Rainey Dawn This is a pretty engrossing crime-thriller with a splash of horror. To be honest, they could have left out the splash of horror that appeared towards the end of the film - (Did someone say Zombies?!!) (: Bela Lugosi is leading a double life as Professor Brenner/Karl Wagner. By day he is a the well respected Professor Brenner. By night he is the sinister criminal Karl Wagner. Wagner will kill his partners in crime to reach his goal. Little does Brenner/Wagner know, his helper Doc Brooks (Lew Kelly) has something up his sleeve when Wagner puts Brooks down one to many times. This movie is definitely worth watching! If you like crime-thrillers and don't mind twist of horror then you might like this film.8/10

Red-Barracuda Bowery at Midnight is one of the many poverty row films made by Bela Lugosi in the 40's. In it Lugosi plays a somewhat far-fetched character. He is alternately a psychology professor, a Samaritan who runs a mission for the homeless and a ruthless crime boss! Neither of his lives cross-over and his university students do not know of his mission activities and vice-versa, while his gangster boss life is a secret kept from everyone bar his fellow criminal underlings. Despite what the title and star would imply this is not a horror movie but really a crime-thriller. More accurately it is a crime film with a bizarrely incidental horror angle, as there is a character that creates zombies in the cellar of the mission! Needless to say, Bowery at Midnight is total nonsense but will be enjoyed by those with a tolerance for low budget genre flicks from this period.

zardoz-13 Monogram director Wallace Fox's brisk, B-movie "Bowery at Midnight" intertwines elements of a crime thriller with a horror chiller. This uneven but above-average epic casts Bela Lugosi as a man with dual identities who kills without a qualm. He looks like a gentlemen, but he is the epitome of evil. Not only does he masquerade as a congenial college professor of psychology but also a soup kitchen operator. Professor Frederick Brenner teaches psychology at a New York City University behind a pince-nez when he isn't running a Bowery soup kitchen for the underprivileged. He looks and dresses like an academician during the day and as a humble social worker after dark. Brenner's wife knows nothing about these shenanigans but she is impressed when he loads her down with jewelry. She really doesn't crave the baubles as much as his companionship.Actually, the soup kitchen serves as a front for Brenner who uses the alias Karl Wagner. He has everybody duped, including his soup server, pretty young Judy Malvern (Wanda McKay of "Voodoo Man"), while she plays hard-to-get with wealthy young suitor, Richard Dennison (John Archer of "Police Bullets") who is more accustomed to sailing on his yacht than navigating the Bowery. Bowery was essentially a slum afflicted with crime. Richard wants Judy to give up her life and join him, but she refuses. Meantime, Detective Sgt. Pete Crawford (Dave O'Brien of "The Singing Cowgirl") dreams of having a family, weeding a garden, and a promotion like his mentor Police Capt. Mac Mitchell who is about to retire. Currently, a crime wave is sweeping the Bowery, and the sagacious Dr. Brenner is the one who has orchestrated. He likes to recruit criminals and then kill them after they have helped him with his crimes.Naturally, Bela delivers another sterling performance. George O'Brien doesn't garner enough screen time to make an effective impression, but John Archer is impressive as a John F. Kennedy type student who knows nothing about the plight of the unprivileged. Mercifully, Fox holds comic relief to a minimum. One amusing scene has Dennison quizzing a bum about life in the Bowery. The bum asks for a cigarette, which Dennsion gives him, and then appropriates the entire pack along with a match. Vince Barrett puts in a brief appearance as another criminal in Wagner's payroll. He spouts one line that is rather funny that marks his destiny. Ultimately, "Bowery at Midnight" proves too ambitious for its own good. The subplot about the zombies is never adequately fleshed out. The tacked on ending about Dennison is problematic. Presumably, the producers had second thoughts about leaving him as a corpse. Meanwhile, it is the zombie subplot that sets "Bowery at Midnight" aside from most zombie movies of its day because voodoo is not used and these zombies are of the flesh-devouring variety.

bkoganbing Bowery At Midnight has Bela Lugosi cast as a psychology professor who doubles as a master criminal using a Bowery mission as a blind for his activities. It was a great role for Lugosi and perfectly illustrative of the tragedy of that man's career. In fact the part once again proves that Bela could go way beyond the horror genre if needed though there is a bit of ghoulishness provided by someone else in the cast.If this had been done at major studio with a tighter script and infinitely better sets, this could have become a classic. Lugosi gives a great performance and he was followed closely here by Tom Neal who plays a truly malevolent and murderous hood. The lack of continuity that so typified a Monogram product is present here, especially when you find out that someone who Neal shot at point blank range is quite alive at the end of the film. Lugosi really carries this one to stratospheric ratings for a Monogram film. Bowery At Midnight sad to say had some unrealized potential.