Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

mark.waltz It starts off fine, then five minutes into the film, it lapses into predictability. There are a few surprise suspenseful moments here and there, and then, once again, bits and pieces of everything you've seen in every "Old Dark House" movie from "The Cat and the Canary" to "Rebecca". Not much cleverness was put into making this programmer where a bunch of eccentrics in a mystery house are all suspects in murder. There's the crippled patriarch (Ralph Morgan), a Mrs. Danvers type housekeeper (Doris Lloyd), a sinister doctor (Lionel Atwill), a dour butler (Bela Lugosi, repeating the role he had already done in "The Gorilla" and would later repeat in "One Body Too Many"), the heroine (Irene Hervey, taking on the role usually given to Evelyn Ankers), hero (Leif Erickson) and gloomy spinster (Fay Helm). How many are red herrings or victims, there's of course, one killer, and it is very easy to figure out.This one lacks the humor given to the dozen films of the same era, whether starring Abbott and Costello, Bob Hope, Hugh Herbert, Joe E. Brown or Olsen and Johnson, so the result is an unsurprising mystery that Universal can't really disguise as being merely a step above similar who-done-its being done over at PRC and Monogram.

kevin olzak 1942's NIGHT MONSTER was a staple of Universal's SHOCK! package of classic horrors issued to television in the late 50s, showing up 6 times on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater from 1966 to 1983. This was the only Universal to grant Bela Lugosi top billing since the 1931 Dracula, with even 1932's MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE listing him below not-so-virginal ingénue Sidney Fox (a triumph for the casting couch!). For the record, other servant/butler roles Lugosi played can be found in 1933's NIGHT OF TERROR, 1939's THE GORILLA, 1944's ONE BODY TOO MANY, 1945's THE BODY SNATCHER, 1946's GENIUS AT WORK, and 1956's THE BLACK SLEEP. His Rolf has little to do, but he was still a regular participant in the studio's horrors, and always a welcome presence. 'A scream in the night through the fog on Pollard Slough,' hiding something so hideously terrifying that even the frogs stop croaking whenever its shadow passes by (if that doesn't set the proper mood, nothing will!). The opening credits are presented in front of the same forest set built for THE WOLF MAN, featuring music identical to the credits for THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN. Second billed Lionel Atwill also plays a small role, but it's the one doctor he's best suited for, getting good scene stealing mileage out of his exasperated reactions to Francis Pierlot's gland obsessed fellow physician. Kudos to beloved character actor Frank Reicher, best remembered for KING KONG, whose sensitive realistic portrayal of Dr. Timmons is vastly different from the bombastic Atwill. Tending the wealthy and powerful Kurt Ingston in his time of illness, the three have left him 'a helpless cripple, a misshapen thing that must hide even from the servants in the house.' Ralph Morgan is in top form as the wheelchair bound owner of Ingston Towers, with hilarious support from Leif Erickson as the lecherous chauffeur Laurie, even daring to flirt with Doris Lloyd's icy housekeeper, whom he refers to as 'old frozen face.' Little used actress Janet Shaw enjoys one of her few major roles, as Millie Carson, the suspicious maid who abruptly quits without notice, but makes the fatal mistake of returning for her belongings after nightfall, becoming the first on screen victim of the prowling horror, to the eerie silence of the fog shrouded darkness. Director Alfred Hitchcock was preparing SHADOW OF A DOUBT at Universal that summer, and screened this picture because he wanted to cast Janet as a burned out waitress in his film ('I'd just die for a ring like that'). Hitchcock was duly impressed by what he saw in NIGHT MONSTER, and was amazed that it was shot with great style and pace in just 11 days by producer-director Ford Beebe, who had just graduated from serial work. Despite the disappointment for some Lugosi buffs, this fan has long championed its qualities to remain genuinely frightening even today, receiving its long awaited due as a Universal horror classic, a real ensemble piece where the entire cast stands out, a genuine chiller that featured prominently on Chiller Theater, perfect viewing in the dark at 2:00 in the morning.

Zapi Sisma Universal horror with Bela Lugosi playing a butler. He was always random to me, but I think I'm starting to like him. Mysterious murders are happening in a castle, the people get strangled, but there's a pool of blood near them. The big castlehouse is in a swamp. Best mist effect ever, pretty creepy. In the house live: paralyzed rich owner, his daughter who is treated by everyone like she's nuts but she might not be, always suspicious servants, while their guests are the tree doctors who saved and paralyzed the owner, the female psychiatrist invited by the daughter, horror story writer and later on a very charismatic and dryly humorous detective. But the most important guest is a mysterious Indian mystic played by the very handsome and charismatic actor Nils Asther, who can control matter on a cosmic particle level and materialize stuff like that. Supernatural whodunit. One maybe knows toward the end who did it, but not how. Alfred Hitchcock liked this movie a lot supposedly. The actors are all good, the atmosphere is good, never boring, shadow play is sometimes very good, always good and effective. the house interior is cool as it is. Of the actors I especially liked Ralph Morgan as the owner, Don Porter as the writer Dick Baldwin (it's funny because all Baldwins are dicks) i Nils Asther as Agor Singh. The latter is cool as he is, handsome, Porter is not really likable at first hand, but he's charming. Great film to watch at 2 am slightly drunk.

Woodyanders Frail rich recluse Kurt Ingston (well played by Ralph Morgan) invites the three doctors who turned him into a hopeless cripple to his remote desolate mansion in the swamps so they can get their just desserts. Naturally, said doctors are start getting bumped off left and right. Director Ford Beebe, working from an absorbing script by Clarence Upson Young, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, develops a good deal of tension, and does a stellar job of creating and sustaining a strong sense of dread and gloom, with especially inspired use of the secluded fog-shrouded marshland location. This film further benefits from sound acting by a sturdy cast, with stand-out contributions by the always great Bela Lugosi as stern and sinister butler Rolf, Lionel Atwill as the pompous Dr. King, Leif Erikson as smarmy cad chauffeur Laurie, Irene Hervey as charming psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Harper, Don Porter as dashing writer Dick Baldwin, Nils Asther as exotic mentalist Agor Singh, Fay Helm as Ingston's neurotic sister Margaret, and Doris Lloyd as snippy housekeeper Ms. Judd. Charles Van Enger's sharp black and white cinematography offers plenty of memorably eerie images (you gotta love those huge creepy shadows cast on walls!). The robust film library score likewise hits the shuddery spot. But it's the extremely spooky ooga-booga atmosphere with the ever-present pervasive thick mist and ominous chorus of croaking frogs that suddenly become silent which in turn makes this movie so much fun to watch. Well worth seeing.