User reviews

I don't think this film is as bad as it's been suggested. If you go in viewing it more as a mystery than expecting faced paced horror from the start, I think it's enjoyable...it just requires some patience. The ending rewards you if you allow yourself to stick with it.

Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing do their best with a less than great script, but it's important to keep in mind that most novel-to-screen adaptations do suffer badly, and I think this is more the case here. Gwyneth Strong does an amazing job as Mary Valley, and it makes me curious to see what other work she's done.

If you find a bargain DVD of this one, or see it on late night cable, give it a shot. And if you're a fan of British horror like I am, it is always great to have a visit with Lee and Cushing once again!

With an overall rating of just a bit over 3, I sure didn't expect much from this Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing collaboration. However, I was surprised to find this film was a lot better than I'd come to believe. Perhaps some of the reason the film has a lower score than the usual fare from these actors is that although the film has the usual supernatural angle, you don't learn about this until the end. Up until then, it just seems like a detective film about some nasty ex-con who is being sought be Scotland Yard. I could say more, but it would spoil the suspense.

Strengths of the film include a very novel script, generally good acting (though the ex-con is about as unsubtle a character as you can find), and nice location shooting. The biggest minus is that the thing just takes a long time to get going, though by the end of the film the whole thing is steaming full speed ahead.

This is one of the lesser talked about films starring the superb duo Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It's pretty good film but it is a bit slow - this one could have done with a little quicker pace.

3 prison deaths that appear as suicides on the surface stirred some questions but once 3 more trustees and 30 orphan children are in a bus accident and most die then police colonel Bingham (Christopher Lee) starts seriously investigating. Sir Ashley (Peter Cushing) agrees to help investigate the mysterious happenings. It's a supernatural mystery.

6/10

Three trustees of the Van Traylen fund have died suspiciously during the last nine months. A bus load of the trust orphan kids are almost killed. Police Colonel Bingham (Christopher Lee) suspects that someone wants the trust money for themselves and he recruits Dr. Ashley (Peter Cushing).

This sets up an interesting mystery. It also has yet another pairing of Lee and Cushing. It could go somewhere with these ingredients. Instead, it gets tied down by one child's story and other characters doing the investigating. It seems to meander in circles for the first act. Most of that section with Peter is unnecessary. He's better off as a random doctor given her case. Lee and Cushing are moving at a snail's pace. They should be Sherlock and Watson but they are too far behind the audience. They come off looking clueless or somewhat uncaring. They take way too long to get to the orphanage. Anna Harb is a more interesting character. At least, she's more active and more invested. Finally, there are the kids. I don't know if the child actors are any good. The movie needs them to do more. They need to get into this movie sooner, front and center. They are the children of the bus. That's a better title.

Odd and unusual but nevertheless highly imaginative British supernatural horror/thriller story, once more pairing the two legendary genre veterans Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, this time under the skillful direction of Peter Sasdy. "Nothing but the Night" somewhat plays in a league of its own, as you definitely can't compare it to the extremely popular contemporary Hammer productions. I even daresay this is quite a unique piece of Brit-horror, which is probably why it required the constitution of a brand new production company, named Charlemagne, that didn't last very long afterwards. "Nothing but the Night" may be overly convoluted and full of irregularities, but it's really not a bad film and it definitely doesn't deserve the embarrassingly low current IMDb rating of 3.2 out of 10! Adapted from a novel by John Blackburn, the screenplay offers up a very ambitious and compelling mixture of mystery, medical horror, creepy country sides and typically British police work. The film is incredibly fast paced (I can't fathom that some of my fellow reviewers call this movie boring) and the plot is literally a non-stop series of red herrings and vague clues, desperately attempting to avoid that any viewer would figure out the climax too fast. Let me tell you straight away: you won't guess the full denouement no matter how clairvoyant you are, as multiple story aspects and twists in "Nothing but the Night" are simply too absurd and implausible for normal human beings to even consider. Once again, though, this doesn't mean it's not fascinating and entertaining to look at. The film opens with an immediate attention-grabber, as we're right away treated to grisly images of three murders looking like suicide. Police Colonel Bingham (Christoper Lee) later explains to his friend Dr. Mark Ashley (Peter Cushing) that all victims were trustees of a prominent but highly secluded orphanage on a small Scottish island. When one of the orphanage's children is hospitalized after a mysterious bus accident, the young doctor Haynes wants to investigate the girl's bizarre nightmares, but the influential Van Traylen Fund trustees prevent this. The girl's flamboyant and aggressive birth mother also wants to reclaim her, but the orphanage lies isolated and well protected a small island only reachable by ferry boats. Some abrupt plot twists work very efficient, whereas other red herrings are blatantly obvious. For example, we're supposed to believe that Anna Harb – the girl's real mother – is a complete psychopath, but that would just be too easy. Peter Sasdy maintains a sinister atmosphere throughout and the Scottish isle and countryside filming locations are stupendous. There aren't many bloody moments, but there's a fair portion of suspense and a couple of shocking insinuations. Other people claim that both Lee and Cushing are underused in the film, which may perhaps be a little true, but their characters are terrific and I swear I've seen films where their names were more shamelessly exploited for even smaller roles (like "Scream and Scream Again", for instance). Not a masterpiece of Brit-horror, but a worthwhile movie in case you're looking for something creepy yet different.

Rich men are dying, with no especial connection save they are all trustees for a young girl. Colonel Christopher Lee thinks that's the connection, so he contacts Peter Cushing, because they haven't made a movie together in a month.

Diana Dors appear is this movie, looking a trifle pudgy, alas. She's the mother of the girl, fresh out of prison, ten years after committing a triple murder. Newspaper woman Georgia Brown is trying to get the trust broken, because everyone's in favor of mother love, aren't they? But why did a bus driver die, burnt to a crisp in a bus crash, when there was no fire?

It's a nicely produced movie, but it holds few surprises in its story for the modern viewer. The casting is pretty good, with Michael Gambon giving his second big-screen appearance, but the genre was getting pretty tired by this point.

The pairing of Hammer horror stalwarts Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee doesn't always guarantee a good time -- see Night of the Big Heat (1967) for proof of that. This film - the one and only from Lee's own Charlemagne Productions - isn't the pair's best work together, but it is far from the disaster that some would have us believe.

Lee plays Colonel Bingham, who teams up with eminent pathologist Sir Mark Ashley (Cushing) to investigate the suspicious deaths of several elderly members of the Van Traylen Trust, who fund the Inver House orphanage, home to Mary Valley (Gwyneth Strong), survivor of a mysterious bus crash that claimed the lives of three of the trustees. Prime suspect is Anna Harb (Diana Dors), Mary's estranged mother, ex-prostitute and triple murderess, who is so desperate to be reunited with her daughter that she would kill again if necessary. Mary is sent to back to the orphanage in Scotland for her own safety, but Harb follows, with Bingham and Ashley not far behind; what they discover at Inver House is far more terrible than they could have imagined.

Lee and Cushing put in commendable performances, attacking their roles with gusto and gravitas; in contrast, Dors overacts with ham to spare, her eccentric turn providing the film with a sense of fun. Director Peter Sasdy (Taste The Blood Of Dracula, Hands Of The Ripper) keeps the pace snappy and the mystery intriguing, delivering a surprising Psycho-style death of a major character a third of the way through, a terrific explosion to jolt the viewer out of their seat, the grisly discovery of a mutilated seven year old, and a shocking conclusion that has more than a touch of The Wicker Man about it (beyond Lee's presence and the remote Scottish location).

Despite the interest naturally fostered by co.starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, it's the remarkable supporting cast including Fulton Mackay and a young Michael Gambon and a lot of vivid female characters (including a stylish Georgia Brown as the dogged newspaper reporter and Diana Dors in a brown wig in one of her eccentric later character roles; and Kathleen Byron, wasted as usual) that really captures the imagination

SLIGHT SPOILER COMING: There being nothing new under the sun, the final 'revelation' may be anticipated by anyone who remembers the Sherlock Holmes mystery 'The House of Fear' (1945), here given a supernatural tweak...

In spite of having some exciting (and daring) sequences, NBTN just never gets going. There are exploding boats, hat pin murders, mass suicides, pathologists with body parts, and all sorts of classic mystery/horror scenes, but they're interspersed with extended periods of pure exposition. Everybody in the movie looks bored. This is a shame because many of the sequences would be considered daring at the time this was filmed.

Add to this the "too-proper" Brit characters and you feel like you've drifted into a Sherlock Holmes movie.

Finally, the cinematography is very ordinary. There are lots of opportunities for beautiful shots of of the countryside, or complex shots of someone being pulled into a huge bonfire, but the whole thing is unimaginative and dull.

Definitely only for Lee and Cushing fans.

Every now and then you stumble on an unheard of gem..

This is one of those movies you've never heard of which has a decent story and good cast. Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee star in this modern film about a mystery surrounding the children of an orphanage and a bizarre series of deaths. This is definitely worth watching if you like these Hammer stars and like occult movies. I must admit this one caught me off guard. The end could have been fleshed out a bit more but I definitely enjoyed the story and have even managed to obtain a DVD transfer for my collection.

I think this plot could be done to make a great modern horror. I found it on Youtube...

The horror team of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee team up again in Nothing But The Night produced by Lee himself in his only venture into producing. Lee is a police inspector and Cushing a forensic pathologist who successfully dabbles in hypnotism.

Cushing will need all his skills as he teams up with Lee to solve a group of serial murders involving some truly horrific deaths at an orphanage. The mother of one of the kids there Diana Dors was a prostitute and just came back from serving a prison term for murder. She's demanding answers and doesn't want to wait for Lee and Cushing to work their case.

Of course it involves the kids at the orphanage including Dors's little girl. More I will not say.

Not as good as those old Hammer productions.

I think this movie was the premis for the modern movie Get Out. It's too coincidental not to be. That being said it's not a bad movie. A little slow until the end but worth the wait. It's more mysterious than horror until the conclusion. If you're a Cushing fan I think you'll like it.

Three trustees of the Van Travlen have died within the last couple of months, their deaths looking less than natural. When a bus accident occurs involving the Van Traylen Trust, the only survivor is the young girl Mary Valley. The behaviour of Mary has Dr Haynes worried, so he tries his best to dig up information on her and this leads to her original mother/convicted murderer. She wants Mary back, but the Trust manages to bring her back to their orphanage on the Scottish isle of Bala. Police Colonel Bingham believes there's more to these deaths, and soon his trying to protect the Trust from Mary's mother who believes that they turned her daughter against her. Also pathologist Sir Mark Ashley and reporter Joan Foster start digging up some vital dirt, which could answer many questions.

"Nothing But the Night" seems to fall more in the interesting bracket, than the successful one. Peter Sasdy's minor mystery chiller is a moderate attempt made more accessible due to the presence of Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. It was actually produced under Lee's Charlemagne production company, and would be the last one too. These two icons of the genre can make anything watchable and even though they might not be as prominent here. They still have the ability to leave their mark when they aren't on screen. Brain Hayles' cryptic screenplay (taken off John Blackburn's novel) works up a smart, if overly padded script and captivating dying half, but the knotty plot doesn't seem to click, as it moves all over the place making it hard to get comfortable and come to terms with the haunting pay-off. You might find the twist kinda obvious, but the true revelation throws you off. It does take quite awhile to hit its straps. Which could turn people off from its talkative and slow progression. However the timidly restraint and uncertain nature only makes the final 10 minutes even more unnerving, as that's when the murder mystery makes way for some creepy horror strokes. Both Sasdy and Hayles do a good enough job in keeping the viewer interested. Sasdy uses the open locations to great effect, and ably stages the set pieces with efficient slickness and ominously dark shades. Malcolm Williamson's lightly smooth jazzy score stays on the back-burner and Ken Talbot's sturdy photography keeps it stark and upfront. The performances are considerably tailor-made. Lee (more uptight than usual) and Cushing are at their assured best, even if they only have lesser parts. The spruce Diana Dors makes for a good fiery, eccentric turn and Georgia Brown's is equally impressive as the down-to-earth reporter. Gwyneth Strong wonderfully draws up her part as Mary.

A middling hot (impeccably acted) and cold (unfocused story) mystery thriller.

NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT starts off with a series of four, staged "suicides". When an orphanage bus driver seems to succumb to a similar fate, Colonel Charles Bingham (Christopher Lee) is suspicious, since all of the deaths are related to the Van Traylen Trust. Enlisting pathologist, Sir Mark Ashley (Peter Cushing) to help him, the two set out to get to the bottom of this mysterious "coincidence".

Bingham is interested in young Mary Valley (Gwyneth Strong), the sole survivor of the bus crash. The powerful trustees of the Van Traylen orphanage seem inordinately concerned about Mary's welfare, demanding her immediate release from the hospital, where Dr. Haynes (Keith Barron) has been making inquiries of her via hypnosis. What secrets does Mary know? How is her belligerent birth mother, Anna Harb (Diana Dors) involved in all of this?

When further, shocking deaths occur, Bingham and Ashley are on the case, leading them to the remote, island orphanage.

NIGHT is a solid, occult thriller, with an intriguing, novel plot and memorable characters. Lee and Cushing are their typical, brilliant selves, and are in almost every scene! A wicked twist ending brings it all to a bizarre, satisfying close...

How did these nonsensical slow moving, unexciting 'horror' films get the green light in such huge numbers back in the 70s. Hammy or Hammer? A great cast including Cassandra from Only Fools and Horses is wasted and doubtless embarrassed. Absolute bilge.

It's always a thrill to catch up with something that I missed out on when it was shown on local TV in the early 1980s; the fact that this immediately takes me back to my childhood days when home video was still science-fiction in my neck of the woods and I was (almost completely) at the mercy of TV programmers for my practical film education is kind of sweetly ironic given the picture's own 'reincarnation' theme! Even if it's available on DVD in Japan (of all places), I came across it via a full-frame TV screening with forced French subtitles.

It was the sole film made by Christopher Lee's own company, Charlemagne Productions: in an interview done at the time of the film's release (which I just dug up in a magazine of my father's), he takes pains to stress how he abhors screen violence and how, despite the presence of himself and frequent partner Peter Cushing, his new film is "not one of those macabre movies...but an action-adventure thriller with tension, suspense, a lot of exciting outdoor action, and some moments of high terror...a very good evening's escapist entertainment" (needless to say, the film's lurid re-issue titles – THE DEVIL'S UNDEAD and THE RESURRECTION SYNDICATE – made no such qualms!). Incidentally, it is also stated that Lee intended to adapt two other works by John Blackburn (writer of the film's source novel) for the screen – but these, of course, never came to pass. Still, given its eventual climactic similarities to the later and superior THE WICKER MAN (1973), this film is as much a horror piece as that one would prove to be. The initial disjointed outburst of inexplicable murders almost makes one expect a conspiracy like the one that would later figure in THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL (1978); that the eventual revelation, then, is closer to THE DAMNED (1963)-meets-THE BROTHERHOOD OF Satan (1971) makes it worth waiting for nonetheless, with a powerful climactic sequence that is clearly the film's highlight and makes one bemoan the fact that it comes too late to really make this show a winner (and which perhaps explains its relative invisibility nowadays).

Actually, Cushing and Lee (playing all-too-typical parts, albeit with their customary professionalism) are not the main characters – which are instead unremarkably filled by Keith Barron and Georgia Brown as overzealous doctor and journalist respectively looking into the mysterious mumblings of a 'special' girl that hails from the remote, exclusive Scottish island/school of Bala. Diana Dors, as the girl's tarty, jailbird of a mother, spends most of her time screaming, pushing people around or crawling on her belly to escape the clutches of the pursuing police force (who have been set on her by the seemingly all-powerful school institution) and who have tracked her down to Bala. Fulton Mackay as a bumbling but high-profile Police Official and Kathleen Byron as an enigmatic scientist engaged at the school also have noteworthy roles; for the record, this turned out to be the last film of John Robinson (the star of the original TV series of "Quatermass II" [1955], here appearing as an aristocratic protector of the school) as well as Michael Gambon's first, playing a young Police Inspector.

First off Cushing and Lee are in about 20 minutes of this so if you expect to see them carrying this turd you're in for disappointment. The first 30 minutes are soooo tedious. Diana Dors is laughable as devil worshipping murderer. She's her usual fat and ugly self. Even when she was young and thin she couldn't act. This has about enough plot to fill out a 30 minute tv episode. I watched it free on Prime and I still feel ripped off. I love 70's movies in general and British horror can be good even though it's usually bloodless and restrained but I'd suggest skipping this.

Christopher Lee's own production company Charlemagne Productions survived for just one film - this one - it is no wonder why.

Stifled by a convoluted plot and a haphazardly written script, the viewer is continually left confused by various events which are put together in an alarmingly thoughtless fashion.

Even Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing look unsettled by what is going on around them. It is far from easy viewing and the end doesn't come quick enough.

This could easily be voted as the worst of the horror duo's collaborations!