Dead of Night is a 1945 British supernatural horror anthology film directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden, and Robert Hamer.

Produced by Ealing Studios, the film features five segments within a frame narrative during which a group of guests assembled at a country manor who recount stories of their own individual nightmares.

Upon entering the sitting room of the cottage, Craig tells Foley and his assembled guests that, despite never having met any of them, he has seen them all in a recurring dream.

Foley recounts two golfers, George Parratt and Larry Potter, who both fell in love with a woman named Mary Lee.

Dr. van Straaten recollects interviewing ventriloquist Maxwell Frere, who performed with a dummy named Hugo.

"The Hearse Driver" is based on the short story "The Bus-Conductor" by E. F. Benson, which was originally published in The Pall Mall Magazine in 1906.

The double-act proved to be popular enough for Radford and Wayne to be paired up as similar sport-obsessed English gentlemen (or occasionally reprising their original roles) in a number of productions, including this one.

[1][9] Universal Pictures distributed the film theatrically in the United States in a truncated cut that excised two segments: "The Christmas Party" and "The Golfer's Story", which resulted in the final product suffering continuity errors.

[10] Anchor Bay Entertainment released the film on DVD in 2003 in a double feature paired with The Queen of Spades (1949).

[16] The 'biggest winner' at the box office in 1945 Britain was The Seventh Veil, with "runners up" being (in release order), Madonna of the Seven Moons, Old Acquaintance, Frenchman's Creek, Mrs. Parkington, Arsenic and Old Lace, Meet Me in St. Louis, A Song to Remember, Since You Went Away, Here Come the Waves, Tonight and Every Night, Hollywood Canteen, They Were Sisters, The Princess and the Pirate, The Adventures of Susan, National Velvet, Mrs. Skefflington, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Nob Hill, Perfect Strangers, The Valley of Decision, Conflict and Duffy's Tavern.

British "runners-up" were They Were Sisters, I Live in Grosvenor Square, Perfect Strangers, Madonna of the Seven Moons, Waterloo Road, Blithe Spirit, The Way to the Stars, I'll Be Your Sweetheart, Dead of Night, Waltz Time and Henry V.[17] From a contemporary review, the Monthly Film Bulletin praised the tale of the ventriloquist, stating that it was "perhaps the best" and that it was perhaps Cavalcanti's "most polished work for many years".

[3] The review praised Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne for "providing excellent comic relief", and concluded that the art direction (Michael Relph), lighting (Stan Pavey and Douglas Slocombe) and editing (Charles Hassey) combine to make the smoothest film yet to come from an English studio".

The site's critical consensus reads, "With four accomplished directors contributing, Dead of Night is a classic horror anthology that remains highly influential.

[24] Writer-director Christopher Smith was inspired by the circular narrative in Dead of Night when making his 2009 film Triangle.

[25] The circular plot of Dead of Night inspired Fred Hoyle's steady state model of the universe, developed in 1948.

"[27][28] A shot of Redgrave from the film is featured on the cover of Merrie Land, an album by The Good, the Bad & the Queen.