The Night Has Eyes (AKA: Terror House/Moonlight Madness) is directed by Leslie Arliss who also adapts the screenplay from the novel written by Alan Kennington. It stars James Mason, Wilfrid Lawson, Mary Clare, Joyce Howard and Tucker Maguire. Music is by Charles Williams and cinematography by Gunther Krampf."You seem to regard me as some sort of male sleeping beauty who is restored to life by your kiss"During the school term break, two lady school teachers travel to the Yorkshire Moors in the hope of finding out what happened to a fellow work colleague who vanished there a year previously. Arriving on the moors at night time, a storm breaks and the two women are thankful to stumble upon an isolated house where somebody is at home. The inhabitant is Stephen Deremid (Mason), a mysterious man who may just hold the key to what happened to the ladies' missing colleague.OK! It's a stage bound "Old Dark House" film that has noir shadings but is more in keeping with classic Gothic offerings like Jane Eyre, Uncle Silas and Gaslight. The setting is a doozy, a creaky and shadowy mansion with a secret room, add in a storm from hell, the foggy moors that hold secrets along with the patches of quicksand (quickbog?), a seriously brooding leading man greatly troubled by his past, a spunky heroine fronting up for love interest and some possible perilous shenanigans… and you are good to go for some dark deeds and closeted skeletons.Director Arliss builds the suspense very slowly, dangling snippets of information that teases the audience as to what might be going on in this shadowy abode. Stephen is a music composer, he is also a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, the effects of which has left him scarred. Why does he take tablets? Why is the moon significant? Now that his house servants have turned up, do they know what happened to the girl last year? It all builds towards the film's chilling climax, where all is revealed, and not insultingly so.The cast all perform well under Arliss' direction, with Mason honing the brooding lead man act that would serve him so well in his career. Cinematographer Gunther Krampf (Nosferatu/The Hands of Orlac) creates an eerie atmosphere of fog-bound menace out on the moors, and also a foreboding darkened house of shadows for the interior of the Deremid mansion. The slow pace may put some off, and you are asked to forgive one or two dumb character reactions to certain situations, but this rewards the patient and very much it's a film for Gothic thriller fans to seek out. 7/10

This film scared me rigid when I saw it just after it's 1942 release. The sinister Mary Clare was the character I remember being most frightened of, and whenever I have seen her in films since she has never managed to erase that shivery feeling. Being sucked into the mire of a Yorkshire Moors bog remains the ultimate 'death' experience and one to be avoided at all costs. Of course the one subsequent viewing of this rather silly film was a great disappointment there was really nothing to scare even the most timid film-goer. What a shame! Having said that you would not get me out on a Yorkshire Moor in the dead of night for all the proverbial tea in China!!! There was a musical theme that was quite compelling at the time and if I heard it again it would probably revive the kind of memories that would bring a nostalgic tear to an old man's eyes. My 2004 vote is truthful but had I the opportunity to cast a vote in the mid-1940's it would almost certainly have been 10+. Derek

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. Soon 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.A 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. This 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.

By chance, one afternoon in the 1950s, I saw this film as a 4 year old on our first TV. I never forgot it. It takes place near some English moors. James Mason plays a man suspected of brutal murders. The two young teachers who stay at his house are caught up in the mystery. When the mystery is solved and the villain must pay, the moors play an important part in the very unnerving climax -- I remembered those death screams for years. When I finally saw it again, almost 50 years later, I was delighted to be frightened again. This of course was a very young James Mason who went on to have a very long varied career. He did his role justice and his co-stars were talented as well. The film is almost never shown on TV any more, but the film can be purchased from specialty suppliers -- it's worth looking for!