Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

telegonus Night Monster is a pleasant surprise: a Universal horror from the Forties that's actually first rate and original, provides some genuine suspense as well as surprises, manages to rise about the generic by sheer force of the talent involved. Yet most of the talented people involved in the making of the film have at best modest reputations; among them, director Ford Beebe and screenwriter Clarence Upson Young. The two main stars, Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill, don't have nearly so much to do as the lesser known players but they're a welcome sight all the same.It's the tale of Kurt Ingston, a wealthy, crippled man, very well played by Ralph Morgan, who invites a trio of doctors who just happened to have treated him and who failed to cure him of his paralysis. Also on hand: an Indian mystic, Agor Singh; Ingston's sister, who looks young enough to be his daughter; his sister's soon to be boyfriend, Dick Baldwin; an amorous, toothpick chewing chauffeur and ladies man, Laurie; a female psychiatrist, Dr. Harper; and the standard issue (for the time) sinister housekeeper, Miss Judd. Alas, Bela Lugosi's butler, Rolfe, is a small part but he makes the best of his few scenes.But one doesn't really need a scorecard to follow this one. It's worth mentioning all these characters, as each in his own way adds spice to the proceedings. This movie has a strong plot, as Ingston is a truly baleful figure,--an armless and legless man--and one senses a power him him, a focused and yet controlled energy that, in conjunction with Singh's black magic, his ability to summon forth a skeleton and make blood appear, coming seemingly from nowhere, make for a dynamic and potentially dangerous duo. Ingston's out for revenge.The isolated country setting, apparently American the gated mansion not far from a swamp, where the sounds of animals, notably frogs, can be heard, set this modestly budgeted movie up nicely. Nor does it shy from killing a character off here and there; and sometimes it's a young and attractive one. There's a feeling of primal, encroaching evil at work in Night Monster that goes beyond the plot, the special effects,--good but hardly remarkable-- that seems to take hold of the entire movie, and which, as it approaches its climax, makes the film deliver the goods and then some by the time it's over.

Michael O'Keefe Three medical doctors and a psychologist are summoned to the old Ingston Mansion to determine the sanity of the Miss Margaret Ingston (Fay Helm). The mansion belongs to her father Kurt (Ralph Morgan), who has been left crippled by the same doctors there for their assessment. Dr. Lynn Harper (Irene Hervey), the psychologist, gives the young woman a clean bill of health, while the other doctors are stumped for a diagnosis. Soon the old mansion in the swamp becomes a house of shady mystery. One by one the doctors, who left Kurt Ingston, a hard to please master and recluse, are maniacally killed. Dr. Harper has been receiving unfounded threats, but she still remains alive. A nice who-done-it directed by Ford Beebe and said to have been filmed in only 11 days.Other players include: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwell, Frank Reicher, Nils Asther, Lief Erickson, Don Porter and Doris Lloyd.

jery-tillotson-1 Whipped together in just eleven days, director Ford Beebe created one of Universal's great fright films: "Night Monster.". Made in 1941, he was lucky in casting the film colony's top performers in every role. Just as good, he had Universal's great production team to help him along. The result is a great movie to watch at night, or a rainy or foggy or wintry afternoon. The setting is the remote Ingston Towers, inhabited by the crippled and reclusive Ralph Morgan, his emotionally distraught daughter, Fay Helm, an over-protective house keeper, Doris Lloyd, a sleazy chauffeur, Leif Erickson, and a too-talkative maid, Janet Shaw. Several esteemed doctors are invited to spend a weekend at the towers along with a noted psychiatric, Irene Hervey, who was secretly invited by the troubled daughter. Don Porter is a frequent visitor along with Nils Asther as Adolph Zing, a medium. We're treated to a great musical score, lifted from The Wolfman, beautiful, shadowy photography, especially in the library scenes where a fireplace throws flickering shadows over the faces of the inhabitants. When famed director Alfred Hitchcock visited the set one day--he was interested in casting Janet Shaw in a movie--he was astonished at what director Beebe was doing in camera shots, the moody lightning and photography. What always fascinates me about Night Monster is the dynamic work done by the great Doris Lloyd as the sinister Sara Judd and cult actress Fay Helm, who steals the acting honors with her harrowing portrayal of a desperate woman trapped in a house she hates. Irene Hervey as the psychiatrist is wonderfully warm and strong. Although Bela Lugosi is top-billed, it is cringe-worthy to see him doomed to play the butler's role--which means he bulges his eyes, smiles strangely and is like wallpaper in terms of acting. The doctors are all doomed for extinction by their failure to cure the invalid of limb paralysis. A fabulous touch of menace is when the frogs stop croaking in the swampy grounds, whenever the night monster appears to murder. You can see the terror in the eyes of the victims. This sudden silence of the frogs and the billowing fog enhances a movie that reminds me much of the 1932 masterpiece, The Black Cat. This is a black and white treat with one of the most amazing casts in Universal history.

BaronBl00d During the 1940's decade, Universal Pictures attempted to continue making horror films as they did the previous decade but did try to re-invent and package them a bit differently. Their financial success never mirrored that of its earliest successes, but films like The Night Monster showed that they still had the wherewithal to make classic, good horror yarns. This film is different from most Universal horror films for a number of reasons. Yes, Bela Lugois and Lionel Atwill are in the film. Lugosi is yet again wasted playing a butler - a role I sometimes tire of seeing him relegated to for a man of his considerable talents. Atwill does better as a pompous(can he be any other way?) doctor called with two other doctors to the home of the rich man their medicine was not able to save - he was now paralyzed from the waist down. Ralph Morgan plays the crippled man hosting the doctors, another doctor called in by his sister who believes she is crazy, a hypnotist, and a couple of other servants who act and expect better than their positions might suggest. Swirling around this is a series of murders, secretive looks and discussions, and the sighting by several of a monster that comes out at night. The Night Monster is really more of a mystery than a true horror film though the eerie, foggy atmosphere helps convey significant menace. The story isn't really particularly hard to figure out, but all the actors do a very good job playing their roles. Bela is really wasted unfortunately. He certainly could have been better utilized. Atwill as always is very, very smart and clever as he delivers his dialog. Frank Reicher, of King Kong fame, gives a nice turn as a fellow doctor caught in some terrible plot. While maybe not one of Universal's brightest stars, The Night Monster is a good, entertaining film.