Gilliat's skills of suspense-building and generating an ominous atmosphere. I primarily wanted to watch "Endless Night" because it reunites the two lead players of the marvelous British shock-picture "Twisted Nerve" (Hywel Bennett and the indescribably ravishing Hayley Mills) and then additionally features no less than Britt Ekland ("The Wicker Man") and George Sanders ("Village of the Damned"). Great British cast, to say the least.Michael Rogers is a poor chauffeur with great ambitions and nearly unrealizable dreams. The building of his dream house on a fantastic piece of landscape suddenly becomes possible when he starts dating the sixth richest girl in the world … without even being aware of it! Obviously Ellie's family and financial counselors heavily protest against her relationship with the undoubtedly greedy young lad, but the couple conquers all relationship tests and stick together. Still, once they are settled on their dreamy hillside, mysterious events begin to occur. Ellie receives visits from an uncanny and crazy cat-lady (who very well may have been the inspiration for the character in "The Simpsons" with the same name) and offers shelter to her childhood nanny Greta even though she clearly doesn't get along with Michael. For a very long time – approximately two thirds of the whole film – you will wonder where Agatha Christie is going with the plot. "Endless Night" only turns into a mystery thriller during the last fifteen minutes. All the foregoing is actually just relationship drama and moody psychological studies. The remotely infamous twist near the end is indeed quasi unpredictable, but also highly implausible in my humble opinion. Obviously I can't write too much without revealing essential key information, but if a man is put to the choice between a beautiful rich girl and a beautiful poor girl … it isn't such a tough decision.