Beating The Devil: The Making Of Night Of The Demon

by Tony Earnshaw

The film's troublesome production schedule is brought vividly to life through Tony Earnshaw's enthusiastic style - including new research and original interviews. Earnshaw's book tracks the film's development from the original ghost story Casting the Runes by M R James through the various shooting scripts, alternative titles, and the challenging production work, to the final theatrical release. Along the way there are anecdotes, analysis and fascinating insights into British movie making in the 1950s, as well as previously unseen production designs by Sir Ken Adam, who went on to create the gadgets and secret bases that helped make the Bond series an international phenomenon. With a comprehensive location guide and biographies of all the onstage and backstage players, Beating The Devil - the Making of Night of the Demon is the definitive book on what has been described as "The Casablanca of Horror Films".

127 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2005

Reviews

[Aaron VanAlstine · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story on filmmaking in austere postwar Britain and the clashes between the artsy director and the brash American producer. Also, a memorable movie from my youth that still holds up today.

[Sean Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fans of Jacques Tourneur's classic 1957 film, NIGHT OF THE DEMON will especially like the close reading of M.R. James source material ("Casting the Runes") and the detailed journalistic approach to the locations (British Museum, Stonehenge, Bricket Wood railway station ect.) This added to my appreciation of the creative decisions especially regarding the creative differences with producer Hal E. Chester and adds to the debate whether it resulted in a better film or a compromised one (with production materials).