Perfectly adorable

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Whipped together in just eleven days, director Ford Beebe created one of Universal's great fright films: "Night Monster.". Made in 1941, he was lucky in casting the film colony's top performers in every role. Just as good, he had Universal's great production team to help him along. The result is a great movie to watch at night, or a rainy or foggy or wintry afternoon. The setting is the remote Ingston Towers, inhabited by the crippled and reclusive Ralph Morgan, his emotionally distraught daughter, Fay Helm, an over-protective house keeper, Doris Lloyd, a sleazy chauffeur, Leif Erickson, and a too-talkative maid, Janet Shaw. Several esteemed doctors are invited to spend a weekend at the towers along with a noted psychiatric, Irene Hervey, who was secretly invited by the troubled daughter. Don Porter is a frequent visitor along with Nils Asther as Adolph Zing, a medium. We're treated to a great musical score, lifted from The Wolfman, beautiful, shadowy photography, especially in the library scenes where a fireplace throws flickering shadows over the faces of the inhabitants. When famed director Alfred Hitchcock visited the set one day--he was interested in casting Janet Shaw in a movie--he was astonished at what director Beebe was doing in camera shots, the moody lightning and photography. What always fascinates me about Night Monster is the dynamic work done by the great Doris Lloyd as the sinister Sara Judd and cult actress Fay Helm, who steals the acting honors with her harrowing portrayal of a desperate woman trapped in a house she hates. Irene Hervey as the psychiatrist is wonderfully warm and strong. Although Bela Lugosi is top-billed, it is cringe-worthy to see him doomed to play the butler's role--which means he bulges his eyes, smiles strangely and is like wallpaper in terms of acting. The doctors are all doomed for extinction by their failure to cure the invalid of limb paralysis. A fabulous touch of menace is when the frogs stop croaking in the swampy grounds, whenever the night monster appears to murder. You can see the terror in the eyes of the victims. This sudden silence of the frogs and the billowing fog enhances a movie that reminds me much of the 1932 masterpiece, The Black Cat. This is a black and white treat with one of the most amazing casts in Universal history.

It starts off fine, then five minutes into the film, it lapses into predictability. There are a few surprise suspenseful moments here and there, and then, once again, bits and pieces of everything you've seen in every "Old Dark House" movie from "The Cat and the Canary" to "Rebecca". Not much cleverness was put into making this programmer where a bunch of eccentrics in a mystery house are all suspects in murder. There's the crippled patriarch (Ralph Morgan), a Mrs. Danvers type housekeeper (Doris Lloyd), a sinister doctor (Lionel Atwill), a dour butler (Bela Lugosi, repeating the role he had already done in "The Gorilla" and would later repeat in "One Body Too Many"), the heroine (Irene Hervey, taking on the role usually given to Evelyn Ankers), hero (Leif Erickson) and gloomy spinster (Fay Helm). How many are red herrings or victims, there's of course, one killer, and it is very easy to figure out.This one lacks the humor given to the dozen films of the same era, whether starring Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Hugh Herbert, Joe E. Brown or Olsen and Johnson, so the result is an unsurprising mystery that Universal can't really disguise as being merely a step above similar who-done-its being done over at PRC and Monogram.

Tho Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill are the big name draws here, they are in fact only supporting actors within the story. But don't let that detract from this being the entertaining murder mystery spooky house picture it is. Basically we are at a house in the South in the swamp region. It is the home of Kurt Ingston, a recluse who is wheelchair bound. Here on this evening are a number of doctors invited by Ingston, who start to be killed off one by one. So who is responsible? The butler {Lugosi}, the weird housekeeper, the chauffeur, the mentally ill daughter? Or could it have something to do with the mystical Agor Singh who has been teaching Ingston the fabled art of mind over matter? Either way the mystery holds tight throughout and nothing is ever quite as it seems.For sure it's a Universal Pictures B movie, but it's the kind of effective creeper that gets in and does its job with the minimum of fuss. High on atmosphere and containing a ream of interesting characters, it's acted professionally and finishes on a high. It may not be "And Then There Were None", and those who wish to solve the mystery before the reveal will not find it hard to do so. But this is a decent entry in a lovely sub-genre of horror, so turn off the lights and listen out for those frogs. 6.5/10

This movie really surprised me. In the 1940s, Bela Lugosi made a huge number of grade-Z horror films. They might be fun to watch, but all too often the films have tons of plot holes and they were obviously made with practically no budget. This film, however, has very good production values and is quite original--and as a result, I had a very good time watching it.Now before I go any further, it's important to note that although Lugosi got top billing and the videotape cover prominently shows his face, the film really ISN'T a Bela Lugosi film. His role, unfortunately for "Lugosi-philes" is amazingly small and ill-defined. He never seems to be the star nor does he have much to do with all the weird murders that are occurring in the film. In many ways, this is like the appearance of Lionel Atwill in the film--he's there but his part is terribly small.Despite this, the film is still excellent and most of this is due to the excellent writing. The story is quite original and although I could guess early on who was committing all the murders, the way it was handled was very clever. Probably the best part of the film, though, was the part played by Robert Homans, as the Constable. He has so many wonderful and funny lines that I thoroughly loved watching the old curmudgeon investigate the crimes.Finally, a bit of trivia. The rich old man in the film is played by Ralph Morgan. He bears a lot of physical resemblance to Frank Morgan (the Wizard from the Wizard of Oz) because they were brothers.