Forde Beebe's NIGHT MONSTER is, for my money, a rather routine old dark house horror movie from Universal. It has all the right elements but they never really come together and Ford Beebe never really gives it the pace that he used to mgive to his serials. It isn't that Beebe is a bad director - he's a workman like most of the directors of this sort of fare and there is no denying that the individual suspense/horror scenes are well handled but the bits in-between tend to drag. There is a more than competent cast which includes both Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill (neither of whom are really given anything to do), Nils Asther, Leif Erikson, Frank Reicher and Don Porter. The female lineup is particularly strong with Irene Harvey, Fay Helm, Doris Lloyd and, best of all, perky little Janet Shaw, who disapears far to early from the proceedings. Rating ** Monday, 22 September 2008
NIGHT MONSTER (1941)
Forde Beebe's NIGHT MONSTER is, for my money, a rather routine old dark house horror movie from Universal. It has all the right elements but they never really come together and Ford Beebe never really gives it the pace that he used to mgive to his serials. It isn't that Beebe is a bad director - he's a workman like most of the directors of this sort of fare and there is no denying that the individual suspense/horror scenes are well handled but the bits in-between tend to drag. There is a more than competent cast which includes both Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill (neither of whom are really given anything to do), Nils Asther, Leif Erikson, Frank Reicher and Don Porter. The female lineup is particularly strong with Irene Harvey, Fay Helm, Doris Lloyd and, best of all, perky little Janet Shaw, who disapears far to early from the proceedings. Rating ** 
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It's been a year or two since I've seen NIGHT MONSTER but I seem to recall that I recall very little about it. Which should speak to the fact that I share everything you said about the film, that is, it's a little ho-hum. I do recall upon watching that box set that I had much more fun with HORROR ISLAND than I did with NIGHT MONSTER sadly. I do also seem to recall that Lugosi and Atwill were fairly wasted in the movie. Wouldn't it have been fun to have those two gentleman shoehorned somewhere into HORROR ISLAND instead?!?!
Although the very mention of HORROR ISLAND brings to mind another "old dark house on an island" movie which I love -- and this one DOES have Atwill as well as the wonderful George Zucco -- called FOG ISLAND! Now, after your posts, I'm foaming at the mouth to have a HORROR ISLAND/FOG ISLAND double feature. Hmm, what's on for tonight's viewing, I wonder. . . .???
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