If you've never heard of Dead of Night or Queen of Spades, you would do well to spend your money on this DVD. You are totally guaranteed your money's worth!

When an architect meets with a group of people for the very first time, he soon realizes that he has dreamt the complete experience before. Each person at the gathering tells a story of supernatural encounters -- and the stories become more and more real in his mind. The transition between stories in Dead of Night is flawless and each character is a delight. As one character stated, "Just because a chap becomes a ghost, surely that doesn't mean he ceases to be a gentleman!"

The second film, The Queen of Spades, a desperate young man can't afford the luxury of gambling as the wealthy gentleman of the era do. Rather than pass up that indulgence, he turns to a countess who seems to have the secret to winning! He wants that secret to easy wealth, and will stop at nothing to get it -- even winning at the cost of his soul.

Don't mistake this as a double-bill of horror movies. There is no much more here, and it is so beautifully presented that this DVD is a must for your collection. It's a shame that they haven't been seen on television to win a new audience.

I bought this double disc set from Anchor Bay for one very well regarded and respected "anthology" horror flick. And although "Dead of Night" was indeed everything it was cracked up to be, for me it was disappointing in two ways: 1.) The audio was more "horrid" than the tales of "horror" told therein, with every male voice sounding like "Leslie Howard on helium" and every female like "Billy Burke in a bubble"! 2.) The film destroyed all previous ignorant notions I had that Rod Serling and his writing staff on "Twilight Zone" were originator's, (despite the obvious "evil dummy" thing), when in fact they were merely a group of very creative/talented imitator's, (ie: "Room for one more..?") But neither of these little qualms of mine even mattered. It's very good!

However, as many others have previously stated, or like me have just discovered, the second truly remarkable film in this "2-Fer" that turned out to be Anchor Bay's "Ace up the sleeve" was a genuine "lost gem" of a film called "The Queen of Spades"! So, rather than describe the film's plot, (again!), or gush over its quality, (again!), or the extraorinary talent displayed by the film's cast and crew, (again!), I'll continue to quote the rest of the lines from the creepy old bookshop owner which I felt perfectly described what the characters, (and viewers!), were in for from the start:

"This is a very rare book! I wouldn't recommend it to everyone... That's a lot, I know. But there are plenty of people who believe in things neither looked for nor heard of. What mean these premonitions, these hauntings, these aparitions, these tales of horror in a far sight in time and space? Believe me, there are things to be seen the eye has not seen and things to be heard the ear has not heard. Who knows what you might learn from it. Why, you might end up by gaining a fortune... Or losing your precious soul!"

This DVD set has a good image quality. However, the sound quality especially for Dead of Night has been altered to "clean up" noise and in doing so the audio seems to cut off and on in the most annoying way. I've owned this fine classic film in the other "out dated" formats (vhs and laserdisc) and preferred the little bit of hissing and scratching to having the sound go out completely during the more quiet moments. I really wonder who decides on these choices and if they're even checking the quality (or lack of ...) on the final product.

Black and white. 1949. Actors you may or may not know. No matter, this is a keeper!

Dead of Night is probably one of the best horror/mystery movies that I've seen. I had not seen The Queen of Spades before I bought this set as I was interested in Dead of Night and found it to be just as frightening. I would recommend these two movies to all true horror/mystery fans who can appreciate the more subtle approaches to horror and suspense produced by these British studios.