Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

This movie begins with an escaped convict named "Fingers Dolan" (John Berkes) finding refuge at a soup kitchen in the Bowery run by a man by the name of "Karl Wagner" (Bela Lugosi). As luck would have it Karl recognizes Fingers right away but decides not to turn him in to the police. The reason for this is because Karl is not the kind-hearted soul he pretends to be. Instead he's a respected teacher at the local college who goes by the name of "Professor Brenner" during the day and uses the soup kitchen as a front for his crimes which include robbery and murder. And Fingers just happens to be someone he needs at the time to help rob the local jewelry store down the street. Once Fingers opens the safe Karl has him killed by another member of his gang. "Dead men tell no tales" and the police are totally baffled as to the identity of those behind the recent spate of crimes in their precinct. But that isn't all there is to this story because it also involves--zombies. Now, rather than disclosing the entire story and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that it has a number of different subplots yet it only lasts 61 minutes. And that's the main problem. With so much going on the various scenarios don't seem to blend in very well at all. The ending was especially difficult to comprehend. In essence, this could have been an excellent movie if there was more time allocated for the story to resolve itself. It's just too short for everything going on! That said, because of its abrupt nature it left me somewhat unsatisfied and I rate it as slightly below average.

In the 1942 Monogram horror cheapie "Bowery at Midnight," Bela Lugosi plays quite the enterprising fellow, not just moonlighting...but double moonlighting! By day, he works as a college psychology professor named Frederick Brenner. By night, under his Karl Wagner alias, he runs a soup kitchen/hospital for the poor in NYC's Bowery. But wait...as Wagner, he is also the mastermind of a burglary ring that has lately been scourging the area. This ring is small in number, as Wagner has a habit of killing off one of his henchmen every time a heist is performed, and burying him in his basement...with named placards in lieu of headstones, no less! Anyway, the picture has been competently directed by Wallace Fox, who had already worked with Bela on two previous Monogram films, "Spooks Run Wild" ('41) and "The Corpse Vanishes" ('42); I wonder how this director would have fared with a budget larger than a few thousand bucks, some shoestrings and two bottle caps. In a relatively no-name cast, Tom Neal, playing Bela's sadistic gunsel, is a welcome presence; he would, of course, go on to achieve cult status by dint of his work in that truly bizarre film noir, "Detour" ('45). "Bowery at Midnight," at 63 minutes, never wears out its welcome, despite some occasional lame humor, incredibly chintzy sets and an unfortunate dependence on unlikely coincidence. (Really, what are the odds of Wagner's soup kitchen assistant being the fiancée of one of Brenner's students?) I mentioned up top that this is a horror film, but honestly, the only genuine horror elements here are Bela himself and the fact that his drunken doctor pal manages, inexplicably, to bring all his buried victims back to life. And speaking of inexplicable, just what is the deal with that map of Australia that Wagner keeps on his wall? Best not to ask such questions, I suppose. Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of one of our true horror icons essentially playing three different roles in one hour. From a Poverty Row studio, that really IS value for money!

Wow, did this little B-movie have a complicated plot! First, Bela Lugosi operates a soup kitchen in the Bowery for hobos. Second, he uses criminals who come into this soup kitchen to commit various crimes. Third, he eventually kills these criminals and gives the bodies to his friend "the doctor". Fourth, he is in reality a psychology professor who teaches at a nearby college. Fifth, he has a wife who he loves and treats very well. What a very complex character--perhaps too much for just one character--more like three or four characters! While all this strains reason, it also is a reworking of another Lugosi movie from just two years earlier. In DARK EYES OF London, Lugosi is an insurance agent who is also the benefactor for a home for the blind. However, this social service organization, like the soup kitchen, is a cover for theft and murder! And in both cases, he uses residents of the programs to do his evil bidding! Of the two films, DARK EYES OF London is probably the better film since the plot isn't so convoluted and overly complex. Plus the graphic details of the murders really make DARK EYES a very scary film, indeed. With BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT, the film just seemed too complicated and silly. Still, it was very entertaining and for fans of Lugosi and B-horror pictures, it's well worth a look.By the way, among the many murders Lugosi commits or orders, the one involving poor Vince Barnett is amazing and made the film really exciting and creepy. Watch for this scene at the top of a building during a robbery committed by cold and sinister Tom Neal.

Bowery at Midnight is quite the ambitious little Poverty Row thriller. It's has enough plot threads for three movies. Bela Lugosi plays a man living a double (or should that be triple) life. As one of the characters says to Lugosi, "I've never seen a guy with more angles." By day, he's a college psychology professor. By night, he runs a soup kitchen that he uses as a base to recruit criminals into his organization. You see, he's got a thing for knocking over jewelry stores. If that weren't enough, he has an old, washed-up doctor in the basement who, unbeknownst to Lugosi, is doing experiments on reanimating dead bodies. With all of this going on, there are really very few dull moments in the movie's short runtime. I suppose that's also part of the movie's biggest problem – there are too many loose ends and too many plot threads that go nowhere. For example, why and how is the Doc creating the zombies? And how is the process seemingly reversed at the end of the movie? It's probably best not to think too much about it and just enjoy the movie for what it is. Lugosi actually looks like he's having the time of his life. The smile on his face in many of the scenes looks genuine. And why not? For a Monogram film, Bowery at Midnight is about as good as they come.