Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

SeeQuant Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

James Hitchcock Although "Endless Night" is based on a novel by Agatha Christie, it does not feel like a typical Christie story. It was advertised under the slogan "Only 3 people in 100 guess the answer to 'Endless Night' ", but if that claim is true that may be because very few people actually realised that there was a question to be answered. There is no Poirot or Marple type detective, and no long list of suspects, all with ample motive, means and opportunity to commit the crime. There are no deaths until one occurs about three-quarters of the way through the film, and even then we assume that this was an accident. Only at the very end is the existence of a murder plot revealed.Michael Rogers is a young man from a working-class background who has great ambitions for a life of wealth and luxury. At first these hopes seem doomed to frustration as he drifts from one poorly-paid job to another. While working as a chauffeur, however, he meets a young woman named Ellie Thomsen. The two fall in love and marry, and Ellie turns out to be a wealthy heiress. Ellie is American, which might have seemed like an opportunity to cast a major Hollywood star in the role, as was often done in British movies from this period to increase their chances in the American market. Instead, however, Ellie is played (with a rather dodgy accent) by that quintessential English rose Hayley Mills. Perhaps someone thought that, after all those films she made for Disney in the sixties, Hayley counted as an honorary American. (In the event, the film did so badly at the British box-office that it never received a US release).After their marriage Michael and Ellie move to Devon, where they build themselves a spectacularly vulgar Modernist palace, after demolishing the Victorian mansion which previously stood on the site. (These were the seventies, and the planning laws were probably a bit more relaxed about the destruction of historic buildings than they would be today). Several factors, however, threaten the happiness of the young couple. Ellie's snobbish old-money family disapprove of her marriage and try to buy Michael off with the assistance of the smooth yet sinister family lawyer "Uncle Andrew". (Andrew is played by George Sanders in his penultimate film before his suicide). A curious relationship grows up between Ellie and her German friend Greta, whom Michael clearly dislikes. A mysterious old woman wanders around the grounds of Ellie and Michael's house, telling them that the land on which it stands is subject to a curse put on it by a gypsy.Christie borrowed her title from a couplet from Blake's "Auguries of Innocence":- "Some are born to sweet delight, Some are born to endless night".We hear these lines sung by Ellie during the film, and their significance may be that, whereas Ellie might appear to the outside world to be "born to sweet delight", there is a suggestion that she and Michael may be threatened by the forces of "endless night". Christie considered "Endless Night" to be one of her best novels and was initially excited about the idea of it being turned into a film. She was, however, disappointed with the finished product, considering it "lacklustre", and disliked the fact that it featured nudity. (Even though sexual desire features as a motive in a number of her stories, the Queen of Crime seems to have been a bit of a prude in real life). I wasn't in the least offended by the brief nude scenes, but Christie's other criticism struck me as being spot on. "Lacklustre" is the word for it. None of the cast is particularly bad, not even Britt Ekland who at her worst could be very bad indeed, but none is outstanding, and everyone concerned seems to be doing little more than going through the motions.The main weakness, however, is the psychological disconnect we feel between the main part of the film, which appears to be a romantic love story, and the last few scenes in which it abruptly turns into a murder story. It is not even a murder mystery; we are simply told "this is the crime" and almost immediately afterwards "this is who did it, and why". These scenes almost seem to be something tacked on from a completely different film. Although I am not the world's greatest fan of detective fiction, I have to confess that some enjoyable films, such as "Evil under the Sun", "Death on the Nile" and "The Mirror Crack'd" have been made from Christie's whodunits. "Endless Night" is not as bad as something like the dreadful "The Alphabet Murders", but it is still among the weaker Christie adaptations. 5/10

Mr_Ectoplasma "Endless Night" follows working-class freewheeling chauffeur Michael (Hywel Bennett) who falls in love with a billionaire heiress Ellie (Hayley Mills). The two marry, and build a large estate on property in the English countryside known as Gypsy's Acre, which is purported by locals to be cursed land. After Ellie's relative Greta (Britt Ekland) arrives to stay, a series of bizarre events unfold, including ominous encounters with an elderly gypsy woman who roams the property.Based on the Agatha Christie novel, director Sidney Gilliat takes the meat of Christie's novel and puts unique twinges on it that are reminiscent of Hitchcock (Bernard Herrmann's spooky score understates this). The film is admittedly slow, especially in exposition, and there are few quote-unquote thrills to be had, but I found this film strangely compelling in spite of its odd pacing.There is a consistent sense of unease that permeates nearly every scene, although it's difficult to put your finger on what is exactly the cause. The photography in the film is fantastic, capturing the rolling landscapes and the cloudy skies surrounding the manor; this is punctuated by subtle scares that come in the form of various figures lurking below on the hillsides or in the woods, almost like indistinct figures in a painting. The film is at times reminiscent of English Gothic in its aesthetics, even though the house itself is very much "retro '70s" in both style and furnishings. Solid performances from Hywel Bennett and Hayley Mills really shine here, with Mills being especially memorable as a good natured girl who happens to be a billionaire ("world's sixth richest!"). Britt Ekland is also great as the stalwart and fawning relative— her performance really comes full circle in the finale, which provides her the bulk of the role's dynamics, and she handles it fabulously. The conclusion to the film is fairly routine by contemporary standards, although I can honestly say that I didn't see the plot twists coming, so props to Christie and the filmmakers' handling of the material— I was definitely had by the film.Overall, "Endless Night" is an enjoyable and well-acted picture that seems to have been forgotten in time. It is too slow to qualify as a full-blooded thriller, but there are tinges of a British psychothriller here with some genuinely bizarre and eerie moments that stand out among effective cinematography and a disquieting score. In spite of the film's lackluster pacing, it is unexpectedly transfixing, and manages to hold one's attention until the head twisting finale. 7/10.

bkoganbing Endless Night is from an Agatha Christie Miss Marple mystery and the observant and neutral Miss Marple has been taken out of this film adaption. The perpetrator is brought to justice by his own psychological defenses falling apart.This is one particular mystery in which I can say absolutely nothing in going into the plot without giving too much away. It concerns young Hywel Bennett who is a working class kid who aspires to the good life, but who really hasn't a work ethic to succeed. Without knowing it he meets up with Hayley Mills the 6th richest girl in the world although she says she's more like the sixteenth. No matter though it seems like a storybook romance. They even build a house together at a place called Gypsy Meadow which is said to be cursed. After that things start happening that makes one believe in a gypsy curse.Whether it's Hercule Poirot or Miss Jane Marple as the protagonist Agatha Christie works are structured to make the protagonist be the honest observer of events. Take that out and the structure is unbalanced. Why they didn't make this a Jane Marple story who knows.Mills and Bennett who already did The Family Way and Twisted Nerve together worked well as a team, but Jane Marple was needed here.I can't say any more about this film except that in the end there are a few dead bodies all coming in the last third of the film. Agatha Christie fans will note a distinct similarity to the murder plot uncovered in the Hercule Poirot story Death On The Nile to this one. That's all I'm going to say.

christopher-underwood I came to this having recently seen the slightly earlier, 'Twisted Nerve' also starring Hayley mills and Hywel Bennett, directed by the Boultings and was expecting something more along the lines of a more traditional thriller/horror. this, however, is a very different film and if not as successful as it might have been, certainly deserving of attention. I was not as persuaded as some by the creepiness but it certainly odd and although it seemed to progress rather slowly and in an unusual way, I had no idea that things would turn out the way they do. Well worth seeing, some may find it more haunting than others but is certainly just that little bit different. Even dressed in a dowdy manner, Britt Ekland completely overshadows Mills in the looks department and Per Oscarsson's performance almost knocks Bennett aside.