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THIS SATURDAY'S MOVIE: Saturday June 2, 2012 - MOVIE - Melodrama "NIGHT MONSTER" (1942) Another one of those films that scared me for...well...I guess it permanently instilled a fear in me. Whenever I'm walking near a wooded area at night and crickets stop chirping...I think there's a monster afoot. A memorable scene of a skeleton that is materialized out of thin air...holding a small coffin and dripping blood. Lugosi's a butler, Atwill a bull-headed doctor. Suggested by Steven Schimming, Laurel, MD.
BTW - Note that the "Night Monster's" hands and feet are from Jack Pierce's Wolf Man! It appears officially on the UNIVERSAL HORROR ARCHIVE DVD set. -Ron Adams, Ligonier, PA
While we all love the Universals, it must be said that logic does Three doctors come to visit Kurt Ingston after their
This really is a fun little film, even if top billed Bela Lugosi Another scene which still packs a punch even 70 years is when -Steve Schimming
Night Monster, this great classic has it all...spooky mansion,fog and a great cast, -Jay Maggio 50smonstakid, Kingsman, AZ
I spent the majority of Saturday venturing around NYC. My trek took me from the Port Authority (42nd St) down to the South St. Seaport, and everywhere in between. Needless to say I was pretty wiped out when I got home that night. That, however, did not keep me from making an attempt at watching Night Monster. Needless to say (for those that know me) I made it through about half the movie. At one point I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, the DVD menu was on the screen. Let this in no way be a comment on this film.
Considered one of the "minor" Universal horrors it still rises above its ridiculous premise with a great cast of character actors...... very much like Doctor X. After the initial set up with a well dressed Hindu mystic and a creepy gate keeper named Torque we're brought inside Ingston Towers. We learn about mysterious blotches of blood and some ominous goings on via the frightened Margaret Ingston (Fay Helm). Then it kicks in! Off the bat (no pun intended) Lugosi's snooty uppity butler impression has me in hysterics. I think Bela must have watched the Jeeve's movies (all two of them) to do his best at channeling Arthur Treacher. It really gets the ball rolling for me. Then we're introduced to probably one of the oiliest and sleaziest characters in any 40's movie, Laurie the chauffeur. Hard to believe this is the same guy that played the sympathetic dad, shoving his kid over to look in the telescope, at the beginning of Invaders From Mars! This dude is a creep!
From there on we get to meet a real menagerie of characters, A doctor who's obsessed with glands. Another doctor ( Doctor X himself Lionel Atwill) who is definitely not obsessed with glands. And a third doctor who seems to have a lot more of a conscience than his peers. Throw in a lady shrink, a "hoary gory" writer, a cranky old constable, and a quadriplegic (what's left of him) and let the fun begin. The story is just plain ridiculous. Nothing really makes sense, and there are more holes in the plot than a spaghetti strainer, but who cares? This movie is driven by the fun performances given by the sincere cast. Between Atwill's eye rolling and glaring at every mention of glands from the enthusiastic Dr. Phipps, Leif Erickson's over the top sex starved Laurie, and the cantankerous old law man Cap Beggs, there are more great lines and moments. The movie never seems to take itself too seriously, and that may be a good thing in this case. It will always remain one of the minor Universals, but it will always be a major player in my film library. Great choice! Thanks! -Mike Adams, Cartaret, NJ Don't have this one? Get it at Creepy Classics in the Complete DVD Catalog. SATURDAY NIGHT/WEEKEND SYNC-UP. DETAILS BY CLICKING HERE.
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Here's one I never grow tired of....NIGHT MONSTER. Even though Lugosi gets top-billing, he's under utilized as the butler who seems to be afraid, himself, of the goings on and at other times seems to be the perfect red herring. Regardless, the film movies. Never boring, with great, fun performances from a huge stock of Universal company players. Some sincerely scary moments when the frogs/crickets stop chirping (you know the murderous monster is afoot!) and in a creepy supernatural scene involving a skeleton. As a stand-alone, not part of a series Universal film, this is one of the best horrors. You gotta love Atwill stealing the scenes as he's annoyed with a doctor's continued reference to "glands." 
In my opinion this is a far less stylish, but almost equally fun remake of the 1932 classic Doctor X. The similarities are all there. It deals with the replacement of missing limbs, doctors getting bumped off in an old house, and lots of suspicious characters, not to mention Lionel Atwill. If I was pressured into naming a "favorite" horror movie, I would probably say 
