review for Fear in the Night on AllMovie

Fear in the Night is totally implausible, but if a viewer can get past that fact, he'll find himself absorbed in this taut, gripping mixture of "mystery" noir and psychological thriller. Coming in at a lean 72 minutes, Fear is a fast-paced picture that concentrates less on character development than on plot and atmosphere. It plays its melodrama straight, accepting the story as just a fun pulp exercise, and coming off as much more enjoyable and effective for that reason. Production values are admittedly spare, even for a B-picture, but they're used to good effect, with John H. Greenhalgh Jr.'s moody lensing helping to mask the film's basic cheapness. Maxwell Shane's direction is almost as bare-bones as his script, but that's not cause for complaint; it perfectly compliments the writing, and makes for a film with maximum impact. In the leads, a very young DeForest Kelley is convincingly overwrought; he already has some of the mannerisms that he would become famous for on Star Trek, but they work well here. Paul Kelly is an excellent foil for him, and he brings an edge to his role that is interesting; at times, he seems to not really care for this brother-in-law of his, and that creates a nice dynamic. Best of all is Robert Emmett Keane, whose villainous hypnotist is a great deal of fun, especially during the hypnosis-by-watch sequence.