The Night Has Eyes (1942)

The Night Has Eyes: Directed by Leslie Arliss. With James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, Joyce Howard. Two teachers, man-hungry Doris and restrained Marian, visit the Yorkshire moors a year after friend Evelyn disappeared there. On a stormy night, they take refuge in the isolated cottage of Stephen, one-time pianist shellshocked in the Spanish Civil War. Doris flees as soon as the flood subsides; but Marian’s suspicions about Evelyn’s fate, in conflict with her growing love for Stephen, prompt her to stay on among the misty bogs.

“A pretty young school teacher named Marian(played by the very lovely Joyce Howard) sets out to investigate the disappearance of her friend Evelyn who had vanished on the Yorkshire Moors a year before. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSoon however her and her American friend Doris(enlisted to accompany Marian) get caught in an awful rainstorm but luckily happen upon an unlikely house located in the vicinity.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA bizarre young man named Stephen Deremid(played by James Mason), a former composer, offers them shelter for the night but warns the ladies to keep their doors locked at night. We soon learn that Deremid fears he cannot trust himself – fear he might unknowingly do harm to others following his years of fighting in the Spanish war and being held in a prison camp. But Marian soon finds herself in love with Stephen and sets out to help him at any. However others have more ghoulish intentions for the couple.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enThis film works much better in its Romantic settings than it does in its Horror ones. Character changes come rather abruptly and unexpectedly. The Yorkshire Moors does make a creepy setting however–with the fog, muck, dead trees and nothingness certainly contributing a sense of horror to the film. The best thing to watch this one for is the romance…those expecting out and out horror will find disappointment.”