By JASON COMERFORD

One of the horror genre's finest and most underseen efforts, Jacques Tourneur's 1957 film Night of the Demon (released in America in a shorter version as Curse of the Demon) is an almost perfect example of how to build genuine suspense through careful implication. As with the Val Lewton films Tourneur helmed in the 1940s (including Cat People and I Walked With A Zombie), the unseen and unknowable ultimately presents the greatest and most memorable threat. Night of the Demon walks a fine line between cold rationalism and irrational fear of things that go bump in the night, and it's an uncommonly intelligent and effective film by any standard.

The plot concerns professional skeptic Dr. John Holden (Dana Andrews), who travels to England with the intention of debunking cult leader Dr. Julian Karswell (Niall McGinnis), who may have awoken an ancient demon he can't control. Holden, at first, coolly dismisses the more outlandish claims of supernatural malfeasance, but as unexplainable events accelerate in intensity, Holden finds even his own unshakeable belief in science questioned.

The film's score was written by the prolific English composer Clifton Parker, who began writing his own music at 16 and went on to catch the attention of musical director Muir Mathieson, leading to a long career of composing music for the concert hall and the screen. Parker's jaunty music for Walt Disney's 1950 adaptation of Treasure Island remains one of his best-known efforts, but his score for Night of the Demon -- his lone foray into the supernatural genre -- is equally as memorable.

Parker had his work cut out for him before he even began scoring the film; according to the book Beating the Devil: The Making of Night of the Demon by Tony Earnshaw, British censors expressed concerns about the film's music while the script was still being written. Nonetheless, Parker responded in grand fashion, giving the film a bustling, energetic score that hums with portent and perfectly supports the increasingly intense proceedings; at one point, Andrews' character, tormented by the unexplainable, even starts humming Parker's title theme.

Sadly, Parker's thrilling music for Night of the Demon appears to be lost to the ages, but composer & musicologist Philip Lane reconstructed a suite by ear for a 1996 album for Silva Screen, Horror!, performed by the Westminster Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Kenneth Alwyn. As for the original film recording, reconstructionist John Morgan reported in 2012:

Several years ago I contacted Sony and sadly, they didn't even have a M & E track for the film. And no score or sketches or anything on paper has been discovered and we checked with the Parker family, BFI and other British holdings that may have something on the score. Everything was a negative answer. If we were to reconstruct the score from listening to the tracks, we would need something more in the clear than the music mixed with dialogue and sound effects. Perhaps something, someday will turn up. One never knows.

AUTHOR NOTE: Special thanks to Ed Dennis and Craig Spaulding of Screen Archives Entertainment for their help in acquiring this title.

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