1972 British film
Endless Night is a 1972 British horror and crime film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Hayley Mills, Britt Ekland, Per Oscarsson, Hywel Bennett and George Sanders.[1] Based on the novel Endless Night by Agatha Christie, the plot follows a newlywed couple who feel threatened after building their dream home on cursed land.
Plot
Michael Rogers (Bennett), a young drifter currently employed as a chauffeur, has a chance meeting with the lovely Ellie Thomsen (Mills). He dreams of building a magnificent house on a particular spot of land along the Devon coast. Unknown to him, she is actually a wealthy heiress and can make his dream come true. With the help of her efficient German companion, Greta (Ekland), they marry and build a memorable home designed by noted architect Santonix (Oscarsson), much to the disapproval of Ellie's family, who try to buy off Michael.
However, the land the couple purchased is known as "Gypsy's Acre" and is said to carry a curse. Mysterious accidents pile up, a self-proclaimed gypsy haunts the grounds, and after a midnight accident, Greta moves in with the couple to nurse Ellie back to health, to the resentment of Michael.
A further equestrian accident results in the death of Ellie, and Michael is shattered. With the aid of her lawyer "Uncle" Andrew (Sanders) and Greta, Michael pulls together. But he remains haunted by ghostly images of Ellie, and a devious murder plot—and another death—are revealed in the finale.[2]
Production
Development
The novel was published in 1967. Christie later said she normally wrote her books in three to four months but Endless Night was done in six weeks.[3]
Launder and Gilliat had spent two years working on a comedy about British divorce, Sex and the British. However they had to shelve it when a change in British law meant the plot became obsolete. Instead they decided to adapt the Agatha Christie novel, with Gilliat to direct and Launder to produce. Their aim was to write a cinematic script with a minimum of dialogue and a deliberate ambiguity of style "in the sense you're never really sure what is being said is what is really meant or really being said."[4] (In the end the film was produced by Gilliat's brother Leslie.)
The film was partly financed from money by the NFFC.[5]
Shooting
Filming took place in June 1971.[6] Shooting locations included Christie's Auction House, Hertfordshire, as well as the West Country and Albergo San Pietro, Positano, Italy. The Philpotts' estate (Mike and Ellie's neighbors) was filmed at Grim's Dyke.
Gilliat later said, "I felt very rusty getting back on the sent and I had a perfectly horrible time- funnily enough back at my very first studio."[7]
The score was by Bernard Herrmann. Ellie's singing in the film was dubbed by Shirley Jones.
Reception
The film received mixed reviews. Although reasonably faithful to the novel, it is "An example of the sort of thing Christie was writing in her later years: moody psychological studies very different from, and not so much fun as, her early thrillers."[8] Contemporary critics have noted "Nice performances all around, with special admiration for Oscarsson's role as the dying architect."[9]
Christie herself was displeased by the "lacklustre" adaptation of one of her favorite novels, although she had been initially pleased by the choice of director-writer and cast. Furthermore, she disliked the (admittedly brief) erotic nudity by Ekland in the film's final sequences.[10]
"I was very disappointed when I saw it as a film," said Christie. "It got flatter and less interesting every minute."[11]
After an unsuccessful run in Britain, UA did not release the film in the United States,[12] although there were runs in Denmark and Finland in 1973.
