Michael_Elliott Night Monster (1942) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A paralized man (Ralph Morgan) calls to his home several doctors who are soon being murdered. Is it the loyal butler (Bela Lugosi) or perhaps someone else? NIGHT MONSTER is often called a Universal horror film but there are much more "mystery" elements than your average horror film. At 72-minute the film isn't the greatest thing the studio ever released but there are enough interesting moments to make it worth viewing. With that said, there are certainly some flaws as well and I'd place most of them on the door of director Ford Beebe. I thought the direction here was somewhat lacking and there really wasn't a very good pace throughout the film.With that said, the story itself is an interesting one and for the most part I thought the mystery played out extremely well and I thought the film managed to keep you guessing as to who was committing the murders. Lugosi gets top billing but he plays a pretty worthless role. He certainly doesn't get too much to do and especially when you consider he played a butler in THE GORILLA and got a much better part out of it. Morgan was good in his small role as was Lionel Atwill. The cast is certainly the strongest thing going for the picture.If you're a Universal fan then you'll certainly want to check this mystery out. Others should probably start with their classics and then work their way to this.

Rainey Dawn This one is full of atmosphere: spooky old house, fog, croaking frogs, chirping crickets, Lugosi and Atwill's presence, a man without limbs, a killer on the loose, supernatural occult elements, a mystery to solve and more. This is one Universal Horror Classic that you do not want to miss.It's too bad that Bela Lugosi's role was not bigger but then again his part as a creepy butler made the film all that much more fun to watch. Lionel Atwill is just as scary to watch.The climax of the film is a real treat as the mystery is solved, the murderer reveled. Hard to take your eyes off the last 15-20 minutes of it.Watch this one on a (cliched) "dark and stormy night".8.5/10

Spikeopath 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

MARIO GAUCI Having become acquainted with most of the classic Universal horror films at a very early age, it's rather surprising that it has taken me much longer to get to the lesser entries in the cycle. Thankfully, the Universal Monster Legacy and the Bela Lugosi Collections have introduced me to some elusive titles but, still, there are a few which, perhaps because of their obvious inferiority, are still sadly missing and the film under review here is just one of them… First things first: while Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill never quite enjoyed the (well-deserved) renown Boris Karloff got from his horror performances - and let's not forget that both of them were somewhat on the skids at the time this film was made due to private scandals - I wasn't expecting to see them appearing in such thankless roles, especially since their names were shown above the title in the credits! I guess anyone who engages Lugosi as a butler deserves all he gets (it's also amusing to me that despite living in America for almost 30 years, Lugosi never managed to drop his very thick Hungarian accent which, I suppose, is one of his charms) and Atwill is an impatient surgeon who's mercilessly picked on by one of his colleagues (for no reason I could clearly discern) and whose untimely departure from the "old dark house" of the movie brings about his death…with more than half the film yet to unfold! Lugosi, apparently, also gets his in the film's fiery climax…or does he? For being the nominal star of the film, the carelessness with which his fate is (or rather not) dealt with is disappointing to say the least.For the rest, the film introduces too many characters too quickly so that it wasn't until some time into the picture that I was able to make heads or tails of who was engaged to do what in the creepy mansion. Some of these characters were engaging, especially Nils Ashter's spiritualist, Leif Erickson's boorish chauffeur, Robert Homans' investigating constable and Don Porter's whodunnit writer but some of the others (like Fay Helm's disturbed Margaret, Doris Lloyd's scheming housekeeper and, fatally, Ralph Morgan's crippled master of the house) were boring or downright annoying. Then, the sheer regularity of the murders (which happen literally moments apart at times) gives it a repetitive quality which does the film no favors, especially since none of the houseguests ever seem to be aware of anything remotely wrong happening in the very next room! Still, for all that, the film is never less than entertaining and I can see it improving with further viewings; after all, it is crammed full of that typical Universal fog-laden ambiance which, for obvious reasons – not least the usage of the same title background and parts of the music score – reminds one of THE WOLF MAN (1941) and other Universal horror fare of the period. Besides, even if the film is not able to capitalize fully on it, its premise of mentally growing artificial limbs is an intriguing one and, again, not too dissimilar from the one explored in DOCTOR X (1932).