Architect Walter Craig (Mervyn Johns) senses impending doom as his half-remembered recurring dream turns into reality. The guests at the country house encourage him to stay as they take turns telling supernatural tales.

Dead.of.Night.1945.4K.Restoration.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 43 min
Size: 	2.40 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	766x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	23.976 fps
Bit rate: 	3 020 kb/s
BPP: 	0.286
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC @ 224 kb/s
#2:  	English 2.0ch AAC LC SBR @ 80.0 kb/s (Commentary by Film Historian Tim Lucas /)

https://nitro.download/view/C3102815A3AED8A/Dead.of.Night.1945.4K.Restoration.576p.BluRay.AAC.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, Robert Hamer – Dead of Night (1945) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

After WW2, an American skipper returns to Singapore to retrieve his hidden stash of pearls and finds his lost fiancee who now has amnesia.

Letterboxd review
★★★½ Watched by Adam Lounsbery 13 Aug 2011

Note to aspiring makers of B movies — if you’re going to blatantly rip off Casablanca (1942), take a page from director John Brahm’s book. Don’t just change the characters’ names and tack on a happy ending. Do it with real panache and also change the hero’s occupation to “pearl smuggler” and spice up the love triangle by giving the heroine a case of amnesia.

Singapore.1947.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 19 min
Size: 	2.04 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	792x576 
Aspect ratio:  	1.375
Frame rate: 	24.000 fps
Bit rate: 	3 209 kb/s
BPP: 	0.293
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 256 kb/s
#2:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s (Commentary by Film Historian Kat Ellinger and Author/Film Historian Lee Gambin)

https://nitro.download/view/6D33730D38317AF/Singapore.1947.576p.BluRay.AC3.x264.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English

The post John Brahm – Singapore (1947) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham comprise this anthology film in which the celebrated author introduces each segment of the film in front of the camera.

Encore (1951).mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1 h 25 min
Size: 	1.34 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	714x572 ~> 762x572
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	2 062 kb/s
BPP: 	0.202
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 kb/s

https://nitro.download/view/D9325BEB4BE93B2/Encore_(1951).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Harold French & Pat Jackson & Anthony Pelissier – Encore (1951) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

In a play drawn from his non-fiction book of the same name, David Yallop combines dramatic reconstruction with direct documentary address to detail the miscarriage of justice which led to the hanging of Derek Bentley in 1953.

The tense opening film sequence shows 16-year-old Christopher Craig’s shoot-out with police, during which PC Sidney Miles is shot dead. Craig’s 19-year-old friend Derek Bentley is unarmed and placidly under arrest throughout. In court, however, both are found guilty of murder; Craig is too young to receive the death sentence but Bentley, despite widespread protests, is hanged. Yallop uncovers serious judicial failings, and denies that Bentley incited Craig, or that he ever said the famous phrase “let him have it, Chris”.

Unlike Peter Medak’s film on the same subject, “Let Him Have It” (1991), Yallop’s play concentrates on the trial, using official transcripts. In the courtroom scenes, Alan Clarke’s claustrophobic visual style is inventive, despite the technical and time restrictions of multi-camera studio recording. His style emphasises the crucial theme of vicarious activity: the jurors who are often framed in the foreground of shots of Craig and Bentley are just looking-on, like Bentley on the Croydon rooftop and the Establishment who oversee Bentley’s judicial murder as a brutal warning to juvenile delinquents.

Following the verdict, the drama gives way to a documentary voice-over which details the failures of the legal process, including invented confessions, vital evidence which was never presented and a failure to provide for Bentley’s mental deficiencies which restricted his ability to contribute to his own defence. Furthermore, Clarke’s ambiguous framing of gunshots in the opening sequence hints that Miles was accidentally shot by another policeman, but this point from Yallop’s book was cut from the play after a pathologist disapproved of Yallop’s use of his testimony.

The Bentley family’s doomed struggle for a reprieve is powerfully reconstructed, as are Bentley’s last days in his death cell. Clarke then presents Bentley’s hanging in a sequence which is graphic but also visually inventive, emphasising the impersonal judicial process through isolated shots of feet and the anonymous hands which carry out the act.

Yallop’s book and play were welcomed by Bentley’s family and provoked questions in Parliament, but, even after a 1991 repeat in a Clarke tribute season, seemed unsuccessful in clearing Bentley’s name. In July 1998, however, Bentley was belatedly granted a full pardon.

Dave Rolinson

To Encourage the Others.mkv

General
Container:  	Matroska
Runtime: 	1h 43mn
Size: 	1.45 GiB
Video
Codec: 	x264
Resolution: 	750x576 
Aspect ratio:  	4:3
Frame rate: 	25.000 fps
Bit rate: 	1 800 Kbps
BPP: 	0.167
Audio
#1:  	English 2.0ch AC-3 @ 192 Kbps

https://nitro.download/view/F2B4CD4367606C7/To_Encourage_the_Others.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English HoH

The post Alan Clarke – To Encourage the Others (1972) first appeared on Cinema of the World.