Dead of Night (1945)

Googie Withers: Joan Cortland

Photos 

Quotes 

• [Peter is opening his fiancé's birthday present to him] 

  Peter Cortland : You haven't gone and had your portrait painted, have you?

  Joan Cortland : [smiling fondly]  No, I thought you'd like to look at yourself.

  [he opens the package to find it is a mirror] 

  Peter Cortland : Darling, it's a beauty!

• Peter Cortland : Well, you know that mirror you gave me? You didn't get it at one of those joke shops, by any chance?

  Joan Cortland : Of course not, why?

  Peter Cortland : Well, when I was dressing this evening, just as I was tying my tie, I suddenly realized that the reflection was all wrong.

  Joan Cortland : What do you mean, wrong?

  Peter Cortland : It wasn't my room I was seeing; it was some other room.

  Joan Cortland : Darling!

  Peter Cortland : I told you it sounded silly. It only lasted for a moment, but I could have sworn I saw it. Some sort of optical illusion, I suppose.

  Joan Cortland : [chuckles]  All done with mirrors, in fact.

• [talking about their upcoming wedding:] 

  Joan Cortland : The cake's under control. Oh, and I've had a lot more answers. The Laughtons can't come, thank Heaven. And we've got some perfectly frightful presents. You know, darling, I really think we'll have to turn that spare room of ours into a Chamber of Horrors.

• Eliot Foley : Apart from my bit of nonsense, the curious thing is that all of you, even Sally, seems to have had one of these extraordinary experiences

  Joan Cortland : Well, perhaps they aren't so extraordinary. Perhaps they happen to most people.

  Eliot Foley : Oh, you mean there's a ghost as well as a skeleton in everyone's cupboard.

  [laughs] 

  Eliot Foley : That's a pretty thought!

  Walter Craig : And what's the ghost in your cupboard, Doctor?

  Dr. van Straaten : Well, there was one occasion in my professional career that made me wonder. Made me wonder quite a lot.

• Peter Cortland : We should postpone the wedding.

  Joan Cortland : Why?

  Peter Cortland : It will take us five years to get a divorce.

  Joan Cortland : Oh, dear. Let's get married and arrange the divorce after.

• Dr. van Straaten : [removes his glasses]  Ah. No doubt you thought it would be very amusing to watch my cherished disbeliefs being shattered.

  Eliot Foley : [sarcastically]  Mm, very clever of us, I must say. I wonder if we have any more surprises up our sleeves.

  [the camera focuses on Dr. van Straaten's hands as he fiddles with his glasses] 

  Walter Craig : That's it - your glasses!

  Dr. van Straaten : What about my glasses?

  Walter Craig : It's later on. We're having drinks. You break those glasses of yours, and then, quite suddenly, the room goes dark. And then, Foley, you say something, something about the death of a man I've never heard of. And that's where my dream becomes a nightmare. A nightmare of horror.

  Joan Cortland : Horror? What sort of horror?

  Walter Craig : I feel my will power draining away. I feel I'm in the grip of a force that's driving me towards something unspeakably evil.

  Dr. van Straaten : It shows that you have some heavy weight on your conscience. Now, in my opinion...

  Walter Craig : I'm no longer interested in your opinion, Doctor. You shook me at first, with your ingenious theories. I thought perhaps the whole thing was a delusion. But Mrs. Grainger's arrival has altered all that. I have been here before, in my dreams. For some reason, I was given foreknowledge of the future. Why? I don't know. I want to know! I must know!