Review of Endless Night

"Endless Night" may not as fun and exciting as other films based on Agatha Christie books, but it is more psychologically complex and artistically inventive than many of them. The emphasis here is not on the twists and the red herrings (although there are certainly enough of them), but on the characters and their relationships. The movie plays out like a novel, taking its time in telling the story, and thanks to fine performances by the cast, especially the two leads, Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills (who is lovely and charming), the characters feel like real people. Writer-director Sidney Gilliat (who had worked with Alfred Hitchcock earlier in his career, as had of course composer Bernard Herrmann and actor George Sanders) carefully sets up a creepy mood, and gives us some striking shots (especially the "painting coming to life"). Some details near the end get a little muddled (who and why took that photograph, when did the police come into the house, etc.), but the movie works above all as a psychological study of a split personality. *** out of 4.