User Reviews

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!

I find "The Night Has Eyes", a very personal project by director-scenarist Leslie Arliss and producer and scenarist John Argyle, to be both a seminal and engrossing narrative. To me, it often appears to be an inexpensive but nevertheless effective adaptation of a mystery novel by Alan Kennington. And it is one whose several aspects have been copied and redone many times since. The center of the storyline is a reclusive young man. Injured in war, he has shut himself away in a Gothic-profile house on the edge of the Yorkshire moors. We find that he was a brilliant young composer but that he can no longer access his talent. There is a mystery as to why he regards it as necessary to quit mankind; and we find out about his reason through the agency of a young female teacher, who arrives at the house as a visitor and who with her girlfriend must remain there for several days. There is a "kicker" in her presence in the area; she is seeking the truth of the death of another teacher, her friend, who vanished in the area the year before. Upon these ingredients, Arliss constructs a rather claustrophobic-appearing but well-constructed tale. Revelation follows, revelation, relationships are shifted and changed by actions, words, discoveries and altered purposes. And when the teacher falls in love with the troubled hero, a chain f events is set in motion that ends with a satisfying and interesting conclusion of what I find to be great power. The actors to me are the strongest element in this moody and atmospheric piece from start to finish. Duncan Sutherland designed the low-budget production; Gunther Krampf did the cinematography and interesting music was composed by Charles Williams. Dorothy Black and Amy Dalby show to advantage as teachers in the film's earliest scenes; John Fernald plays a laid-back physician in fine comedic style with Tucker McGuire stealing scenes as a man- happy and sharp-tongued companion to the heroine. The other long roles in the mystery are played by pretty Joyce Howard, as Marian Ives, the teacher seeking her lost friend, Mary Clare as the enigmatic housekeeper to the hero, powerful Wilfrid Lawson as the hero's handyman, and James Mason as the troubled composer. It is Mason's utterly believable and beautifully-timed performance, as in so many other films, that unifies a merely-middling production. Howard is weak in charisma but quite satisfactory as a consort to the angst- ridden recluse; all the rest keep the intriguing psychological mystery moving very nicely, making for a well-acted film. "The Night Has Eyes" with a sufficient budget might have appeared to be a somewhat better as a realized work of cinema; but the main strengths of the script are very well brought out by the accomplished Mason and the rest of the cast as it is; and the simplicity of black-and-white presentation adds to the effectiveness of the characters and to the sense of importance that accompanies their motives and deeds.

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.

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.

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.

Schoolteachers Joyce Howard and Tucker McGuire are off to the Yorkshire moors for a holiday, the same moors where a former colleague disappeared a year earlier. When they get caught up in a storm, they find shelter in the secluded mansion of James Mason. Mason's an acrimonious and unstable man, and despite multiple warnings from him, his housekeeper Mary Clare, and a possible link between Mason and the missing teacher, she falls for him and decides to stay around for a while. But then she finds a skeleton in a locked room (literally), with a necklace that she recognizes as the missing teacher's...

Also known as Terror House and Moonlight Madness, this movie combines elements from 30 mysteries, Gothic/victorian drama's and even a bit of early/proto film noir. Mason ('Odd Man Out') was still quite young but already able to carry a movie, and gives a solid performance. Howard ('They Met In The Dark') is also good, stuffy at first but more radiant once she takes a romantic interest in Mason. There is also some nice atmospheric cinematography by Gunther Krampf ('Nosferatu') inside the mansion and on the foggy moors. The directing by Leslie Arliss ('The Wicked Lady') is competent enough, but his screenplay is a bit too slow, and he added some unnecessary and jarring comic relief in the middle. The twist is not too surprising, the ending is pretty good tho. An enjoyable movie, but it could've been much better. 6+/10

This has one or two decent moments, particularly the sequences on the moors and the early sequence on the train where for a minute or two this looked as if it might become a little risqué. For the most part, however, despite the presence of James Mason this is for the most part pretty preposterous. There are hints that this might take off into horror or at least thriller territory but, I guess, this was matinee fare and romance was the name of the game.

James Mason stars in this semi-horror film along with Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, and Joyce Howard.

Joyce plays Marian who, with her horny friend Doris (Tucker McGuire) head for the Yorkshire moors with a mission. Their good friend Evelyn was lost on these moors a year earlier, and Joyce and Doris want to find out what happened to her.

A good-looking doctor (John Fernald) meets the women on the train and offers them a ride. For reasons known only to themselves, they decide to get out and walk at a certain point. A tremendous storm opens the skies, and one of the women is almost lost in the bogs that are like quicksand.

They are saved by an ex-serviceman Stephen (Mason) who lives with a housekeeper and a handyman on the moors. The women have no choice but to spend the night, and, when there's flooding, they have to stay the next day.

Stephen is very brusque, mysterious, and wants them gone. They soon learn why.

Pretty good, atmospheric film with some nice performances. My big problem was that the Joyce Howard character fell madly in love with Mason after knowing him for five minutes.

You'll figure this out pretty quickly, as the direction to the actors (in my opinion) made it obvious. A little underplaying would have been nice on the part of one of the actors.

Doris and Marian Ives are teachers at an all girls school. They are headed to the Yorkshire Moors for their holiday. Doris faints illness to draw in Dr. Barry Randall but he's more interested in Marian. The ladies get lost in a storm and finds shelter in an old house with the mysterious Stephen Deremid (James Mason).

It's such a weird premise. These helpless ladies go hiking in the dangerous Moors where their friend was killed only a year earlier. It may work if they don't treat it so lightly. It could work as a pilgrimage for their friend especially if they think it's a random accident which is unlikely to be repeated. The other way to do the premise is for these two ladies to be Nancy Drews looking to solve their friend's killing. The movie does work as a low level thriller in an isolated location but then they add more characters and a monkey. It seems to be trying for a little bit of comedy which does clash with the darker mystery aspect. There's a monkey. It's so weird.

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.

Effective, vaguely Gothic chiller with a young but moody James Mason convinced he turns into a killer of small furry animals when the moon is full. Cute blonde Joyce Howard turns up to try and set him straight, but not without first uncovering a skeleton in his closet. Leslie Arliss's screenplay wanders a little at times, but builds to a good finale. Wilfrid Lawson stands out as a not-quite-right handyman with a pet capuchin.

This is a movie that I learned about thanks to Letterboxd for horror from 1942. This is one that I had to buy a bootleg copy since I couldn't find an official release. I feel like when I was searching for this, I figured out that it had James Mason in it. He's an actor that I like as he just has a presence about him. Other than that, I came into this one blind.

Synopsis: two teachers, man-hungry Doris (Tucker McGuire) and restrained Marian (Joyce Howard), visit the Yorkshire moors a year after their friend Evelyn disappeared. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of Stephen (Mason). They get trapped there for a few days where things aren't as they seem and their host might know more about their missing friend than they realized originally.

Now the synopsis that I found was long so I decided to cut it down as much as could. As it said though, Marian and Doris are heading out for a holiday as school lets out. We get a fun scene to show these two women and their personality when Doris bickers with another teacher. Doris has a lack of respect for the institution that she works.

They take a train to head to the Yorkshire moors. Doris wants to have fun and meet men, where Marian just wants to get there. She even booked them a woman's only car. Despite this, they meet a Dr. Barry Randall (John Fernald). Doris comes on to him, but he sends her away so he can get to know Marian. When they arrive, he even offers to drive them to where they need to go.

The two women get out in the middle of nowhere and try to traverse the moors. A strong storm rolls in and the two women have a rough go. They luck out when they come upon a manor. Stephen happens to be outside and rescues them. He invites them in to dry off. It is there that he overhears Doris. He is already short with them and this doesn't help. The two women end up staying the night, with the understanding to get up early and leave. They are also to lock their door at night. Doris has a cold though. She is struggling. They realize they can't leave yet. The land is flooded. They're allowed to stay a few days until the land dries.

Soon after, they meet two others that help Stephen. There is a repair person by the name of Jim Sturrock (Wilfrid Lawson) who has a capuchin monkey. There's also Mrs. Ranger (Mary Clare). While there, Marian and Doris learn that there is a secret room within the house. Doris wants to find it. Stephen would rather them not search his house. There seems to be something more to it though. Their friend Evelyn might have also sought refuge here. Stephen is hiding secrets and his mental health might also be in question as well.

That is where I'll leave my recap as that gives you more of the set up without spoiling and introducing our characters. Where I'll start is that I didn't know what type of movie we would get here. What is interesting is that this has a similar set up to An American Werewolf in London. The difference here is that we have two women and they're from the United Kingdom. They are walking across the moors. This is terrifying for a couple reasons. The first is that their friend disappeared here a year ago. The other part is that if you don't know, moors are like marshlands or at least this one is. There is quicksand here that can swallow up a person quickly. This area seems extra dangerous as there is only one path through them.

Once at the house, we have a host that doesn't fully want them there. In the beginning of that, this points to Stephen just wants to be alone. Through dialogue and learning his history, he is a famous pianist. He fought in the Spanish Civil War and the effects have left him shell-shocked. Stephen is dealing with PTSD. There could be more to it than that though. I didn't know if this was going to go as far to say he was a werewolf or a similar creature, but it seems that he blacks out and kills animals. He might even kill people. He wants to be alone to protect himself as well as others. The only ones he trusts are Jim and Mrs. Ranger.

What I like with this movie is that we're following Marian. We see that she is reserved and because of it, men are attracted more to her than Doris. That might not be true completely. I know that Dr. Randall and Stephen are. This annoys Doris so she wants to leave as soon as possible. What I like about Marian is that she is intrigued by Stephen. In their short time together, she doesn't want to leave. My first thoughts is that she falls fast for him. To be honest, there is a bit more to it than that. I think she does because Stephen shows interest in her and then wants her to leave at once. From her point of view, it could be read that he is playing hard to get. There is also that he is broken and needing to be fixed. I could be reading into this a bit too much with modern eyes, but that's what I'm seeing.

The last thing here would be the setting. I love this house being in the middle of the moors. It is isolated so it almost feels like it is an island when the land floods. Even when the water isn't that high, the marshes are dangerous. I like that added element here. The house itself is also interesting. Another movie that I think might have borrowed from this is Deep Red. I wouldn't at least be shocked to know that Dario Argento saw this. I won't spoil the reveal, but this house has a bit of the 'old dark house'.

That should be enough for the story and setting so let me go to the acting. It was interesting to see a young Mason. I'm used to him in older roles. He was quite a good-looking guy though. I like the tortured role he plays as it is vulnerable. He also has a presence about him. Lawson and Clare are good as the two helpers for Stephen. I like Howard as Marian. McGuire adds a bit of levity as Doris and the same could be said for Fernald. Other than that, the rest of the cast was fine in support.

I'll then take to this the filmmaking. The cinematography we get here is fine. It doesn't necessarily do anything to stand out. I will give credit to making the house feel isolated like it is. Making the moors come to life was also good. There aren't a lot in the way of effects, but it also doesn't need it. Having the storm seem real which helps. I also like the look we get at the standing water afterwards as well. I had no gripes here. Other than that, the soundtrack fit for what was needed without standing out.

In conclusion, this movie was a fun watch. It was one that I came in not knowing what I was getting and just enjoyed my time with it. We have a great lead in Mason. I like the tortured character he plays. The rest of the cast around him was good. I love the setting and the although the premise isn't necessarily new, I like what they do with it. This is one that I wouldn't be surprised if filmmakers saw and incorporated elements into their works from it. I'd also say that this is a well-made movie overall. I'd go as far to call this a hidden gem. The issue is that it can be hard to find.

My Rating: 7 out of 10.

In watching The Night Has Eyes it was interesting to see that a film that was described as contemporary had no reference to the current war. It would make it one of the few made in the United Kingdom in 1942 that did that wasn't a period piece. Even more curious in that James Mason's character is a veteran of the late Spanish Civil War.

Mason would now be described as suffering from post traumatic stress from his experiences fighting for the Loyalist side and in a prison camp when he was held by the Nationalists. When released he was not quite right and thought to have committed murders on small animals. He finally chooses a self imposed exile on the edge of Yorkshire bogs being cared for by husband and wife Wilfrid Lawson and Mary Clare. A pity because before he decided to fight in Spain Mason was a promising composer of some note.

His exile is interrupted by two school teachers on holiday, Joyce Howard and Tucker McGuire. McGuire is husband hunting, but Howard is on the trail of her friend, another school teacher who went missing in that area on holiday last year. People have been known to disappear in that bog quicksand for centuries. In real life James Mason came from the Yorkshire area.

In the Citadel Film Series book on James Mason, he talks about the marvelous inventive special effects because this film was shot indoors in studio and the bogs were created on a sound stage. In fact in long shots Mason says that midgets were used as stand ins to give the feeling of distance.

Mason's own performance and the rest of the cast was a great ensemble job. Though I think you'll figure out the secret behind all the crime and disappearances well before the end.

There's trouble out on t'moors when two bright young things, teachers Joyce Howard, she's the prim and proper one and her chalk-and-cheese chum Tucker McGuire, not so much a man-eater but a man-guzzler set out for a walk, ostensibly to retrace the steps of another female teacher friend who took the same walk a year before and mysteriously disappeared. Unfortunately the weather turns and they have to brave both the elements and the treacherous marshlands around them, before James Mason turns up to rather reluctantly rescue them and put them up in his big dark old house.

A damaged Republican-supporting veteran of the Spanish Civil War he's also a pianist-composer but now lives alone, attended only by his trusty housekeeper Mary Clare and her somewhat seedy husband, handyman Wilfrid Lawson, who seems strangely attached to his pet don't-call-it-a-monkey capuchin.

Despite Mason's moods and the foreboding atmosphere surrounding the house, Howard falls for him but she's still curious about the fate of her lost friend plus small animals suddenly seem to have started getting killed for no apparent reason. It really starts to kick off when Ives rather easily discovers a secret room that even Mason hadn't found before, the contents of which apparently point a bony finger of suspicion back at Mason. So is he the murderer or is there a gaslight of a chance that he is being framed for the misdeed...?

Despite the sometimes over-pukka acting, overwrought dialogue, over-starchy direction and over-complicated plotting, Mason is the best thing here as he shows he can brood for England in a way which no doubt got him noticed by the ambitious Gainsborough Studios and launched his distinguished career.

For all its faults, I find it hard not to have a soft spot for this low-budget thriller and I don't just mean the shifting quicksand out there on the marshes.

British, soundstage-bound, gothic horror(ish) mystery, starring James Mason, Joyce Howard, and Wilfrid Lawson. Two young female schoolteachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors where their friend disappeared a year ago. However, as they cross the moors, they lose their way in a violent storm. After nearly sinking in the bog they stumble across a mysterious house where they decide to take shelter.

This has those wonderful fog-shrouded sets so prevalent at the time (think The Hound of the Baskerviles). We also get wild, Bronte-type scenery, skeletons in secret chambers, and ominous shots of clouds flitting across the full moon. A young James Mason is at his glowering best, as the tortured loner with a secret; Joyce Howard is at her swooning best, as the heroine who refuses to believe ill of him, and Wilfred Lawson is at his, well, pickled best (he had a notorious drink problem, to the point where it was often written into his parts), as the handyman. It's a stagy melodrama through and through and some of the dialogue is unintentionally funny now, but there's bags of atmosphere and an ending I didn't see coming. 7/10.

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.

This film seems to have been written, acted and directed in the early 19th Century but left unreleased until 1942 (perhaps a squabble over the final cut between producer and director, or maybe the production ran out of money and the rights ended up with the bank).

In the classic vein of the noirish mystery thriller, The Night Has Eyes is "written and directed" by Leslie Arliss, who does such absolute wonders on the small sound stages at Welwyn Garden Studios, we never have the impression that this is anything else but an extremely high budget picture. Arliss is given marvelous assistance by art director Duncan Sutherland and perfectionist lighting cameraman Gunther Krampf. The stand-out cast is led by James Mason as the moody recluse, Mary Clare as his well-wishing housekeeper, Joyce Howard as the heroine, Tucker McGuire as her man-crazy friend, and playwright John Fernald (who collaborated with director Arliss on additional dialogue) in the first of only two appearances in front of the camera, as the helpful doctor. The beginning and end of the climactic sequence rate as two of the most unforgettable moments in world cinema.