WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Executscan Expected more

Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Bill Slocum I was really impressed by the first five minutes of "Fear In The Night." Then the rest of the film happened. My short take: Mood alone is never enough.Film lovers enjoy debating whether an old movie qualifies as "film noir." No need here. From the murky circumstances to a sleepwalking main character to constant dream sequences cutting in abruptly, this is noir, alright. It even has keywords "fear" and "night" in the title.But man does this film draaaaag.Vince Greyson (DeForest Kelley) is a bank teller who wakes up to the gradual realization that he just killed someone. Who and where, he doesn't know. But he does know he has marks on his neck, blood on his wrist, and a strange key in his pocket that weren't there before. Enlisting the help of police detective Cliff Herlihy (Paul Kelly) who happens to be his brother in law, Greyson discovers what it is to have "an honest man's conscience... in a murderer's body."A great premise, yes, from a short story by Cornell Woolrich (billed as "William Irish" in the credits), and with some smashing effects work. But the story wastes too much of its short running time on conversations between Greyson and Herlihy about whether he imagined it. An intrusive narration by Greyson explains what we are seeing on screen, as if director Maxwell Shane had no confidence visuals alone would do the trick. I suspect this was done in editing after the producers realized how hard the film would be to follow otherwise.Of the leads, DeForest Kelley gives an uneven performance. At times he is effective in portraying real fear and guilt; other times he overacts badly. Much of the time he sleepwalks, because that's what the script calls for. Did they want a Kafkaesque anti-hero or more of a conventional everyman rising to a challenge? He suffers from a lack of clear direction.Paul Kelly is much better, a studio pro who radiates some needed strength and reason. But he is saddled with some dumb moments, too. Like why does he get the bright idea of sending his shaky brother- in-law into a dangerous situation without police backup?When Greyson tells his story, Herlihy's first response is to wave it off: "You've just been stretching your nerves thin, kid." Then, after Greyson takes him to the house where it happened, Herlihy transforms into Dirty Harry, slapping the poor kid around and calling him "lower than the lowest rat we ever brought in for knifing someone in an alley." I give Kelly credit for making his about-face play at all, but it leaves a weird aftertaste.I don't hate this movie; the visual dynamics are strong throughout. Shane's track record was pedestrian, but that opening suggests real vision at the helm. How did they get all those mirrored-room shots without exposing the camera? We watch Greyson stumble around, looking submerged as he fights with a man who seems as asleep as he. Then the scene breaks up, and there's this fantastic swirl of light and fog that literally leaves him dumped on his bed.After that, though, you feel Shane struggle to match the surrealism of those opening moments. Occasionally, he succeeds, like in a harrowing episode where Greyson finds himself on a ledge, fighting Herlihy to throw himself over. More often, the results are just silly, like Greyson fainting at the sight of nail polish on his wrist.The conclusion is especially rushed and unsatisfying, featuring the most unbelievably powerful mesmerist since Dr. Caligari hung up his shingle. Everything is tidily resolved, including Greyson's ridiculously one-sided relationship with a long-suffering girlfriend.Good film noir plays with convention, but not by discarding such things as logic and convincing motives. "Fear In The Night" does, making it a noir film only a die-hard noir lover could love.

MikeMagi Not every screen version of a Cornell Woolrich (aka William Irish) yarn is another "Rear Window" or "Phantom Lady." In the wrong hands, you're liable to end up with "Fear in the Night," a flimsy low-budget adaptation of a short story that deserved better. You know you're in trouble when the first reel is largely devoted to voice-over while the central character wanders around a cheap hotel room. The premise, a bank clerk who dreams he has committed a murder only to wake up grasping a button from the victim's jacket, is pure Woolrich. The execution (an all-too-appropriate term) is pretty grim. A young De Forrest Kelly of "Star Trek" fame stars as the conscience-stricken "murderer" back before he learned to act. Paul Kelley, on the other hand, proves that even in a shoddy production, at least someone knows how to deliver a line. Suggestion: hunt down a collection of Woolrich/Irish stories and you'll discover why this strange, haunted author was legitimately the "father of cinema noir." And why so many filmmakers couldn't resist adapting his tales -- even those who did it as badly as the crew behind "Fear in the Night."

mark.waltz This is a film that will leave you with nightmares if you watch this just before you go to bed. From the moment its young hero (DeForrest Kelley, far from his days as "Dr. McCoy" of "Star Trek") wakes up sweating after a night of terror dreaming of murder in a closet with mirrors, waking up to find a strange key and blood on his wrist, as well as other clues that make his nightmare seem so real, you are gripped. He confides everything to his police lieutenant brother-in-law (Paul Kelly), but all Kelly can suggest is that he's been working too hard. A day out for a picnic brings him more clues as he recognizes the neighborhood they are in, and when, just by chance, they end up in a mysterious abandoned house, he discovers more than he bargained for.This Pine/Thomas production (an independent producer company released through Paramount) is up there with "Detour", "Decoy" and half a dozen other sleeper film noirs that were made on the cheap and have become classics of the genre. The young Kelley is far from the ideal leading man, but as an "everyman", he is perfect for this role. Kelly, an underrated stage actor who played both heavies and good guys on the screen, is excellent, his frustration building into anger here as he discovers his brother-in-law's claims may not be so far fetched after all, and when he accuses him of making the whole dream up, the jig seems to be up. Then comes along Robert Emmett Keane as a truly creepy neighbor of Kelley's, and everything begins to tie together.This a film noir you want to watch for every clue dropped and every piece of the puzzle to see how it fits together. It was re-made on a higher budget as "Nightmare" with Edward G. Robinson, but this is a much better version.

evening1 This film starts out very intriguingly then goes quickly downhill when it gets bogged down in mumbo jumbo about hypnotism.I thought the director did a great job of creating a sense of horror and creepiness as Clif tries to figure out why his murderous dream seemed so lifelike. There are a number of scary scenes. How claustrophobic it felt in that car after Clif had broken up with his doormat-like girlfriend yet they were stuck in that backseat together.The hypnotism stuff was hackneyed, anticlimactic, and not believable.I liked the character of the tough-guy cop who's clearly in love with his wife. She doesn't quite seem interesting enough to balance out such unswerving loyalty and support, but that doesn't matter much.I'm surprised past reviewers have given this film such a high rating because the story doesn't quite add up.