Uncle Doug's Bunker of Vintage Horror Paperbacks

"Creeps by Night"

Edited by Dashiell Hammett

Four Square Books.

February 1966

                           My copy of the UK "four Square" edtion.

                                                         The US edtion from "Belmont"

                                              

Hi folks, this week I’m covering “Creeps by Night”, which was edited by the great “Dashiell Hammett”. This is the companion paperback “The Red Brain” which I covered several weeks ago. Together these 2 collections completely reprint the original 1932 hardback, “Creeps by Night”. I love the cover to this collection. Sadly, I can’t decipher the artist’s signature even with the use of a magnifying glass. Even though it’s slightly misleading as far as the contents go. I still love the whole haunted house horror imagery. I know this would have appealed to me greatly when I was just a youngster. But then again, even today, I still find it extremely attractive.

     What I especially liked about this collection is that even though these are “horror” stories, they are also very “suspenseful” horror stories. I’m assuming that this reflects Mr. Hammett’s sensibilities and or tastes as editor.

Introduction
A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner
The House - Andre Maurois
The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers
The Witch's Vengeance - W B Seabrook
Mr. Arcularis - Conrad Aiken
The Strange Case of Mrs Arkwright - Harold Dearden
The King of the Cats - Stephen Vincent Benet
Beyond the Door - Paul Suter
Perchance to Dream - Micheal Joyce
A Visitor from Egypt - Frank Belknap Long

Now let's take a look at those stories!

A Rose for Emily - William Faulkner

     Back in 1932 “A rose for Emily” was a new story that hadn’t been reprinted a million times. This was even included in one of my high School literature books. That’s how famous it was at one time. This is a great story that has all the elements that made Faulkner so famous. You have a “Southern Gothic”, small town scandals and gossip, fallen aristocracy,  insanity, murder and even a strong whiff of necrophilia!  In short, it has all the makings for great young adult reading!

The House - Andre Maurois

     “The House” is only 3 pages long and is more of a vignette than an actual story. A woman has a recurring dream of visiting a country estate where she is warned by the people living there that it’s haunted. Years later she discovers the house of her dreams with a result that is so obvious that reading more than the first few paragraphs is a waste of time.

The Spider - Hanns Heinz Ewers

     This is the English translation from the original German. I’ve never read it in German but this seems to be a marvellous translation. A young student rents a room in a boarding house. Upon discovering that all of the previous tenants have met mysterious deaths he cons the police in letting him have the room rent free upon the condition that he discovers the source of the mysterious deaths. He develops a bizarre relationship with a beautiful young woman whose rooms are across the street from his. The never meet face to face and only communicate through hand signals. This has to be one of the creepiest stories that I ever read.  You get to experience the young mans descent into obsessive madness as he becomes drawn ever deeper and deeper into the silent games he’s plays with the young woman across the way as the simply sit across from each other in their window day after day. This is a wonderful story.

The Witch's Vengeance - W B Seabrook

     A young Englishman on vacation in the French Pyrenees falls in love with the grand daughter of a reputed witch. He convinces this love to leave her grandmother which makes the old woman extremely angry. The “witch” then puts a curse upon the young man which has immediate results. His best friend  then goes about confronting the witch in an attempt to lift the curse.

Mr. Arcularis - Conrad Aiken

     This is probably a very enjoyable story as long as you have never seen the film “Jacobs Ladder” or the “Twilight zone” episode “"A Stop at Willoughby". I figure that back in the early 30s that this was a very original twist ending. A man recovering from a serious operation goes on an ocean cruise to regain his health. He starts to have episodes of sleep walking that seem to be leading him ever closer to the ships hold where a coffin and its occupant are being taken back to Ireland of burial. Mr. Arccularis has the feeling that something terrible will happen once he does reach the ships hold while sleep walking. Hmmm, I wonder what that could be.

The Strange Case of Mrs Arkwright - Harold Dearden

     Mrs. Arkwright is the widow of a horrible man who caused her to lose her baby. It seems that her first husband even died on the night that she lost the child during childbirth. She is now remarried but begins to suffer from terrible nightmares. He new husband convinces her to visit a psychiatrist to get to the roots of her nightmares. We then get about 5 pages of the psychiatrist analyzing the symbolism in her dreams. It seems they are based on her guilt over losing her child and her hatred towards he first husband. This seems to solve things nicely and to celebrate the newly married couple have the psychiatrist down for the Christmas holidays after they have moved into the estate that Mrs. Arkwright inherited from her late first husband. Over the holidays Mrs. Arkwright’s nightmares begin again and this time they are accompanied by somnambulism. All this is witnessed by the visiting psychiatrist. Suddenly her nightmare takes on a whole new meaning once the doctor sees what Mrs. Arkwright does in her dead husband’s bedroom while sleep walking. This is a nice story, but after reading this king of stuff for over 40 years the ending wasn’t that much of a surprise.

The King of the Cats - Stephen Vincent Benet

     This one reads more like a children’s story than something Dashiell Hammett would pick out for a horror anthology. But who knows. Maybe he thought we need a break from all of the gloom and doom in the previous stories.

     A young man falls in love with a “feline like” Russian Princess in exile in America. He has great hope for their relationship until he receives competition for her affections in the form of a French conductor who actually has the tail that he conducts with. This is a cute little fantasy story dealing with how the young man attempts to do away with his rival. This is also the lightest story in the entire collection.

Beyond the Door - Paul Suter

     I liked “Beyond the door” very much. A young man inherits his late Uncle’s house which he promptly moves into.  His Uncle had been found down in an uncovered well that was located in the cellar. By reading his Uncle’s diary the young man learns that the old man had been haunted/hunted at night by something that constantly tried to break into his chambers. This all started shortly after one of the servant girls moved out and away without telling anyone. Hmmmm. I wonder if there is any connection.

Perchance to Dream - Micheal Joyce

     This is another odd story. I liked it very much though. This one is pure psychological horror. I man visits his estranged sister after having not seen her for many years. She live in a small town and is married to the local chemist/pharmacist who has strange ideas on how to treat their son illness. It seem that daddy is a “sort of do it yourself” medical researcher. The brother tries to get his sister to leave her husband and to take their son with her. Sadly the pharmacist and his axe have other ideas. What impressed me so much with this story is the feeling of complete oppression the woman lives under and her inability, thanks to constant abuse from her husband, to take a concrete measures to help herself and her son. The relationship of abused and abuser in the story has a ring of truth to it. It has to be the most unpleasant and surprising story in the book.

A Visitor from Egypt - Frank Belknap Long

     This one is a pretty good pulp horror story from Mr. Long. There’s nothing subtle or psychological about this one. No siree!  A museum curator receives a visit from a famous archaeologist who due to some skin affliction is wrapped up in coat, gloves and scarves. He is extremely interested in the museum’s newest acquisition from Egypt. It turns out that the bones belong to the most favoured of the god “Osiris’s” priests. And the curator learns that his visitor is not who he claims to be and that it’s not wise to piss of the old gods. This story is straight up pulp horror and a perfectly horrible “upbeat2 ending to the collection.

All in all “Creeps by Night” is a very strong collection that relies more on suspense building rather than “in your face” pulp horror. It makes for a nice change of pace. Not that I have anything against “in your face” pulp horror!

Thanks for stopping by and take care.

Doug