Nothing But the Night
AKA The Devil's Undead
Directed by Peter Sasdy
Released: 1973
Starring: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Diana Dors, and Georgia Brown
Running Time: 90 minutes

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A series of murders made to look like suicides leads Colonel Bingham (played by Christopher Lee) and Dr. Ashley (Peter Cushing) to a young girl recovering from injuries she sustained in a minor bus accident. Though physically fine, the girl, Mary (Gwyneth Strong), is traumatized by a fire which no one can prove ever happened. The trustees of the orphanage responsible for Mary’s wellbeing claim that her deadbeat mom (Diana Dors) must have done something to her own daughter. The mystery deepens as more murders occur and Mary’s behavior becomes more and more erratic. Possession!?! Oh gosh!

This anemic horror dud from director Peter Sasdy (Hands of the Ripper) has woefully dreadful pacing and a clumsy script. After the first sludge hour passes, the story finally starts to advance but that’s when Nothing But the Night gets worse. This confounding escapade of shit actually gets worse!

One of the biggest problems with this movie is the horrible Diana Dors (Craze, Theatre of Blood). This woman spends most of the film running from the police and falling down melodramatically. She must have really pissed off the crew on this flick because her character is comically underwritten, frightfully unattractive, and could not be any more extraneous and irritating.

Georgia Brown (Tales That Witness Madness) is quite sexy and committed to her part but her character, reporter Joan Foster, also suffers from being annoying and superfluous. One unintentionally funny scene is when she seduces (and eventually falls for) a bloated doctor (played by Keith Barron). Gwyneth Strong who plays the possessed Mary is actually quite good but most of her lines are laughably bad. Cushing and Lee are very professional as always and clearly enjoy working together but they just aren’t enough to save this one.

I do see the joke though. Don’t think I’m totally humorless about the whole gag. This rickety pile of halfhearted ideas was directed by Peter Sasdy, the man behind my favorite Joan Collins junky horror bomb: The Devil Within Her. Possession-themed horror was pretty hot in the early 70s and projects like this, released the same year as The Exorcist, were rushed into production before they were even written. It may be called Nothing But the Night but this is actually my rebirthing ceremony.

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Quotes

“You’ve destroyed my dreams! I curse your cruel god!”