Search - Night Has Eyes (B&W) on DVD

You Get What You Pay For With This DVD

C. O. DeRiemer | San Antonio, Texas, USA | 11/13/2004

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Two young school teachers decide to visit the Yorkshire moors where, a year earlier, a friend of theirs disappeared. They find an isolated mansion on the edge of a foggy, desolate marsh. In it, James Mason, a pianist recovering from nightmares, is taken care of by a housekeeper and a handyman. Something mysterious is going on, with doors slowly closing and warnings about the marshland.

This is early Mason, but he already has the romantic but driven and possibly violent persona down pat. The movie itself is pretty good.

But the DVD transfer is no better than the old VHS tape of the movie, and that wasn't very good. The transfer is shaky, a little out of focus and some of the action in the night scenes (and there are a lot of night scenes) gets lost. At this price with a public domain movie I didn't expect any extras, but there aren't even any chapter stops. Still, if you like old, dark houses, stormy nights and James Mason, it's worth the price. And I doubt if there will ever be a better DVD transfer. I'd have given the movie 4 stars except that, while barely watchable, the transfer really isn't any good."