Jugu Abraham Vic Mizzy's musical notes in this 1964 film sounds exactly the same as the notes of the song "Boy for sale" in the 1968 film "Oliver!" John Green adapted the music and walked away with the Oscar. Nobody seems to have noticed because "The Night Walker" is rarely discussed. Viewing the film a second time after 50 years, this film is still a good thriller and less of a horror film as most people classify it. Very good performances to boot.Few realize that the author of the story wrote "Psycho" directed by Hitchcock, and that the director of the film produced "Rosemary's Baby."

vincentlynch-moonoi As I look back toward my youth in the 1950s and 1960s, there are a handful of films that I remember most -- "Gone With The Wind", "Ben Hur", a few other greats...and this one. Now that's odd, because this is a suspense film done on the cheap (and to some extent, it shows). But I was attracted to the presence of two formerly married actors (Robert Taylor and Barbara Stanwyck) getting back together to star in a film together...and I love a GOOD horror film. What surprised me even more was that as I watched this film 50 years later, how much of the film I actually remembered. However, as is often the case, the film isn't near as good as I remembered it being Robert Taylor was looking almost old here, although Barbara Stanwyck was still quite beautiful. Taylor's performance is good enough, although for some reason in the early half of the film he has an odd smirk on his face that I just don't understand. Stanwyck is good throughout. This was Stanwyck's last film, but Taylor made a few more.The other key player here was Llodd Bochner, and oddly handsome actor. It's not a particularly memorable role. It was his second film. After a few years he spent more time on the small screen.It's a decent who-done-it, and hardly a horror film, although that's the way it's often pegged. Perhaps "suspense" is a better descriptor. The new DVD release is decent, though there is some deterioration of the negative, though not enough to affect one's viewing of the film. To be honest, and to my surprise, I ditched the DVD after watching it once...just not as good as I remembered. A modest "7".

moonspinner55 Wealthy widow in Los Angeles dreams of a handsome mystery man who romances her--also of the walking corpse of her blind husband, who may not have perished in an explosion as she was told. Robert Bloch was the writer William Castle wanted to work with most. Bloch, who helped bring new shocks to the screen with his script for "Psycho" in 1960, came up with a fairly straightforward thriller here, one that producer-director Castle then marketed his own way ("Are you afraid of the things that can come out of your dreams...Lust. Murder. Secret Desires?"). However, just because "The Night Walker" is relatively gimmick-free doesn't mean it's a washout. Far from it, as Barbara Stanwyck is very good in the leading role, creating a savvy, quick-thinking businesswoman who is also prone to screaming fits (the latter trait doesn't quite pay off, as Stanwyck just isn't a Scream Queen). Eerie thriller on a low budget has a quietly menacing ambiance that is intriguing. Vic Mizzy contributes one of his finest background scores to the film, and the cast is full of pros, including Robert Taylor, Stanwyck's real-life ex-husband. The kitschy opening about the world of dreams is pure William Castle (and has next-to-nothing in common with the movie that follows), but there are many amazing sequences here to cherish. Good fun! *** from ****

mark.waltz With sinister music sounding much like "Oliver's" "Food Glorious Food" and taking it down the realm of something you might hear in Disney's Haunted Mansion, "The Night Walker" is perhaps one of the best of the "Let's put an axe in the old dame's hand and see what she does with it" films. O.K., so leading lady Barbara Stanwyck gets no axe or butcher knife, but what she does get is to scream her head off as she wonders why the nightmares she's having seem so real. Stanwyck gets the chance to be reunited with her ex-husband, Robert Taylor, here, but really, it is her show, not his. Taylor's presence is really more of a curio for their first teaming in almost 30 years and the gossip columnist's opportunity to recall their Cinderella romance of the mid-late 30's which lead to his alleged infidelities and their divorce in the early 1950's.Hayden Roarke, of "I Dream of Jeannie" fame, plays Stanwyck's deceased husband who died years ago in a fire, and his presence in her nightmares make Stanwyck convinced that something amiss. You half expect her to scream, like Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby", in the middle of one of these dreams, that she's aware that what she appears to be dreaming is truly real. Lloyd Bochner, who ironically played one of Stanwyck's brothers on "Dynasty" (whom she never got to share scenes with), is another presence in the dream, and this is where the spooky music comes in. The film isn't as scary as the same year's "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte", but it isn't as campy as either "Baby Jane" or "Die Die My Darling!". What it is turns out to be a riveting thriller where Stanwyck, after years of all those "tough dame" roles, gets to be a little more vulnerable, and is totally convincing in doing so.While William Castle certainly turned up the "camp" level in his films at Columbia, here he gets a more seriously themed plot than normal, and the laughs (both intentional and unintentional) are at a minimal. Several other veterans are seen in pivotal roles, but this is a shear reminder of the power that Stanwyck had shown, and continued to show, way past her romantic leading lady/film noir femme fatal prime and makes her one of the treasured stars of the golden age of cinema long after her career ended.