A mezzanotte corre il terrore

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 ****

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.

A rather busy plot (for a 60-minute programmer, anyway) ensures that there's little padding other than the obligatory romantic interest between the highlights (my favorite being Lugosi's cold-blooded rooftop disposal) - not that the film reaches any particular heights, but it's certainly enjoyable and engaging while it's on. The dual nature of Lugosi's character and the 'mission' setting hark back to DARK EYES OF London (1939), and this one too can be chalked up among the star's better 40s efforts. There's even some smart dialogue to boot ("I wouldn't trust you with a bad case of dandruff" and Lugosi describing Fingers Dolan's use of criminal slang as "picturesque", etc) and the poster for THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942) on a theater marquee was a cool 'in-joke'.

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

A soup Kitchen serves as a front for various criminal activities run by Bela Lugosi.

As Bela's grade Z movies go this one is pretty good. The plot is complicated enough to keep you wondering what is going on. Of course things get a bit wonky towards the end as all of the people and plot points come crashing together.

Certainly not the worst that Bela turned out in his very up and down career. I don't know if I'd search this out, but late at night if it was on I certainly wouldn't turn it off, unless I needed sleep since it won't put you out.

6 out of 10