Horlicks: Guards against Night Starvation: Steven Turner

A feverish television advert for Horlicks from director Joseph Losey.

This dizzying advert comes courtesy of American director Joseph Losey, condensing feverish melodrama into just 30 seconds of television. Poor Steven Turner suffers from exhaustion. The cause is ‘night starvation’, a condition invented by Horlicks and relieved by a mug of the malt drink before bedtime. Exiled by the Hollywood blacklist, Losey settled in Britain in the 1950s and made adverts in between feature films, creating successful campaigns for Horlicks and Ryvita.