Night World

Fun, somewhat bizarre pre-coder about one night at a nightclub and the assorted people there. Worth a look for the great cast and the odd mixture of gangster movie and musical comedy. Lew Ayres plays a rich guy drowning himself in drink because his mom killed his dad. Mae Clarke plays a showgirl who helps him. The two fall in love quickly, Old Hollywood style. They have a cute chemistry. Great support from Boris Karloff, Clarence Muse, George Raft, Bert Roach, Dorothy Revier, and, hey, there's future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Also features a forgettable number choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Ayres is fine but upstaged by the rest of the cast, especially Clarke and Muse. It's from Universal although it seems a bit like it's trying to be a WB movie. A good way to pass an hour. There's also a Frankenstein joke, although Karloff is not in that particular scene.

Fun, saucy, fast-moving and short, Night World is a neat little movie from the early thirties, before Prohibition was repealed, when Hoover was still in the White House; and with a Depression still new there was yet a Gatsby mood in the cities.

The credits of this movie are unusual. Busby Berkeley did the choreography. Alfred Newman composed what music there is. The cast is oddball for any sort of film, but especially peculiar for this kind: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Hedda Hopper, George Raft and Jack La Rue. Director Hobart Henley handles his material extremely well, and gives it pace and energy. There is joy, sadness, corruption, disillusionment and heartbreak in the movie, and the ending is bittersweet but not downbeat.

You can certainly tell that "Night World" is a pre-code picture. It's set in a speakeasy--just the sort of sordid locale that wouldn't have been allowed after the new Production Code went into effect in mid-1934. Of course, by then alcohol was legal and speakeasies were a thing of the past anyways. The film is very much like a soap opera--with a variety of folks and love affairs going on during the course of the picture.

Several story lines are going on at the same time in this film and at then end, they all converge. One story is about the owners of the club, Happy (Boris Karloff) and Jill. However, Jill is cheating on her hubby and the way this story ends is pure dynamite. The main story involves a young man who's been drinking himself into oblivion (Lew Ayres). Why and his relationship with a girl who works in the club (Mae Clark) is fascinating. Finally, the doorman (Clarence Muse) has something going on with his sick wife. Again, all three stories converge at the end for a very slick and tense finale.

I rarely give short films like this such high scores. However, with this one, the writing was so good and the ending so enjoyable I highly recommend it. Thrilling and enjoyable throughout.

By the way, the dance numbers, though smaller in scale than his trademark choreography, were directed by Busby Berkeley.

NIGHT WORLD is an interesting hour for film buffs (running time 58 minutes) It was made at Universal Studios in 1932 using cast members from their famed monster films. Of course, the headliner is Boris Karloff as Happy McDonald, the owner of a midtown Manhattan nightclub. He's a fast talking gangster who is not afraid to use his glib talk, his fists or his gun. In FRANKENSTEIN, Mae Clarke, was kinda drab, and not very pretty. Here she shows she's a spunky, funny and sexy actress. Bert Roach, of MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE turns up as an annoying drunk. The rest of the cast includes young Lew Ayres, Hedda Hopper, George Raft and Robert Emmet O'Connor. Busby Berkeley supervised the sparse dance numbers, and his trademark, naughty camera angles are here. I had a lot of fun with it.

Yes, it's a cheap versions of GRAND HOTEL, but I think it works just fine. I'm going to disagree with some previous reviewers: I think Karloff is marvelous as the club owner, bringing a fierceness and bravado to it that others would lack. The rest of the cast is also good: Ayres, Marsh and Muse all register strongly. Hedda Hopper is indeed amazing as the bad mother. And George Raft stands out in his small part. A little of it is creaky and dated, but overall, I thought the camera-work was fluid and fine, the story moved fast and the characters were well-written. Nice little Busby Berkeley number near the top, too. Well worth checking out.