User reviews

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 ****

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

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'.

Bowery at Midnight is a must see for fans of Bela Lugosi. His "lesser" films are is some ways more interesting than the ones he is best known for, since expectations are low and the Lugosi persona shines through inadequacies in the script etc. His acting is really put to the test here where he essentially has three roles: a kind soup kitchen manager, a professor of psychology and a sinister mass killer who can double cross anyone. All three roles are wonderfully done- a masterful job!!

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.

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

Bowery at Midnight is one of the many low budget chillers that Bela Lugosi made during the 1940's and is one of the better ones I have seen.

Bela has two roles in this movie, in the daytime he is a college lecturer and at night, he runs a Bowery where dropouts hang out. It's at the Bowery where killings start and he has an assistant who does these killings in the cellar where they revived as zombies. He uses an escaped murder to help him too.

Bowery at Midnight has some of the things you would expect in this type of movie: hidden doorways, secret rooms and a hunchback assistant.

Joining Bela in the cast is Wanda McKay (The Monster Maker) and John Archer (Destination Moon).

This movie is worth watching if you get the chance. Very creepy at times.

Rating: 3 stars out of 5.

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!

Bela Lugosi, both a wonderful actor and very fine gentleman, comes across perfectly in this role. Things like body language, eye contact, voice inflection, all of it done beautifully. The plot, containing as many little surprising twists and turns as the Bowery mission contains secret panels and hidden doors, is a neat story and it flows well. The other players fit their roles very well. The continuity is good. And then there are those other added attractions, like thinking you just saw Lou Costello playing a Bowery bum. Nope, you didn't, but you're close. Its his older brother, and almost twin, Pat Costello. Things like that make this movie great fun. Add a pretty nurse, a crazy doctor, and what do you have? A "B" movie that deserves at least a B+.

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.

Another Lugosi film. Until recently, I didn't realize that one of his principle characters was a man, respected by his community, who had a secret side. Once again, we have a legitimate character, a college psychology professor, who runs a crime syndicate out of a soup kitchen/ mission. Whenever a well known bad guy shows up, off to the basement, and an offer of work. Unfortunately, once these guys serve their purposes, they are offed in some way. Shot to death or pushed off a building, for instance. The odd thing is that people still seem to want to work for him. Lugosi keeps graves in the basement, with little signs on them, with he last names of the guys he has killed. His henchman gets to keep them after they are killed and apparently brings them back to life (or something). There are so many loose ends it's impossible to keep up. All the characters act in such an irrational way, including Lugosi, that most of it makes no sense. If the good professor had just lied about being a humanitarian and a psychologist, the young lead would have found him quite admirable. The ending explains nothing. It's as if they ran out of film. Not a stellar moment in cinematic history.

Collage Professor Frederick Brenner masquerades at night as a manager/kitchen hand of a Bowery, which is also used to run his own crime operations in some hidden back rooms. He cons these under-privilege and usually criminals into joining him, to only back-stab them when the job is done. One of his partners is an has-been doctor who wants to prove himself again, by secretly reanimating the corpses of those who were killed by Brenner and finally keeping them in another secret compartment. Although Brenner's moonlighting of many different lives, eventually becomes his downfall.

I hope you don't wear a hole in your noggin, because you'll be continuously scratching your head on just what the heck is going on here. Logic is not a real strong point. Around this time Lugosi was signing up for quickie poverty-row horror films, but this Monogram enterprise went for a serious (well it seems to try) gangster flavour with some minor mad scientist dabbling with possible zombie creations. How it goes about these things is just peculiar and feels like no more then an afterthought to the madness. As if they thought that people would expect some horror elements since Lugosi is tagged to the project. So lets chuck it all in and lets worry about it when we come to it. The deceitfully taxing story is a convoluted mess, but its random nature, blurred intentions and silly outcomes just entertains because its so uncanny. The contrived script wants to be thoughtful and smart in certain scenes, but more often it ends up as stilted and languidly spotty. Pacing can follow that latter suit as well, despite some stalling moments it never becomes overtly dull. Being a Bela Lugosi vehicle, there's plenty of screen time for him, as he gets to play more then one character. Even though it's the same character pretending to be different people, you'll think the disguises would be more convincing to get-away with some like that. Those ridiculous glasses are not going to help! Lugosi's performance is a compelling one with his deviously suave persona taking shape. He's putting it all into this multifaceted performance. Lew Kelly, Tom Neal and Wanda McKay are fine, however the rest don't figure. What I really liked was how it cooked up some very effective atmospheric moments of eeriness and the closing minutes is tightly handled with a truly baffling conclusion. Yep, it's one of those; "how can that be possible?" and destroys the thrust that was inserted in the brooding climax. Wallace Fox's plain direction is stagy, but workably done with little impact. The foundation of the musical score is put together in the basic fashion. It either over-plays itself or seems to fly under the radar, but never gets the right balance.

There's nothing laudable here with this loosely constructed foray, but this cheap low-end production enjoyably kills the time that it asks from you. Lugosi fans might dig this one.

"Bowery at Midnight" seems to suggest an East Side Kids or Bowery Boys picture, however, it's another in the forgettable series of "B" movies Bela Lugosi made for Monogram Pictures in the early 1940s.

This one is absolutely dreadful. Its about a man (Lugosi) leading a double life. By day he's Professor Brenner a respected criminalogist; by night a kindly operator of a mission for the poor called Karl Wagner. He is assisted by heroine Judy Malvern (Wanda McKay) a rich kid doing her bit for the underprivileged. Unbeknownst to her is the fact that Wagner is recruiting criminals from the mission that are on the run to participate in a series of robberies after which they are killed off, having served their purpose.

Wagner also has a Karloff like assistant named Doc (Lew Kelly) who has been secretly bringing the slain gangsters back to life and keeping them locked up in a cellar. One of Professor Brenner's students (John Archer) happens to come into the mission and recognizes him. Well then.

The story might have made a better film with a bigger budget and better direction. There is no explanation given as to how or why "Doc" is bringing the dead back to life or why they appear zombie like or are we shown what eventually happens to them. And, hero Archer becomes one of them but mysteriously makes a full recovery with no ill effects (or explanation) at the film's end.

Lugosi sleep walks through his role(s), which he did for most of this series. For a poverty row quickie though, this film has a pretty good cast in the supporting roles. Too bad they had such a small budget and dreadful direction to work with. Dave O'Brien appears as a cop, J. Farrell MacDonald as his Captain and Wheeler Oakman and Vince Barnett as various members of Lugosi's gang. One plus is the appearance of a young Tom Neal as Lugosi's gunsel. And watch for a brief bit by Bernard Gorcey (Louie in the Bowery Boys series and father of Leo Gorcey)as a shopkeeper.

It's worth a look to catch the tragic Tom Neal in an early role.

Respectable psychology professor Bella Lugosi (as Frederick Brenner) moonlights by operating a soup kitchen for New York's Bowery denizens. At "the mission", Mr. Lugosi (as Karl Wagner) fronts a secret underground criminal organization. There, Lugosi's entourage includes baby-faced recruit Tom Neal (as Frankie Mills), mad zombie-maker Lew Kelly (as Doc Brooks), and pretty assistant Wanda McKay (as Judy Malvern).

While working on a term paper he calls "The Psychology of the Underprivileged," student John Archer (as Richard Dennison) discovers professor Lugosi's daring double life, which places Mr. Archer's life in grave danger. Innocent Ms. McKay is also put in peril. The plot is all over the map in "Bowery at Midnight". Don't stop watching to think about what is going on with the interesting set of characters - or, the film may make less sense.

*** Bowery at Midnight (10/30/42) Wallace Fox ~ Bella Lugosi, Tom Neal, John Archer

Pleasant surprises can come in the most unusual of packages. Such is the case with this 1942 Monogram quickie starring the legendary Bela Lugosi, not as a vampire or a mad doctor, but a jewel thief kingpin hiding under two (count 'em, two) secret identities. With a setup like that, you can't very well lose.

Lugosi, as usual, pulls out an engaging performance; this guy is just plain fun to watch in any role. He doesn't get much help from his co-stars (with the possible exception of Lew Kelly, who steals a few scenes as a schizophrenic doctor), but nobody is exceptionally irritating at least. Plot holes abound and at times things get pretty confusing, but if you can overlook the blemishes and try not to take the production values too seriously, it's a nice little picture overall. And at just over an hour long, it won't bog you down. Watch it for Lugosi's performance if nothing else.

Also, keep an eye out for a poster of another of Lugosi's Monogram films, "The Corpse Vanishes," which appears in the background of one of the scenes.

This movie begins with an escaped convict named "Fingers Dolan" (John Berkes) finding refuge at a soup kitchen in the Bowery run by a man by the name of "Karl Wagner" (Bela Lugosi). As luck would have it Karl recognizes Fingers right away but decides not to turn him in to the police. The reason for this is because Karl is not the kind-hearted soul he pretends to be. Instead he's a respected teacher at the local college who goes by the name of "Professor Brenner" during the day and uses the soup kitchen as a front for his crimes which include robbery and murder. And Fingers just happens to be someone he needs at the time to help rob the local jewelry store down the street. Once Fingers opens the safe Karl has him killed by another member of his gang convinced that "dead men tell no tales." As expected, this causes the police to be totally baffled as to the identity of those behind the recent spate of crimes in their precinct. But that isn't all there is to this story because it also involves--zombies. Now, rather than disclosing the entire story and risk spoiling the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that it has a number of different subplots yet it only lasts 61 minutes. And that's the main problem. With so much going on the various scenarios don't seem to blend in very well at all. The ending was especially difficult to comprehend. In essence, this could have been an excellent movie if there was more time allocated for the story to resolve itself. It's just too short for everything going on! That said, because of its abrupt nature it left me somewhat unsatisfied and I rate it as slightly below average.

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".