Ominous October: Night Monster (1942)

To celebrate spooky season, we view and review lesser-known scary movies from the golden age.

RODNEY BOWCOCK: Near the swampy mansion of Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan) there have been a string of unexplained murders and weird happenings. Ingston’s sister, Margaret (Fay Helm), claims that she is being falsely imprisoned under false accusations of mental illness. Millie Carson (Janet Shaw), a maid, abruptly quits and disappears under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, Ingston has invited three doctors to the mansion that had previously attempted to cure him of his paralysis (Lionel Atwill, Francis Pierlot, Frank Reicher). Another doctor, psychiatrist Lynne Harper (Irene Hervey) has been called to the mansion without Ingston’s permission to evaluate Margaret Ingston. She brings along with her a horror writer, Dick Baldwin (Don Porter). Swami Agor Singh (Nils Asther) is also on hand, to demonstrate his ability to use thought to restore objects through thin air. As all of these people converge on the house, the murders and mysterious doings ramp up as the houseguests start dropping dead one by one.

SAMANTHA GLASSER: Night Monster has polish and sharp editing. We are introduced to a large cast of characters quickly, but they’re differentiated enough for us to follow their actions and importance.

RB: One of the things that makes this movie shine is the sheer amount of character actors that appear in it. While Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill are top billed, they’re part of a larger cast of Picture Show favorites like Ralph Morgan, Irene Hervey, Fay Helm and Leif Erickson. It’s a positive delight for people who like the kinds of movies that we enjoy.

SG: Nils Asther was a suave silent movie leading man, and he has a similar persona here, mysterious and dangerous.

RB: Asther had fallen from his peak, and was bumming around in B’s at assorted studios, appearing in things like The Night Before the Divorce (Fox; 1942), Submarine Alert (Columbia; 1943) and Mystery Broadcast (Republic; 1943). A final lap around Hollywood as a working actor before retreating to television where he’d wrap up his career.

SG: Director Joe Dante called this an underrated Universal horror film. “It’s got a lot of creepy moments and a lot of scary—crickets stop chirping—kind of things, going through the misty moors.” It certainly has style. The image that jumped out to me was the shadow of the killer slowly growing larger over the next victim.

RB: According to an interview with director Ford Beebe with Richard Borjarski in his book The Complete Films of Bela Lugosi, at least some people thought highly of the film at the time that it was made. “I always was kind of proud of it. Hitchcock, who was also making a picture on the lot, screened a rough cut because he was interested in Janet Shaw for a part in his film, and was impressed with Night Monster and seemed to think it was a much more important picture than the studio thought. He couldn't believe the picture was shot in 11 days.”

SG: It was originally titled House of Mystery and was shot in the summer of 1942 for its October release date. There are a few laughable moments. In one scene, Dr. Harper is dismissed as being a potential victim because, “Ah, she’s no doctor. She’s just a dame.” In another, the investigator knocks on the wall, which sounds obviously hollow, and declares it solid. Porter said, "The big thing I remember about Night Monster was the reading of the line, 'It's blood!' It's a hokey thing to do, but things like that have to be played dead seriously, so we had to stifle our amusement and do our best."

RB: These things are part and partial for this sort of old dark house thriller. Unlike some films in the genre, the positives more than make up for these slight mishaps. This is a genuinely atmospheric and creepy movie.

SG: Bodies pile up like mad and everyone founders around trying to figure out who is killing everyone. My suspicions were incorrect. Lugosi’s presence is a red herring. His biographer Arthur Lennig said, "Why Lugosi allowed his name to be featured when he had such an insignificant part will never be known, but it was not a wise move."

RB: In his notes for the screening of the film at the 2014 Cinevent, founder Steve Haynes notes the incredible statistic that, “The corpses stack up at a rate of more than one each 10 minutes”! An incredible feat in the post-code world.

SG: Film Bulletin said, “An utterly fantastic and completely unbelievable horror tale, Night Monster has been effectively directed by Ford Beebe and acted by a capable cast well versed in the art of giving scary portrayals.” Motion Picture Daily completely spoiled the film including the culprit and the ending, so I won’t quote from them.

RB: Haynes continues in his piece that “In spite of some missteps there is more good than bad, and Night Monster proves that even a second-tier, non series Universal horror film can still live us to our memories."

SG: This movie was a nice palate cleanser after some of the lower quality outings we’ve had this month. Four stars.

RB: The film ran at Cinevent in an unusually mystery/horror heavy year, but I bet that the attendees who stayed up until 12:15 Friday night thoroughly enjoyed this one. It’s a four star film, easily the best that we watched this month and an underrated gem.