Night of Terror (1933)

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.

This film has a weak story built on two gimmicks. (There are additional gimmicks to the film, but I count two to the story as such.) The first is a sort of locked-room aspect to the murder mystery, with the topology turned inside-out. The second is hiding of one string of murders,by one perpetrator, within another string of murders by another perpetrator.But these two gimmicks are not themselves an hour's worth of story, and the story here built around them is not simply weak but incoherent.Now, I would here insert that I don't know that WIlliam Mack, given the story credit here, actually produced this story. He might have produced a very fine story, only to have it mauled by Columbia into the story used for this film.In any case, on top of the weak story was built a weak script. For example, it is ultimately revealed that the first victim of the second murderer was killed because of his suspicions towards about another person, but his actions concerning a third person are quite inconsonant with those suspicious. An effort is made to cast narrative suspicion on another character by having him express himself in implausible ways. A romantic triangle is sustained only by having the female lead repeatedly cheat on her fiancé. And some ostensible comedy is provided by having the one black character be inept, cowardly, and superstitious.Much of the acting in this film is actually quite good, in spite of the poor script. The clear exceptions would be the performance of Edwin Maxwell (which was like something out of a Dwain Esper production, and possibly exactly what the director asked of Maxwell), that of Lugosi (who seems to be just walking through the material), and that of Oscar Smith (who wasn't getting screen credit anyway, in spite of doing more than some of the actors who were).

This film has a special interest to me because it was the only one with my grandmother, Mary Frey, on screen. It has all of the usual old spooky house elements with lots of screams and surprises. Along with this there are the stock incompetent police, and elements of classic farce. But I think the director had some fun with these elements. Check out the scenes with the grinning skeleton. With all of the special effects now available we can't take this film seriously, but we can laugh at the clichés. One notable flaw is the music which does not go well with some of the scenes. It is way too upbeat when it should be communicating mystery. However, it is very soft so it is not obtrusive.The séance scene has a little history. According to my father it was filmed during an aftershock of the Long Beach earthquake. But the actors were stage professionals and kept going despite the heavy lights swaying over their heads. The director was so impressed by the intent expressions that he said it was perfect with no retakes needed.OK, the characters are one dimensional, but that is common in this genre. Lugosi has ample opportunity to use dramatic facial expressions and outbursts. Very small children may find this movie frightening. The only available copy from Sinister Cinema is a fairly good, but soft focus print.

If I were going to list the ten best films Bela Lugosi appeared in, this would be one of them. This film has everything, including sliding panels, secret tunnels, mysterious visitors, sudden and horrifying killings, a seance where a murder occurs, bizarre characters, bizarre behavior such as the clipping of newspapers on the bodies of victims, and a rampaging misanthrope called The Maniac with a distorted, hair-raising face that would frighten the proverbial "boogieman". The bizarre ending in which the true murderer is revealed is a delight. (I won't reveal it here). Also the last scene in which The Maniac comes back to life is classic.10 out of 10.Dan Basinger