In association with Scala Forever.

A portmanteau film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event. The 9th London Short Film Festival (in association with Scala Forever) is putting a long forgotten spotlight on this unique genre.

Dead of Night is a 1945 British portmanteau horror film made by Ealing Studios, featuring various episodes directed by Alberto Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton, Basil Dearden and Robert Hamer, and starring Mervyn Johns, Googie Withers and Michael Redgrave.

Dead of Night stands out from other British film of the 1940s (a time when few genre films were being produced) and had a huge influence on subsequent British horror films, particularly the anthology films produced by Amicus Films in the 1960s and early 1970s. It also sits at number two (after Fantasia) in film critic Christopher Tookey’s list of ‘top 100 portmanteau films of all time’.
 
Scala Forever was a season of films launched in summer 2011 to relivethe legendary Scala Cinema’s programming history and celebrate the current repertory film scene in London. From Horror to Hollywood; Arthouse to Asian; Musicals to Melodrama; Queer to Comedy, and Classic to Cult, screening in double and treble-bills, all-dayers and all-nighters, Scala Forever screened at 27 London venues across over 60 nights!

Plans are afoot for summer 2012, so watch this space.

Tickets for this programme are available on the Riverside Studios website, or by calling the box office on 0208 237 1111.