Cinema
Night of the Demon
Jacques Tourneur · 1957
Synopsis
Professor Harrington goes to the home of Julian Karswell, leader of a cult, and begs him to lift the curse he has placed on him: in exchange, he will abandon his investigation. Karswell, learning that a parchment handed to his visitor has been destroyed, promises only to do what he can. Returning home at night, Harrington sees a shape form out of a cloud above the trees; it will be put down to accidental electrocution. The American psychologist Holden then arrives in London for the congress where Harrington was to denounce the cult.
Context
The film is drawn from a story by M. R. James published in 1911, in which a scholar receives from an occultist a paper covered in runes. The director, the screenwriter Charles Bennett and the actor Dana Andrews wanted nothing ever to be seen and the viewer to remain the judge; the producer, Hal E. Chester, demanded a creature visible from the opening and got it. The film existed in a long version of about ninety-five minutes and a version of eighty-two, the only one shown in cinemas, in Britain as in the United States. Its art director, Ken Adam, became a few years later the designer of the James Bond adventures.
Who it is for
In English. The 2013 French box set gives the long version, which cinemas at the time had not shown.
Prizes and reception
Released in Britain in December 1957, and in the United States in July 1958 under the title Curse of the Demon.
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