#3 Curse of the Demon (1957). One of my all-time favorites, Curse of the Demon aka Night of the Demon is one of Jacques Tourneurs finest shock efforts. And given thats from the stalwart director who also brought you I Walked With a Zombie and Cat People, thats no small praise! The story is terrific, a taught screenplay construction designed by Hitchcock scriptwriter Charles Bennett along with contributions by producer Hal B. Chester and Cy Endfield (uncredited), and based upon the classic (but very much changed) short story Casting the Runes by M.R. James. It concerns the visit by American skeptic/scientist Dr. Holden (the laconic but perfectly-cast Dana Andrews) to England to assist his British colleague Dr. Harrington (Maurice Denham) in the debunking of a devil cult lead by the charismatic Julian Karswell (Niall MacGinnis), only to find forces at work that are clearly supernatural and beyond his ability to explain in non-paranormal terms. The terrific sense of foreboding established from the opening scenes -- in which a properly terrified Dr. Harrington pleads with Karswell for his pre-doomed life -- never really abates, and the film winds a tight, invisible pair of clawed hands around the viewers pulsating throat, strangleholding him/her until the final moments. Tourneurs use of off-screen space and composition in depth is masterful, as his his adroit, terror-filled use of light and dark in lighting (with credit to cinematographer Ted Scaife). Much has been made of the use of the demon monster throughout film genre discussions, but I find the debate tedious and finally meaningless, as it is what it is, and very few films -- demon monster depicted or not -- ever rise to the superb occasion this wonderful movie achieves. The score by Clifton Parker (but conducted by Muir Mathieson) is one of the best-ever IMHO, a driving, intense orchestration of confusion and imminent doom majestically realized. Scorsese listed it as one of the scariest films ever made in the genre, and I totally agree. And MacGinnis as Karswell is one of my all-time favorite performances of screen villainy, a turn that is both sinister, empathetic, and loquacious in its entirety.
Posted on: Fri, 31 Oct 2014 15:25:22 +0000