Nuit d'épouvante

Night Monster is the best Universal Horror film of the 30s and 40s that was NOT about one of the Major Monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-Man or Mummy). In fact, it may just be the best one ever. I first saw it on TV in the 1960s as a pre-teen and have seen it about 10 times since, including twice in the last year. It is a very successful film in terms of using atmosphere to communicate a sense of dread. The film effectively used the themes of Insanity, Murder, Eastern Mysticism and the properties of Nature (crickets and frogs going silent for no reason) to keep the viewer unhinged throughout the whole film. The murders are creepy and mysterious. The actors are top shelf.

I remember being scared, puzzled, mystified and wondering how the murderer got around. I remember the scene where Dr. Timmons is murdered. The actor really looked frightened. The scene where Leif Erickson's strangled body is discovered in the closet was strong stuff in the early 40s.

If you haven't seen this film...SEE IT! Just remember the time in which it was made and you will have a 73 minute feast.

During the 1940's decade, Universal Pictures attempted to continue making horror films as they did the previous decade but did try to re-invent and package them a bit differently. Their financial success never mirrored that of its earliest successes, but films like The Night Monster showed that they still had the wherewithal to make classic, good horror yarns. This film is different from most Universal horror films for a number of reasons. Yes, Bela Lugois and Lionel Atwill are in the film. Lugosi is yet again wasted playing a butler - a role I sometimes tire of seeing him relegated to for a man of his considerable talents. Atwill does better as a pompous(can he be any other way?) doctor called with two other doctors to the home of the rich man their medicine was not able to save - he was now paralyzed from the waist down. Ralph Morgan plays the crippled man hosting the doctors, another doctor called in by his sister who believes she is crazy, a hypnotist, and a couple of other servants who act and expect better than their positions might suggest. Swirling around this is a series of murders, secretive looks and discussions, and the sighting by several of a monster that comes out at night. The Night Monster is really more of a mystery than a true horror film though the eerie, foggy atmosphere helps convey significant menace. The story isn't really particularly hard to figure out, but all the actors do a very good job playing their roles. Bela is really wasted unfortunately. He certainly could have been better utilized. Atwill as always is very, very smart and clever as he delivers his dialog. Frank Reicher, of King Kong fame, gives a nice turn as a fellow doctor caught in some terrible plot. While maybe not one of Universal's brightest stars, The Night Monster is a good, entertaining film.

Universal made a great hit with this one due to the way the story is put together. This had to be one of the best "spooky house" films. The use of atmosphere in terms of foggy nights, shadows on the wall, creepy facial expressions (this is why "The Ring" was such a hit), creaky doors, puddles of blood, a skeleton materializing in a room, Bela Lugosi looking mysterious, frogs/crickets coming to a sudden silence, sinister residents of "The Towers" and more, make this one of the best shockers of the 1940s.

Ever spook yourself in a darkened room ? (Great fun!) Ever get spooked by inanimate objects in a room based on their shadows on the wall? (I used to have nightmares as a child (about 5 years of age) due to the wood patterns on a dresser that looked like ghoulish figures. My mother told me that I used to run high fevers as a child and this may account for it.) Not being a psychologist, I am not familiar with a lot of the theory underlying why this sort of thing happens, perhaps it is based on subliminal reactions to the unknown, but it is very simple to scare oneself by associating objects,shapes or shadows with some sort of subconscious fear. In any case, this movie does the same thing to an extent by creating an atmosphere of overwhelming dread by tuning to the subconscious anxieties (such as the proverbial "things that go bump in the night" ) which exist in all of us.

I am a great Bela Lugosi fan and even though he plays a red herring butler in this film, through the use of creepy facial expressions, he adds to the nightmare quality of this film. Some fans think he would have been better off in the Angar Singh role (as he played in another great film, "Night of Terror" 1933), but he is fine as the sinister butler this time. Lionel Atwill is also fun to watch. The ladies Fay Helm and Irene Harvey are great eye candy. In the last reel of the film, people are knocked off one by one until the film reaches a ghoulish climax (I won't give the ending away).

The film is similar to "Night of Terror" (1933) (one of my B-movie favorites) which is equally creepy and equally fun. The difference is that in "Night Monster", a supernatural element is added.

10/10.

Dan Basinger

Forde Beebe was a longtime writer and director who doesn't get much love -- the Buck Rogers serials excepted; most of his sound work was in the serial and B westerns, which usually don't impress. However in 1942 he shot Night Monster in less than two weeks for Universal. And it's a fine creepy-crawly with a good slow build-up and some fine atmospheric lighting by Charles van Enger. Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill were top-billed for marquee value, though Lugosi has few lines as the servant of the house, Rolf, and Atwill is the first person killed inside the house, so there really is no truth in advertising here.

Three doctors are summoned by wealthy Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) to spend a few days at his mansion for possible endowments for their research. That's odd since the three doctors could not stop Kurt from ending up in the state he is in now - an arm and both legs partially amputated. Kurt's sister has summoned a fourth doctor, Dr. Lynn Harper, for completely separate reasons. Harper is a psychiatrist. A mystic, Agor Singh (Nils Aster), is a resident of the Ingston home, helping Kurt deal with the reality of his condition. And then guests as well as some of the servants are found strangled, usually in their rooms but sometimes outside. So the search is on to discover who the murderer - the titular night monster - might be.

This is a well-done horror film that, despite not having any big names who have many lines or who are onscreen for very long, was quite engaging with an interesting and unusual angle. With Leif Ericson as a big galoot chauffeur who could be the poster boy for the Me Too movement 70 years ahead of schedule. 15 minutes in I was rooting for the Night Monster to get this creep he was so awful!

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