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.
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.