Bowery at Midnight (1942)

Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Bela Lugosi uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders.

Director:

Wallace Fox

Writers:

Gerald Schnitzer (original story), Gerald Schnitzer (screenplay)

Stars:

Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay

Cast

Cast overview:
Bela Lugosi	...	Professor Brenner aka Karl Wagner
John Archer	...	Richard Dennison
Wanda McKay	...	Judy Malvern
Tom Neal	...	Frankie Mills
Vince Barnett	...	Charley
Anna Hope	...	Mrs. Brenner
John Berkes	...	Fingers Dolan
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Capt. Mitchell
Dave O'Brien	...	Pete Crawford
Lucille Vance	...	Mrs. Malvern
Lew Kelly	...	Doc Brooks
Wheeler Oakman	...	Stratton
Ray Miller	...	Big Man

Storyline

Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Karl Wagner uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders. When things get out of hand, Wagner kills his henchmen, who wind up as zombies in the cellar of the soup kitchen.

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Plot Keywords:

back from the dead | romantic rivalry | schizophrenia | dual identity | the bowery manhattan new york city | 

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Taglines:

The monster and the ghoul! One deals in wholesale murder...the other serves as a torture-master of the living dead! See it and shudder!

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Genres:

Crime | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the background of one scene there is a poster for the movie The Corpse Vanishes (1942) which stars Bela Lugosi.

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Goofs

When Pete is leaving the 45th Precinct house and is talking to the retiring detective, a shadow of the boom microphone is visible on the wall behind them.

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Quotes

Prof. Frederick Brenner, alias Karl Wagner: Buck! How often have I told you to keep that cat from desecrating my graves?

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Connections

Featured in Lugosi: Hollywood's Dracula (1997)

User Reviews

Interesting Monogram Thriller

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

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 October 1942 (USA)

Also Known As:

Burial at Midnight

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sam Katzman Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

61 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1