MovieChat Forums > The Night Has Eyes (1942) Discussion > The Night Has Eyes - Great film, but puz...

The Night Has Eyes - Great film, but puzzling scene ...

posted 8 years ago by mcannady1
4 replies | jump to latest

Movie girl: I am a staunch fan of the superb James Mason and really like this film. For those that have not seen the film, I do not want to create a Spoiler.

However, I can mention it like this for those that have seen and liked this film like myself: (Others will still find the suspense throughout interesting).

Over half-way of the film and there is a scene where Stephen (ably played by James Mason) where he goes to a locked drawer and pulls out a gun in desperation. The viewer sees another puzzling clue at this moment. Right after this, the music hits a meaningful note and the camera pans toward the ceiling near the stairway. Right after this, it pans to a specific spot which might be under the bedroom upstairs. This is all very fleeting, and hard to say what it means. I have inferred the meaning of it from the story itself. It must mean something to have a two-step occurrence. In the film, it is unexplained.) I would like to hear what some of the other Mason fans have interpreted

Also, there are some things we have to wonder about with Marian's actions. She wanted to analyze Stephen's pills to see if they were causing adverse side effects? IT would seem so, as she asks Mrs. Ranger his housekeeper/nurse. for a sleeping pill. This she does not take.

Also, Stephen and Mrs. Ranger and the handyman Sturrock are going to town for supplies. On the way Stephen says something, but it is cut off! I have a very good Network copy now, but it fails to provide the answer.

Thanks!
Best Regards to all!

I like the director, Leslie Arliss, but it seems there are a few questions to be had even after the scary denouement of the film.

[–] turkeycat 7 years ago

From what I could tell from having just seen this movie, the shot where the camera pans up to the top corner of the ceiling is merely to show that James Mason is thinking about the gun that he has hidden in the desk upstairs. After the camera shot gets to the top of the ceiling it dissolves into the room which one presumes is above James Mason's character in which is the desk and the gun. I think it's just a slightly clumsy way of indicating to the audience that he is thinking of the weapon and where it is hidden.

As for the scene in the car where they pull over and Stephen appears to say something, I have a good remastered DVD copy and neither does it feature any dialogue in that scene. I think the audience is meant to believe that Mason's character wants to return to the house at that point - perhaps he has forgotten something - which would thereby provide tension as it is at the same time that the girl is searching the hidden room. However it's a bit of a red herring as the person who discovers her up the ladder is the inspector character instead. I don't think there's much more to it than that.

turkeycat

[–] DoctorJuliaHoffman 7 years ago

Yes, the camera shows the gun in the drawer from an awkward bottom shot. As if the bottom of the drawer was transparent. A bizarre, but sometimes "artsy" way movies do things. Not really a confusing shot.

Stephen saying "Sturrock.." when he, Mrs. Ranger and Jim Sturrock are in the car is indeed a red herring used to build suspense. They wanted us to think that Stephen wanted to return home for something...

But, as Marian descends the ladder from the secret room, it is the doctor, Barry, who calls up to her asking "What are you doing up there?" We're supposed to have a temporary fright thinking it's Stephen.

[–] dp-131 7 years ago

Watched this for the first time last night and thoroughly enjoyed it, though I have a feeling I must have seen it in childhood in the mid 40s. Does anyone else see shades of Hitchcock's "Rebecca", though? I guessed the villain's identity early on, and was particularly struck by the resemblance between Marian stepping delicately downstairs in period costume and the equivalent scene with Joan Fontaine. In retrospect, it seems that many British films of that period revelled in the gothic element.

[–] DoctorJuliaHoffman 7 years ago

I do see shades of "Rebecca" with Marian descending the stairs in the period costume. However, I see more of "Jane Eyre" in this. Marian, schoolteacher like Jane Eyre, finds herself in a huge household on the lonely moors with a moody, tormented soul, Stephen (à la Mr. Rochester in "Jane Eyre") who is harboring a grave secret. I like this story better. It's told in a compact yet eerie way.