Just before his big break in Carol Reed’s ODD MAN OUT (1947), just after training at venerable Old Vic in London, setting the stage for his American debút in Max Ophüls’ CAUGHT (1949), preceding his having been voted the most popular British movie star in every year between 1944 and 1947, in the vein of his more well-known late-40s work in the melodramatic THE SEVENTH VEIL (1945) and adventuresome THE WICKED LADY (1945), always refusing to ever wear make-up on set, precisely at the time that he made the controversial decision to refuse to fight in WWII (estranging him from his family), long anticipating his American stardom—Nemo in the porto-steampunk 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA (1954), unforgettable spy Vandamm in a lil’ flick called NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959), creep H.H. in LOLITA (1962), his late-70s/early-80s genre renaissance—that established his intractable character presence… James Mason made a number of sleeper thrillers before his Brexit to America. We present four of them!!!
THE NIGHT HAS EYES
Dir. Leslie Arliss, 1942.
UK. 75 minutes.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 10:00PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23 – 10:00PM
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“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 IMDB Review by Spikeopath from United Kingdom
THEY MET IN THE DARK
Dir. Carl Lamac, 1943.
UK. 90 minutes.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 10:00PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25 – 7:30PM
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“To begin, They Met in the Dark is a mystery that is seamlessly turned into a WWII espionage film, all the while remaining a film about two attractive and courageous people gradually falling in love. Analysts of recent vintage who try to watch the film, I suggest, routinely fail to understand its strengths and make too much of its very few weaknesses. It also confuses them because it is a film directed by a Czech, made with British actors, and yet its style is superior U.S. 1940s narrative of unusual clarity, swiftness of pace and occasional brilliance.
“The story involves a young naval officer who is cashiered from the service under suspicion of incompetence (James Mason) and who manages to become involved with a young woman (Joyce Howard) who finds a body and has cause to suspect him of having been the murderer. Following parallel paths–she to clear herself of suspicion in the case and he trying to find the truth about how his career came to grief over his botched assignment at sea–he tries to protect her while she is busy eluding him. The clues lead them both to a Dance Academy cum talent agency, which is really a nest of spies, wherein a quintet of villains has been manipulating innocents and finding a way to extract secret information from British naval officers, such as that knowledge those loss wreaked havoc on Mason’s life. The last portion of the film, maintaining the light-hearted tone carried out throughout the proceedings, becomes an anti-espionage caper led by Mason and a fellow officer, leading to a very satisfying conclusion.
“Carl Lamac (as Karel Lamac) directed with a fluid and amazingly adept camera style, handling varying sorts of indoor and outdoor, group and chase, two-shot and nightclub scenes with extreme skill. Marcel Hellman produced, with music by Ben Frankel, outstanding cinematography by Otto Heller, art direction by Norma G. Arnold and period dance arrangements by Philip Bruchel. The screenplay was adapted from the oft-imitated novel “The Vanished Corpse” by Anthony Gilbert. Others involved in the screenplay included Basil Bartlett, Anatole de Grunwald, Victor MacLure, Miles Malleson, and James Seymour. Phyllis Stanley is outstanding as a singer, David Farrar and Edward Rigby are Mason’s closest confederates. The evil quintet are portrayed by Ronald Ward, powerful Tom Walls as the leader, capable Karel Stepanek, Eric Mason, and Ronald Chesney, aided by Walter Crisham and Betty Warren. Brefni O’Rourke plays a police Inspector, with Kynaston Reeves, Terence de Marney, Robert Sansom, Patricia Medina and Peggy Dexter in supporting roles. As the young woman caught up in intrigue, Joyce Howard is far better here than she had been in the much darker “The Night Has Eyes”; though she lacks some voltage, she is attractive, and more than adequate. As the hero, James Mason gets to essay a great variety of interesting scenes, all of which he performs with convincing and skillful art throughout. He wins the girl in this one, but only after playing a variety of dramatic, comedic and challenging scenes; and as usual; he is able to sustain his character throughout the proceedings and make everyone around him look better than they do in the film at any other time.
“Comparing this delightful film to many routine program films of the war years, I suggest any critic worth his salt would have to applaud the success of this often brilliant entertainment. This is the sort of film people with a positive sense of life used to be able to make; I find it to be one within which complex story elements are made clear and scene follows scene with both logic and a continual sense of discovery. This is a very underrated noir adventure with most successful comedy used to advance the plot at every turn. Recommended.”
8/10 IMDB Review by silverscreen888 from United States
THE UPTURNED GLASS
Dir. Lawrence Huntington, 1947.
UK. 83 minutes.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 – 10:00PM
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“This is a very unusual and intelligent thriller, like most thrillers involving doctors usually are. It is the first of James Mason’s very few own productions and features his own wife, Pamela Mason, here Pamela Kellino, as the second of the two ladies he is involved with, both of them leading to disaster. The intrigue cleverly leads astray at times while at the same time it sharpens as the doctor (James Mason) finds his own case constantly more crucial. He stages a kind of mock trial with himself by giving a lecture at the medical theatre with all rows filled with young attentive students, and one student almost sees through his show and sharpens his case even further. Is he in control or is he not? Has he the right to judge what’s right or wrong or has he not? The film poses many questions, and the questioning becomes increasingly more critical, until in the end he is faced with the final trial as a doctor, when an emergency calls on him to perform one more brain surgery. It’s the doctor who assists him who puts him to the final test, and these scenes are the most interesting and important in the film. James Mason as the doctor has no other choice than to be consistent with his own argument and conclude his own case after having received an understated sentence by his elderly colleague. It’s a remarkable film, not for its direction, which could have been better, but for its very thought-provoking story with the presentation of a case which not even doctors could in any possible way be called upon to give a fair judgement of. The tragedy of this case is that James Mason, one of the best actors ever, a constantly brooding romantic hero, more Hamletian than Byronic, has no other choice, which probably no one could reasonably disagree with.”
9/10 IMDB Review by clanciai from Sweden
I MET A MURDERER
Dir. Roy Kellino, 1939.
UK. 63 minutes.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – 7:30PM
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 – 5:00PM
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 – 7:30PM
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“If you are a true James Mason fan (as I am) here’s a lovely film. I Met a Murderer (England) was literally an original home movie production released in 1937 when Mason was yet under 30 years old (27-28).
“This curious and personal little movie was conceived and created by Pamela and Roy Kellino along with James Mason. It was not released in Great Britain immediately, having been rejected by Pamela’s family who controlled a large segment of the film distribution business in England. (This caused a painful schism between Pamela and James and the Osterer family.) Only costing 5000 pounds to make, the cinemagraphic production values are honest yet nearly amateur quality. Most of the actors in the film were their friends and performed for nothing or small favors. The story, written by Pamela, is simple and straightforward with lots of naive, old fashioned character interactions and impulsive, hot-tempered, reflexive responses to the problems of the day (like murdering your nagging wife because she shoots the dog-what a concept!). James Mason is exquisitely handsome, and there are lots of dreamy close-ups designed to propel this young superstar into the desiring hearts of swooning bobby-soxers and young moviegoers. His smooth, commanding voice (James Masons’ life long signature) is as potent at 28 years of age as it was throughout his life. James Mason and Pamela Kellino were, at this time, very personal and intimately close friends. Three years later Pamela would become Mrs. Mason and the rest is history.
“I can’t say this is a great movie, but it is an early short feature that shows the fiery intensity of a young James. His willful intensity portrayed here would characterize his appeal for much of his acting career. Indeed, he was the consummate screen actor, perfecting his trade tirelessly until the day of his death. The only complaint I have regarding this little gem is that the sound score is the silent film “follow-the-action-style” musical accompaniment with lots of rousing piano and jump-out-of-your-chair giddyup that can be annoying to modern listeners. Get a copy of this film if you can and enjoy the roots of one of the world’s finest actors.”
7/10 IMDB Review by Clement Concodora from Fort Meyers, FL
