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YouTube reviews:
Trailer:
Curse of the Demon (US version) – free to watch online on YouTube:
Blu-ray release:
Night of the Demon received a Limited Edition Blu-ray release via Powerhouse Films Indicator imprint in the UK on October 22, 2018.
Buy Blu-ray: Amazon.co.uk
The British Film Institute (BFI)’s 2013 2K restoration of the 96-minute version
High-definition remaster of the 82-minute cut
Original mono audio
Four presentations of the film: Night of the Demon – the original full-length pre-release version (96 mins), and the original UK theatrical cut (82 minutes); Curse of the Demon – the original US theatrical cut (82 mins), and the US re-issue version (96 mins)
Audio commentary with film historian Tony Earnshaw, author of Beating the Devil: The Making of ‘Night of the Demon’
Speak of the Devil: The Making of ‘Night of the Demon’ (2007): documentary featuring interviews with actor Peggy Cummins, production designer Ken Adam and historians Tony Earnshaw and Jonathan Rigby
Dana Andrews on ‘Night of the Demon’: a rare audio interview with the actor conducted by Scott MacQueen
The Devil’s in the Detail (2018): Christopher Frayling on Night of the Demon and acclaimed production designer Ken Adam
Horrors Unseen (2018): a discussion of the celebrated director of Night of the Demon by Chris Fujiwara, author of Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall
Sinister Signs (2018): an analysis by Kim Newman, author of Nightmare Movies
Under the Spell (2018): the celebrated British horror writer Ramsey Campbell discusses the unique combination of M R James and Jacques Tourneur
The Devil in Music (2018): a new appreciation of Clifton Parker’s score by David Huckvale, author of Movie Magick: The Occult in Film
The Devil Gets His Due (2018): film historian and preservationist Scott MacQueen on the release history of Night of the Demon
The Truth of Alchemy (2018) a discussion of M R James and ‘Casting the Runes’ by Roger Clarke, author of A Natural History of Ghosts: 500 Years of Hunting for Proof
Cloven In Two (2018): a new video piece exploring the different versions of the film
Escape: ‘Casting the Runes’ (1947): a radio play adaptation of James’ original story
Super 8 version: original cut-down home cinema presentation
Isolated music & effects track on the US theatrical cut
Original US Curse of the Demon theatrical trailer
Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography, including rare production design sketches from the Deutsche Kinemathek’s Ken Adam Archive
New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Limited Edition exclusive 80-page book
Limited Edition exclusive double-sided poster
Limited Edition of 6,000 copies
Choice dialogue:
Julian Karswell: “But where does imagination end and reality begin? What is this twilight, this half world of the mind that you profess to know so much about? How can we differentiate between the powers of darkness and the powers of the mind?”
Professor Kumar: “Haven’t you gentlemen heard that alcohol is the Devil’s brew and interested as I am in the Devil, I never indulge.”
Buy: Instant Video | DVD from Amazon.com
Censorship [info via Tony Earnshaw’s excellent book Beating the Devil]:
An early version of the script, when it was still called The Bewitched, was submitted to the British Board of Film Censors on January 10th 1955 by producer Marcel Hellman in the hope of gaining an ‘A’ certificate. Two unnamed examiners considered the script, with one noting:
“…I find the elaborately contrived, supposedly supernatural hokum, most repulsive. In some way I cannot define, it savours to me of blasphemy that normal adults should go about in fear of their lives over ‘runic’ spells in the 20th century. Perhaps I am unduly prejudicial.”
Undeterred, Hellman resubmitted the script to British censors on March 4th but they were still adamant that the resulting film would be classified with an ‘X’ certificate (for sixteen-year-olds and over only). Furthermore, they noted that a painting to be featured in the film was entirely unsuitable:
“ … it is a weird and credible impression of a Black Mass; hooded demons dressed in masks indulging in an orgy, ‘with lissom, unclothed young women whose lovely faces are infinitely evil’. This must not be included (it is not in the book).”
Once producer Hal E. Chester took over the project, Bennett’s original script was rewritten to remove any humorous elements with the intention that it would be an ‘X’-rated film. The script was resubmitted to the censors on September 5th 1956. An examiner duly noted:
“Mercifully, on this occasion the makers are plainly aiming at an ‘X’. The would-be funny bits and the golf playing have disappeared and the real black magic is unquestionably at the bottom of all the odd goings-on. The horror is laid on a stick as possible in all “horrific” sequences and there should be the usual ‘X’ certificate caution about the sky not being the limit, even for ‘X’, to scenes of terror, screams of fear, and the portrayal of disgusting and horrifying objects.”
A script with further amendments retitled The Haunting, was submitted on October 23rd 1956. In his final letter to the filmmakers, head censor Arthur Watkins warned again that references to “devil worship” be omitted and that the Black Mass painting was still unacceptable.
When the film itself was submitted in June 1957, the censors required two lines spoken by Rand Hobart (Brian Wilde) to be cut:
“We blaspheme and desecrate.”
“In the joy of sin will mankind that is lost find itself again.”
Main cast and characters:
Dana Andrews … Doctor John Holden; Peggy Cummins … Joanna Harrington; Niall MacGinnis … Doctor Julian Karswell; Athene Seyler … Mrs Karswell; Liam Redmond … Professor Mark O’Brien; Peter Elliott … Professor Kumar; Maurice Denham … Professor Harrington; Reginald Beckwith … Mr Meek; Brian Wilde … Rand Hobart; Charles Lloyd Pack … Chemist; Ewan Roberts … Lloyd Williamson
Filming locations:
Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire
Savoy Hotel, The Strand, London
Reading Room and North Library, British Museum, London
Brocket Hall, near Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire – also in The Final Conflict, 1981
Bricket Wood railway station, between St. Albans and Watford, Hertfordshire (closed during the Beeching cuts of the 1960s)
Heathrow Airport, Terminal 1
Watford Junction railway station, Hertfordshire
Release:
The film was released in the United Kingdom for its theatrical run in December 1957 as a double feature with the American movie 20 Million Miles to Earth.
In the USA, it was released as Curse of the Demon. According to Charles Bennett, the title was changed because the studio didn’t want it confused with the similarly titled The Night of the Iguana. Columbia cut the film down to 82 minutes for the June 1958 US release. The scenes removed included a visit to the Hobart family farm, a trip to Stonehenge, and snippets of the séance scenes and conversations between Karswell and his mother. Curse of the Demon toured drive-ins and theatres as a double feature with The True Story of Lynn Stuart and Hammer’s The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).
Working title:
The Haunted
Offline reading:
Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon by Tony Earnshaw – National Museum of Photography, Film and Television & Tomahawk Media, UK, 2005
Buy Beating the Devil from Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com
Technical details:
1 hour 36 minutes (UK version) | 1 hour 22 minutes (US version)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 1.66: 1
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