Night of the Demon -- Jacques Tourneur
As trope-ish as it is, I love a good "man of science vs. the supernatural" story. In Night of the Demon, Dana Andrews plays Dr. Holden, a psychologist who, as a child, always walked under ladders and crossed the paths of black cats just to prove it was all superstitious bunk. He comes to England to present at a convention and expose a cult. Understandably, the cult leader. Dr. Karswell (the awesomely named Niall MacGinnis) is against this idea and curses Holden just as he had one of Holden's colleagues. The rest of the film is Holden rebelling against the idea but slowly coming around to the fact that the curse could be real and he may die. It's tons of fun to watch.
The audience sees the demon early on when it attacks Holden's colleague so we know that he will die. Apparently, the decision to show the monster at all was the the studio's idea and done without Jacques Tourneur's approval. As terrific as the demon looks (and it is really great), I wish that the viewer had been left to wonder if the curse was real. The main characters get to remain in the dark, so why don't we? It would have made an already terrific film even better. Otherwise, top-notch work all around.
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