A Movie Nearly Every Night: Fear in the Night

Fear in the Night (1947)
Dir: Maxwell Shane
Starring: Paul Kelly, DeForest Kelley, Ann Doran, Kay Scott


First off --- how much do I love the distribution company? Anglo Amalgamated. Where do you come up with a name like that? Well, we're an amalgamation of different anglo-types ... I know! We'll call it...

Going crazy at home -- sure, you'll want to keep the tie on

Okay, we watched this because it has DeForest Kelley. So what? We like Star Trek here. There, I said it and I'm kind of ashamed, but not really ... but kind of. Anyway, it also looked like a somewhat decent B noir and it is. There are some fun little twists in it, nothing too shocking, but fun all the same, and how cool to see Bones in younger man's, non-space clothes. He's not bad looking.

Dammit Jim ... I mean, Cliff

But his Vincent Grayson is a little weak and whingey. He's killed someone or he dreams he's killed someone, or maybe it's two people, but he hasn't left his bed and yet he seems to have evidence in his pocket and knows how to find the murder house, which is pretty weird for a dream, but his brother in-law the cop doesn't want to hear it, no matter how much Vince stretches the linen in his shirt. So most of the movie is Vince trying to figure out how he killed someone in a dream, and that's a one-trick pony, friends. Thank God it only has to dance for an hour.

"Honey, next time you suggest a double-date with my brother
I'm going to sock you one."

There's murder, mayhem, some issues with a used car, and lovely Ann Doran who later went on to torment son James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and that's pretty cool. That's Paul Kelly driving and Kay Scott behind him, and, no, they're not having much fun.

"Hello, I need my agent on the line, stat."

I swear I've seen Kay Scott in something else, but her movie list is pretty short at imdb.com and I haven't seen any of the other pictures. Skirts Ahoy! No. Still, her name in this is Betty and she is, let's face it. She's too good for that soppy Vince, who likes to brood around all day in an undershirt when he's not fainting.

All said, it's got some fun moments, some stolen set pieces from A pictures recreated in a none-too-shabby B picture style:

The psychological mirrored room ooooooooooooooh,

Vince getting cornered in a shadowy staircase oooooooooooooooooh,

and this fantastic telephone montage.

Who doesn't love a good telephone montage? Not as much fun as a cocktail bar montage, but pretty close.