Physical media continues to have a stalwart champion in Imprint, and it is with releases like this box set that fans of the Golden Age of cinema can experience these delights again and again. Newcomers might find the acting occasionally stilted, the black and white archaic and the staging, well, stagey, but if you see past these aspects, you will often find strong storytelling backed by innovative direction and camerawork, and innovations that find their echoes today.

The portmanteau genre of omnibus horror films has run and run through the decades. Probably best exemplified by Hammer Horror during the 50s and 60s, we still see its echoes well into the 21st century with series such as V/H/S. The idea is compelling – use the budget to get more bang for your buck, while at the same time strip mining stories by some of the best in the field to provide fodder for an eager audience. And what a list of writers!

Flesh and Fantasy comes directly from Hollywood and contains three vaguely linked segments: segment one sees Henrietta pursue her love interest, a law student, and tells a tale of acceptance. The second segment, based on a story by Oscar Wilde, involves a palm reader, a prediction, and a deadly street. The third segment involves a trapeze artist who dreams of falling, and all that follows from that.

Dead of Night was produced by Ealing Studios, and features five segments, two written by noted horror writer EF Benson, and of course, HG Wells. Unlike Flesh and Fantasy, Dead of Night is still highly regarded, and provided memorable frights for an audience who had lived through one of the most frightful periods in modern history. A group of people gather in a country cottage, and find themselves regaling each other with tales of unease. Each story is effective in its own right, and while one segment, The Golfer’s Story, goes for laughs more than eeriness, the overall effect of the movie is one of escalating dread. The two standouts for me are The Haunted Mirror, and of course, The Ventriloquist’s Dummy, whose horrifying delights are underscored by psychological depth you do not see in horror movies today. The Ventriloquist’s Dummy is really a tour de force, with director Alberto Cavalcanti’s vision seemingly inspired by those of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920). Ventriloquist’s Dummy proved something of a template for many, many stories, including of course, Magic (1978), starring Anthony Hopkins, where the use of a dummy is a proxy for the disintegrating psyche of the protagonist.

The accompanying extras are varied and strong. The restoration featurette demonstrates the herculean work done to rescue the film print from its washed out, damaged form, to something that is eminently viewable on modern machinery. Of the remaining extras, the Remembering ‘Dead of Night’ – documentary, with film historians mixed in with interviews of people like author Kim Newman and actor/director Reece Shearsmith situates the movie within its historical context.

Flesh and Fantasy is something of a lesser, forgotten work, but fascinating nonetheless. Three tales of the unusual link this movie, which features extensive restoration. While I got more out of Dead of Night, there is much visually to admire here. Featuring fine performances from Edward G Robison and Barbara Stanwyck, Flesh and Fantasy is perhaps best remembered today by its inventive visuals, striking black and white photography, and as being a very early entry in the portmanteau horror genre.

The restoration done on this release is an excellent example of what can be done to retrieve a battered and worn film print from ruin. Some minor scratches are still present, but overall, the black and white visuals demonstrate why they are largely superior to the colour that permeates our lives. The audio is slightly less impressive, with the original mono soundtrack occasionally sounding strident in a modern viewing context.

So why watch movies that your grandparents might have originally seen? On a technical level, it’s fascinating to witness how movie productions were mounted and conducted, during an era when budgets were limited due to the war effort on both sides of the Atlantic, and where horror movies were generally given the cold shoulder by critics, if not the audiences. While admittedly stilted in some places, and acknowledging that some stories work better than others, it is still very much worth your while to track this boxset down. If nothing else, the work done on cleaning up the images and sound is a masterclass in what can be done to ensure movies of this vintage are seen and admired well into this century.

Special Features and Specifications

FLESH AND FANTASY

1080p High-definition Blu-ray presentation
Film historians Rodney Barnett and Adrian Smith appear in the audio commentary.
Fear and Fantasy: The Thematic Layers of Julien Duvivier’s ‘Flesh and Fantasy’ – Video Essay by film scholar Joseph Dwyer (2025)
Tales of Terror: ‘Flesh and Fantasy’ and the Horror Anthology Films – Interview with film critic Jon Towlson author of ‘The Turn to Gruesomeness in American Horror Films, 1931-1936’ (2025)
Aspect Ratio 1.33:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

DEAD OF NIGHT

1080p High-definition blu-ray presentation
New audio commentary by critic and film historian Pamela Hutchinson
Short Sharp Screams: ‘Dead of Night’ and the British Horror Anthology – Interview with horror author John Llewelyn Probert
Scoring the Night: On Georges Auric and ‘Dead of Night’ – Interview with author Dr. David HuckvaleRemembering ‘Dead of Night’ – documentary
Stills Gallery
Restoration Comparison
Aspect Ratio 1.37:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles
Genre
Classics
Film Subgenre
Horror
Label
Imprint
Audio
LPCM 2.0 Mono
Subtitles
English
Running Time
103
TV Standard
HD
Rating
M
Consumer Advice
Moderate violence, Moderate coarse language
Year of Release
1943