Night Monster

1942

Action / Adventure / Crime / Drama / Horror / Mystery / Thriller

5
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 31% · 5 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 31% · 100 ratings
IMDb Rating 6.1/10 10 2071 2.1K

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Plot summary

Kurt Ingston, a rich recluse, invites the doctors who left him a hopeless cripple to his desolate mansion in the swamps as one by one they meet horrible deaths.

Director

Ford Beebe Photo
Ford Beebe

Top cast

Bela Lugosi Photo
Bela Lugosi as Rolf
Irene Hervey Photo
Irene Hervey as Dr. Lynne Harper
Janet Shaw Photo
Janet Shaw as Milly Carson
Cyril Delevanti Photo
Cyril Delevanti as Torque
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
663.38 MB
1280*932
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 12 min
Seeds ...
1.2 GB
1472*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 12 min
Seeds 4

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 7 / 10

One of the better Universal Bs from the 1940s

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!
Reviewed by BaronBl00d 6 / 10

Odd-Ball Universal Fare

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.
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