Bowery at Midnight (1942)

Fresh and Exciting

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Although Bela Lugosi made two movies with the Bowery Boys (or "East End Kids" as they were known at the time of those two unforgettable classics), this is not one of them. Yes, he is in the Bowery, working as the seemingly kindly head of a mission, which is not at all anywhere like the long-running Bowery Mission of legendary fame. He dispenses soup without religious chatter, has a nurse on staff to tend to the ailing, and treats his gentle wife with a tender hand. But there's another side to this philanthropist, which should be obvious considering who's playing the part, and his mission is simply a front for a crime ring. He has a keen eye for criminals hiding out in the mission, bribes them in assisting him with his nefarious criminal activity (which includes jewel robbery) then dispenses them when their services are no longer required. But his ill treatment of a weary doctor who lost his practice threatens to be his undoing, as does the student of psychology whose professor just happens to sound exactly like the kindly mission man.There's something about Bela Lugosi that is both pitiable and frightening. His characters, with that heavy Hungarian accent (no matter what nationality he played), are all one step away from doom, and in many of his films, his dispatchment at the end is obviously an instant elevator to hell. Yet, there's something about him that you can't take your eyes off, and even in roles other than Dracula and Igor, he's the dominating force of attention, even when paired with Karloff. The world-weary doctor character could have played by Karloff who only made occasional "Z" grade films, while Lugosi only appeared in the occasional "B" film at an "A" grade studio."Bowery at Midnight" is mostly crime drama with a very slight element of horror, and features "Z" movie mainstay Wanda McKay as the devoted nurse who has no idea of her employer's real mission until it is too late. The film is static-like, which makes it almost move like a silent film, yet it is not totally without merit. But it is not one of Lugosi's better Monogram films, either, because he is so identified with horror that when you compare this with PRC's "The Devil Bat" or Monogram's "The Corpse Vanishes", it lacks in the unintentional humor department that those (and others of his) encompassed. Once again, his character has a frail wife so in love with her devoted husband that she's oblivious to his real life, and once again, he's done in by younger men he believed he could easily crush with his pinkie. This makes it all predictable, until the very end, with a conclusion that is easily as eerie as his mad doctor's finale from 1935's "The Raven".

Bowery at Midnight (1942) ** (out of 4) Professor Karl Wagner (Bela Lugosi) is a highly respected man who helps run a food kitchen that feeds homeless and poor people. At night he's taking advantage of the same people forcing them to do his illegal crimes including murder. BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT is yet another low-budget quickie from Monogram and while the story itself is pretty lacking, the film remains watchable thanks to a fast pace as well as the performance from Bela Lugosi. It's really a shame that the film doesn't feature a tad bit more life because it could have been something rather good had more time with the story been done. Lugosi is very good in the lead role and it's funny that during the opening credits his name appears twice for playing the two characters. One of the biggest reasons that the film works as well as it does is because Lugosi is very believable as both the good guy and the bad guy. I really liked the way Lugosi played the good professor because he made you believe that this guy couldn't be doing anything wrong. That cheerful glee from the bad guy also comes across flawlessly and especially when he gets to show how cold blooded the character is. Wanda McKay is good in her supporting role as the woman helping Lugosi not knowing exactly what he's up to. The rest of the supporting players fit their roles nicely and certainly help keep the film moving. The biggest problem is that the story just needed a little bit more work to make it something more than just a routine "B" picture.

Economical tale of split personality psychologist and lecturer (Lugosi), who moonlights as the manager of a soup kitchen, itself a front for a bizarre burglary racket where destitute criminals find the end of their road in shady basement deals. When a wealthy student of Lugosi (Archer) elects to research the plight of the under privileged as part of his thesis, he inadvertently stumbles upon a macabre experiment being conducted in the soup kitchen.Lugosi is professional and assured in comfortable characterisation as the slightly unhinged professor, whose double life of contrasts services both his demented perversions, and the need to study his affliction more closely. The supporting cast including John Archer as the arrogant rich kid, oblivious to those less well-off and Hollywood bad-man Tom Neal as a psychopathic killer eager to accept Lugosi's murderous invitation, performs well alongside the inimitable presence of master horror specialist Lugosi.Ghoulish and atmospheric, it's obviously not going to satisfy most of today's tastes, but if you're familiar and comfortable with the vintage horror flicks and need a fast-paced mystery for entertainment, you could do a lot worse than "Bowery at Midnight".

In the 1942 Monogram horror cheapie "Bowery at Midnight," Bela Lugosi plays quite the enterprising fellow, not just moonlighting...but double moonlighting! By day, he works as a college psychology professor named Frederick Brenner. By night, under his Karl Wagner alias, he runs a soup kitchen/hospital for the poor in NYC's Bowery. But wait...as Wagner, he is also the mastermind of a burglary ring that has lately been scourging the area. This ring is small in number, as Wagner has a habit of killing off one of his henchmen every time a heist is performed, and burying him in his basement...with named placards in lieu of headstones, no less! Anyway, the picture has been competently directed by Wallace Fox, who had already worked with Bela on two previous Monogram films, "Spooks Run Wild" ('41) and "The Corpse Vanishes" ('42); I wonder how this director would have fared with a budget larger than a few thousand bucks, some shoestrings and two bottle caps. In a relatively no-name cast, Tom Neal, playing Bela's sadistic gunsel, is a welcome presence; he would, of course, go on to achieve cult status by dint of his work in that truly bizarre film noir, "Detour" ('45). "Bowery at Midnight," at 63 minutes, never wears out its welcome, despite some occasional lame humor, incredibly chintzy sets and an unfortunate dependence on unlikely coincidence. (Really, what are the odds of Wagner's soup kitchen assistant being the fiancée of one of Brenner's students?) I mentioned up top that this is a horror film, but honestly, the only genuine horror elements here are Bela himself and the fact that his drunken doctor pal manages, inexplicably, to bring all his buried victims back to life. And speaking of inexplicable, just what is the deal with that map of Australia that Wagner keeps on his wall? Best not to ask such questions, I suppose. Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of one of our true horror icons essentially playing three different roles in one hour. From a Poverty Row studio, that really IS value for money!