AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Protraph Lack of good storyline.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

jonwash The ending of this movie has stuck with me to this day, over 50 years later. I was convince I was being talked to. For years I searched to this movie but never really knew the title. It is not the greatest movie ever but it is still fun to watch. Got the DVD

calvinnme A dark house chiller from Columbia with all of the usual ingredients - serial nutso killer running loose (called "The Maniac" by newspaper headlines), an isolated house in the countryside, with a (constantly) screaming heroine, mysterious servants, one liking to peer into crystal balls and go into trances and make proclamations of death coming soon, a wiseguy newspaper reporter who bursts out gleefully "Boy, what a story" every time another dead body turns up and a hard nose detective who doesn't have a clue.Oh, yes, "comedy relief" is supplied by a black chauffeur who gets scared really easily. When asked what he would do if he met "The Maniac," the chauffeur replies, "I would become famous. I would become the first man to fly without wings." (Truth is, that might be the best line of dialogue in the film).These kind of films are easy to poke fun at and also, on occasion, fun, if you happen to like this kind of film genre (which I do).This particular film benefits, though, from a pretty good cast, with Bela Lugosi top billed over the title. Bela plays Degar, a manservant, dressed all in black, including a black turban. Oh, he's mysterious alright, in that ominous Lugosi way, but is he just a red herring? He has a sister, Sika (played by Mary Frey in her only film role), and she's even spookier. She's the one going into trances (yes, at one moment in this film they do have a seance with Sika the star of the show). Guess what? One of the participants holding hands at the table won't make it through the seance without a knife in the back.It's pretty Sally Blane (Loretta Young's sister) as the screamer and Wallace Ford as the reporter with the snappy one liners and an overly pleased manner whenever a new corpse turns up. There's also Tully Marshall as the owner of the mansion (Bela keeps calling him "Master"). I remembered Tully getting knocked off in the silent version of the similar Cat and the Canary and kept counting the minutes before his character would do the same in this one."The Maniac" (who carries an oversized knife) keeps popping up throughout this film, peering through bushes with a scarred face and demented smile full of sharp teeth, climbing through windows and, generally, keeping everyone on their toes, until he lays a few of them out at their feet, that is.Night of Terror does have a bit of originality with one of the occupants of the house, a scientist (George Meeker) who plans on having himself buried alive in a coffin on their property in an experiment to see if, with an antidote administered eight hours later, he will still be alive. Fun kid. Needless to say, things don't go as expected, but the writing here at least fooled me a little. Nuff said.Night of Terror can be found if you scrounge around the internet - there's a chopped up version in installments on You Tube, but you're probably better to go to dailymotion.com for a one hour version of this thriller. So far not even Alpha Video has bothered with this one.

kevin olzak 1933's "Night of Terror" is distinguished by the top billed presence of Bela Lugosi, plus its status as the very first bona-fide horror film from Columbia Pictures, part of the SON OF SHOCK television package that enjoyed widespread success in the late 50s. Perhaps this is the reason why so many disparate elements get shoehorned into the film; an old dark house setting, a prowling maniac who has already claimed an impressive 12 victims, a scientist who creates a serum that will suspend life, intending to have himself be buried alive to prove its effectiveness. Like "Doctor X," there is the presence of an obnoxious reporter, but in the casting of Wallace Ford he is slightly more likable. The leading lady is Sally Blane, lovely older sister of Loretta Young, quite the best thing to see, as Lugosi is given precious little to do as skulking Hindu servant Degar, who at least is involved in the climax, as in the 1939 "The Gorilla." Bela would soon work with Loretta Young herself in "The Devil's in Love," and with elder sister Polly Ann Young in 1941's "Invisible Ghost" (he would be plagued by Wallace Ford at Monogram, in 1935's "The Mysterious Mr. Wong" and 1943's "The Ape Man"). The role of the Maniac is credited to Edwin Maxwell, who destroyed Lionel Atwill's masterworks in the earlier "Mystery of the Wax Museum," and it is clearly his voice we hear in the final scene, regardless of whether he was doubled or not (Dave O'Brien plays the first on screen victim). "Night of Terror" made two appearances on Pittsburgh's Chiller Theater, Jan 8 1966 (following the 1933 classic "The Invisible Man"), and Aug 3 1968 (following the 1966 British "Invasion").

MARIO GAUCI This Columbia "B" thriller features many of the typical 'old dark house' trappings (which proliferated throughout the late 20s up till the mid-30s) and is therefore quite predictable; still, the denouement is rather effective – and it's all capped by an amusing (if hammy) interpolation by the maniac killer of the main narrative, which sees him coming back to life to warn cinema patrons not to reveal the twist ending! A mere two years after his runaway success with Dracula (1931), the film already sees Bela Lugosi reduced to playing thankless roles because, even though he receives sole above-the-title billing here, the horror icon's presence constitutes a red herring and nothing more (the way he's made to intimidate his spiritualist wife during a séance proves especially pointless) and is further hindered by the unflattering Hindu attire (turban, gypsy earrings) he is saddled with throughout. Frankly, after having seen several films of Lugosi's (and with a handful more coming up), I still can't make up my mind whether his unique (i.e. sluggish and heavily-accented) delivery of lines is an asset or a liability! To get back to the 'monster' of the film, again, his involvement results to be irrelevant to the central mystery (with an inheritance at stake, members of a wealthy family are getting bumped off one by one): familiar heavy-set character actor Edwin Maxwell is credited with playing the role, but he was unrecognizable behind the make-up. Lovely Sally Blane (who happens to be Loretta Young's sister!) and Wallace Ford (insufferable as the fast-talking reporter hero, a role he virtually reprised in a later Lugosi cheapie – THE APE MAN [1943]) provide the obligatory romantic interest; another requisite – and equally resistible – is the politically incorrect comedy relief supplied by the household's 'scaredy cat' black chauffeur. Given a somewhat harsh BOMB rating by Leonard Maltin, I knew not to expect much from the film – but, ultimately, it's a harmless way to kill 60 minutes or so…and, in any case, the script does come up with a handful of undeniably hilarious lines: when a delegation of scientists arrives at the mansion to assist to a dangerous experiment, the chauffeur remarks that they look like undertakers – later, when he sees these same men transport a coffin in which his current master is about to be buried alive, he observes that he had been right all along!; driven as much by jealousy as the promise of a scoop, Ford bursts into the household to see Blane – noticing four other hats in the parlor (belonging to the illustrious guests), he asks her whether she had been entertaining the Marx Bros.; when the bodies start piling up and the police is called on the scene, Ford offers his help but is told off by the investigating officer – however, on asking for the generalities of all the persons in the room, the response of one of the scientists comes in the form of an unpronounceable foreign name and, so, the befuddled cop gladly relinquishes the writing duties to the newspaperman!; still, my favorite bit is when a hand-cuffed Lugosi asks the detective guarding him if he can smoke, and the latter – with quite unwarranted hostility – snaps back "I don't care if you burn!"