Dead of Night (1945)

Frederick Valk: Dr. Van Straaten

Photos 

Quotes 

• Eliot Foley : Apart from my bit of nonsense, the curious thing is that all of you, even Sally, seems to have had one of these extraordinary experiences

  Joan Cortland : Well, perhaps they aren't so extraordinary. Perhaps they happen to most people.

  Eliot Foley : Oh, you mean there's a ghost as well as a skeleton in everyone's cupboard.

  [laughs] 

  Eliot Foley : That's a pretty thought!

  Walter Craig : And what's the ghost in your cupboard, Doctor?

  Dr. van Straaten : Well, there was one occasion in my professional career that made me wonder. Made me wonder quite a lot.

• Dr. van Straaten : Of course! Dr. van Straaten. You're a psychiatrist. You always treat me. You'll treat me now, won't you?

  Walter Craig : You must forgive me; I don't quite understand the joke.

  Walter Craig : It isn't a joke. I only wish it were. I've seen you in my dreams. Sounds like a sentimental song, doesn't it? I've dreamt about you over and over again, Doctor.

  Dr. van Straaten : That hardly turns you into a mental case. After all, recurring dreams are quite common.

  Walter Craig : But how did I come to dream about you? I've never set eyes on you in my life.

  Dr. van Straaten : It's very likely you've seen my photograph in the papers. That's why my face seems familiar to you.

  Walter Craig : I don't think so. And even if it were, is that any reason why I should keep on dreaming about you? After all, you don't mean anything to me.

  Dr. van Straaten : Huh. Well, maybe an association of ideas. I may be linked with something that means a great deal to you.

  Walter Craig : Such as?

  Dr. van Straaten : I should have to psychoanalyze you to find that out.

  Walter Craig : But it doesn't end there. You see, everybody in this room is part of my dream. Everybody.

  [the guests burst into exclamations] 

• Dr. van Straaten : Mr. Craig, can you describe what happens in your dream?

  Walter Craig : Well, not in detail. But it always starts exactly the same as when I arrived, just now. I turn off the main road into the lane. At the bend in the lane, the house comes into view, and I stop as I recognize it. Then I drive on again. And Foley meets me at the front door. I recognize him, too. And then, while I'm taking off my coat, I have the most extraordinary feeling. I nearly turn and run for it, because I know I'm going to come face-to-face with the six...

  Sally O'Hara : Well, you've only come face-to-face with five of us so far, not counting Eliot.

  Walter Craig : That's right, five of you. There is a sixth person who comes in later.

  Dr. van Straaten : Can you describe this late arrival?

  Walter Craig : It's an attractive girl with dark hair.

  Dr. van Straaten : [laughing]  Is that all you can tell us about her?

  Walter Craig : She comes in quite unexpectedly and says something about not having any money.

  Eliot Foley : A penniless brunette, eh?

  Sally O'Hara : How romantic! Do you fall madly in love with her, Mr. Craig?

• Hugh Grainger : Let's get this straight, Doctor. You won't for a moment admit the possibility of foreseeing the future?

  Dr. van Straaten : Not for a moment.

  Hugh Grainger : Well, you'd say I'm a pretty ordinary, down-to-the-earth sort of person, wouldn't you?

  Dr. van Straaten : I refuse to commit myself. Why?

  Hugh Grainger : Well, when it comes to foreseeing the future, something once happened to me that knocks your theories into a cocked hat. Something I'll not forget to my dying day. As a matter of fact, it very nearly was my dying day.

• Dr. van Straaten : [removes his glasses]  Ah. No doubt you thought it would be very amusing to watch my cherished disbeliefs being shattered.

  Eliot Foley : [sarcastically]  Mm, very clever of us, I must say. I wonder if we have any more surprises up our sleeves.

  [the camera focuses on Dr. van Straaten's hands as he fiddles with his glasses] 

  Walter Craig : That's it - your glasses!

  Dr. van Straaten : What about my glasses?

  Walter Craig : It's later on. We're having drinks. You break those glasses of yours, and then, quite suddenly, the room goes dark. And then, Foley, you say something, something about the death of a man I've never heard of. And that's where my dream becomes a nightmare. A nightmare of horror.

  Joan Cortland : Horror? What sort of horror?

  Walter Craig : I feel my will power draining away. I feel I'm in the grip of a force that's driving me towards something unspeakably evil.

  Dr. van Straaten : It shows that you have some heavy weight on your conscience. Now, in my opinion...

  Walter Craig : I'm no longer interested in your opinion, Doctor. You shook me at first, with your ingenious theories. I thought perhaps the whole thing was a delusion. But Mrs. Grainger's arrival has altered all that. I have been here before, in my dreams. For some reason, I was given foreknowledge of the future. Why? I don't know. I want to know! I must know!

• Dr. van Straaten : Well, if I am a puppet and Mr. Craig's pulling the strings, the least he can do is to tell me a little bit more about the part he's giving me to play.

  Walter Craig : I wish it were as easy as that. But trying to remember a dream is like, how shall I put it, being out at night in a thunderstorm. There's a flash of lightning, and for one brief moment everything stands out, vivid and startling.

  Dr. van Straaten : And what have the lightning flashes illuminated so far?

  Walter Craig : One thing is very vivid and very horrible. I hit Sally savagely, viciously.

  Sally O'Hara : Oh, no you won't! I shall stick close to Mr. Grainger. He's bigger than you.

  Walter Craig : Well, anyway, it isn't consistent. I shan't have a chance to, 'cause you leave here quite soon, quite suddenly.

• Walter Craig : Doctor, I dreamed I was on a train passing through a tunnel.

  Dr. van Straaten : I'll need to see you three times a week.