Last night was a night for one of the single best horror films of all times, which is often overlooked in the modern era. Curse of the Demon (1957) is sometimes billed as 'Night of the Demon', is Jacque Tourneur's adaptation of the classic M.R. James story 'Casting the Runes'.
Tourneur had done a lot of short features up until 1939, when Louis B. Mayer asked him to expand one of his shorts on the American Prison system into a full length film, which was released as 'They All Come Out'. This led to him being handed other assignments, including 'Nick Carter, Master Detective' later in 1939 and the second Nick Carter film 'Phantom Raiders' (1940), both with Walter Pigeon, and the largely forgotten 'Doctors Don't Tell' at Republic. However his real break came when he was hired by Val Lewton over at RKO, where he was give a free hand in their horror films 'Cat People', 'I Walked With a Zombie' and 'The Leopard Man'. His style is unmistakable... understated and atmospheric, and more suggestive than flashy. Its a perfect pair up with Lewton's features, but it serves him in 'Night of the Demon' as well.
The film itself stars Dana Andrews in the lead, as American psychologist Dr. John Holden, who is a skeptic of all things supernatural, except, apparently, hypnotism. His leading lady is Peggy Cummins as Joanna Harrington, the sister of a late colleague of Dr. Holden's. But really the movie is stolen by Niall MacGinnis as Julian Karswell, the villain of the piece. MacGinnis was often found in supporting roles and a wells respected character actor. This is likely his best known role, and for good reason.
Dana Andrews has to portray the skeptic who slowly becomes a believer over the course of the film... but frankly, you never get the idea he's fully convinced. Cummins plays the believer who is trying, unsuccessfully to convince Andrews of the reality of the curse, and comes across as rather bland and slightly excitable. But MacGinnis....
...MacGinnis gets to have a lot of fun with his role. He may be a Satanist, an evil magician, a summoner of demons, who curses his critics to die violent deaths, but you can't help but actually LIKE the guy. He's a polite man, who is willing to speak at length to anyone about the subject of the occult, he is nice to his mother, even when she works against him, he throws elaborate Halloween parties for the neighborhood children and clearly is very fond of them, giving them a stage magic show, making sure they are supplied with games, candy, entertainment, and homemade ice cream.
Its a nuanced role, far more so than the other leads. He's so casual about it all, confident in his abilities, his his power, in his knowledge... and yet... he's also AFRAID of it, but rarely lets that fear show. It does sneak out now and then. There is a scene in which Karswell speaks to his mother about the cost of magic... the price that must be paid for the lifestyle they live. And you see a touch of the fear there. Just look at this exchange:
Mrs. Karswell: Yes, Julian.
Dr. Julian Karswell: Well, believe this also. You get nothing for nothing. This house, the land, the way we live. Nothing for nothing. My followers who pay for this do it out of fear. And I do what I do out of fear also. It's part of the price.
Mrs. Karswell: But if it makes you unhappy. Stop it. Give it back.
Dr. Julian Karswell: How can you give back life? I can't stop it. I can't give it back. I can't let anyone destroy this thing. I must protect myself. Because if it's not someone else's life, it'll be mine. Do you understand, mother? It'll be mine.
In the opening scene, between Karswell and his first victim, Dr. Harrington, you see it again... he's willing to remove the curse from Harrington, but as he realizes that the runes are now gone and there is no way to save Harrington, he is quickly overcome with fear and hurries the man out to his death... not out of maliciousness, but because HE doesn't want to be around when his curse comes to pass.
In the final scenes it is driven home, and unfortunately, called attention to, when Joanna tells Holden that Karswell is afraid of him. The scene otherwise is wonderful, as Karswell tries desperately to avoid having the curse turned back on him, in almost comical precision, refusing everything that Holden offers him... JUST IN CASE. As Karswell takes his hurried leave, he makes his fatal mistake though, as Holden slips the runes into Karswell's coat pocket, and then hands the coat to a policeman, who in turn passes it to Karswell, and just as he accepts the coat, the look of shocked realization that MacGinnis conveys is just magic. "You passed them!" he blurts out, and his panic then overtakes him. Its really a beautiful scene, and the fear he conveys is amazing.
Its a pity then that the scene that follows contains the most controversial part of the film, and the part which Jacques Tourneur has disavowed, and said he had nothing to do with; The appearance of the Demon. Tourneur DID film an earlier scene, in which Holden is pursued through the woods a menacing cloud, but in this later scene, the cloud manifests a.... rather sad looking excuse for a demon, which is rather more 'cute' than terrifying. It is a weird, snaggle-toothed thing, which you can see on the poster above, and which doesn't move in a fluid way at all. There are some slightly effective long shots of it, but every time they move in for a closeup, it just looks ridiculous. It would have been more effective as simply a cloud, and wind effects. (As a side note, this is what was done in a later film, 'The Dunwich Horror' when the unseen monster at the climax is stalking the land... there is a blast of localized wind which flattens the greenery in the scene, and its quite effective.) It is said that Ray Harryhausen was approached to provide a stop motion demon for 'Night of the Demon' but he was unavailable due to working on 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad'... perhaps they should have asked him for advice on who could have done the demon justice, because what they got, does not.
Had the demon been left unseen, or semi-unseen at least, I think the movie would have been wonderfully understated and subtle, and a real homage to Val Lewton's RKO psychological horror films. It would have left a certain amount of uncertainty to the proceedings, and played with the idea that the unseen could be entirely supernatural OR entirely psychological... or somewhere in between. It would have made it, I think, more grounded, and more effective.
And, I'm going to leave you with a favorite quote from the film that illustrates that final point of mine:
Dr. John Holden: Also imaginary.
Dr. 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?
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