Bowery at Midnight

Lugosi plays a kind psychology teacher at a local college. He also runs a mission in the bowery where he gets criminals to pull off robberies for him. There's also a silly incidental subplot about raising the dead! This is pretty involved for an hour long movie. Being a Monogram picture it has all their trademarks--tacky sets; mostly atrocious acting; a plot that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense and one of the most unexciting gunfights in screen history.

The acting veers from OK to just embarrassing. Wanda McKay easily gives out the worst performance. Lugosi, always a pro, gives this the best performance possible. And it is nice to see Tom Neal three years before he did the cult classic "Detour".

Not bad--not good but one of the better Monograms Lugosi did. LOVE the clearly marked graves in the basement! I give it a 5.

Bowery at Midnight (1942)

** (out of 4)

Professor Karl Wagner (Bela Lugosi) is a highly respected man who helps run a food kitchen that feeds homeless and poor people. At night he's taking advantage of the same people forcing them to do his illegal crimes including murder. BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT is yet another low-budget quickie from Monogram and while the story itself is pretty lacking, the film remains watchable thanks to a fast pace as well as the performance from Bela Lugosi. It's really a shame that the film doesn't feature a tad bit more life because it could have been something rather good had more time with the story been done. Lugosi is very good in the lead role and it's funny that during the opening credits his name appears twice for playing the two characters. One of the biggest reasons that the film works as well as it does is because Lugosi is very believable as both the good guy and the bad guy. I really liked the way Lugosi played the good professor because he made you believe that this guy couldn't be doing anything wrong. That cheerful glee from the bad guy also comes across flawlessly and especially when he gets to show how cold blooded the character is. Wanda McKay is good in her supporting role as the woman helping Lugosi not knowing exactly what he's up to. The rest of the supporting players fit their roles nicely and certainly help keep the film moving. The biggest problem is that the story just needed a little bit more work to make it something more than just a routine "B" picture.

Bela Lugosi, both a wonderful actor and very fine gentleman, comes across perfectly in this role. Things like body language, eye contact, voice inflection, all of it done beautifully. The plot, containing as many little surprising twists and turns as the Bowery mission contains secret panels and hidden doors, is a neat story and it flows well. The other players fit their roles very well. The continuity is good. And then there are those other added attractions, like thinking you just saw Lou Costello playing a Bowery bum. Nope, you didn't, but you're close. Its his older brother, and almost twin, Pat Costello. Things like that make this movie great fun. Add a pretty nurse, a crazy doctor, and what do you have? A "B" movie that deserves at least a B+.

Next to "Invisible Ghost" and "The Corpse Vanishes", this is probably the best of the old Monogram series. ("The Devil Bat", my number one favorite of the "Poverty Row" thrillers was not Monogram, but PRC). Bela Lugosi plays a mad psychologist who moonlights in the dark of night as a master criminal who uses a charity mission as a front. In this film, Lugosi demonstrates not one, but three different personalities. Moreover, the plot gets slightly convoluted compressed into a quick 62 minute running time. Some scenes such as the basement graveyard and the undead zombie attack during the film's climax are very hair-raising indeed.

7/10.

Dan Basinger

Bela Lugosi is in fine form playing Karl Wagner, a sweet soul with a soft touch who runs a nightly Bowery mission, spooning out bowls of soup for needy tramps with nowhere to go. When he recognizes a new customer as an escaped safe cracker called "Fingers" Dolan, Wagner kindly escorts the convict to a hidden room and offers him a cigar. During the leisurely smoke, the host confides that he's admired Dolan's work for a long time, and springs a surprise on him: Bela's actually a crime boss, using the mission as a front and looking for someone new to join his racket. By day, Wagner leads a double-life as a professor named Dr. Brenner. When he's not showering his unsuspecting wife with gifts from his nightly escapades he teaches a class on psychology.

The potential is there for this to be as confusing as it sounds, but taken slowly it can be a hoot. An interesting ending, too, makes one suspect it was a possible influence for NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Simply stated, BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT is one of the best of the poverty row pics made by Monogram studios with Bela Lugosi in the forties. Really more of a crime story with an occasional dash of horror as an added condiment, this is a tasty 62 minutes of absurd fun done on the cheap. **1/2 out of ****