Bowery at Midnight (1942)

Bowery at Midnight
Starring: Bela Lugosi, John Archer, Wanda McKay
Director: Wallace Fox
Genre: Thriller
Year: 1942
My rating: 

This is a decent movie, provided that you try not to think about it for very long. BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT (1942) gives Bela Lugosi an opportunity of playing three roles: a mild-mannered college professor, a generous philanthropist, and a ruthless cutthroat crime-boss (he's not playing different characters; he's playing one character who lives a double life... I mean... triple life). Lugosi's a good enough actor to successfully pull this off, but the script doesn't do him any favors.

Judy and her smug, pompous boyfriend Richard don't realize it, but they both know Bela Lugosi's character. Judy knows him as Karl Wagner, a gentle soul -- a man who cheerfully donates his time running a soup kitchen in an extremely impoverished area. Richard is a bland college boy, enrolled in a psychology class taught by Lugosi's Professor Fredrick Brenner. Neither of them realizes that Bela Lugosi appears in both their lives. Nor do they suspect him of being a criminal mastermind, who somehow manages to keep his hideout (disguised in the back of the soup kitchen) fully staffed with villains even though he seems to kill off a heavy during each robbery. (How do his underlings not realize that eventually he's going to kill them? Don't they notice that every thug around them is being bumped off?)

This film is only 62 minutes long, and it makes no attempts at being anything except a fun diversion. It's a standard, straightforward thriller with a slight supernatural element. I didn't find it particularly scary or horrific, but it's absorbing enough. It's strange that I could clearly notice how clueless the characters would have to be to do some of the things they do; yet I was still interested in seeing how everything turned out. Oddly, it's Bela Lugosi's deceitful and murderous character who turns out to be the most likable. Richard and Judy are far far too boring to cheer for.

In addition to the characters' extreme density, the script contains several portions that just don't make much sense. Or at least don't give the audience enough to figure out why things are happening. I don't need everything spelled out for me, but a little explanation would have gone a long way. Using the soup kitchen as a front for criminal activities makes sense, but why does he hide the charity from his wife?

Why bother splitting the nice, kindly professor identity away from the nice, kindly soup kitchen owner identity? Which is the "real" personality? Why does Richard give differing accounts of his future term paper to the professor and to his girlfriend? Obviously he's lying to one or the other, but why bother? (It's vaguely implied that he's telling the truth to Judy and lying to the professor about what he's writing. I can't recommend that as a successful way of getting a decent grade at the end of the semester.)

I'm reviewing the Digiview edition of this DVD, and after viewing several of the discs from that company, I can only assume that they don't hire a copy editor for the text on the back cover. Despite the written summary, Judy (Wanda McKay) is not Professor Brenner's student.

The picture on this Digiview disc is a little murky in places, but its perfectly viewable. The sound quality can be muffled at times, but, again, it's definitely acceptable.

The script relies far too heavily on unbelievable coincidences. Judy and Richard just happen to know the same man. Every major criminal in the city randomly wanders into Wagner's soup kitchen. Still, I had fun while watching and that counts for a lot. The fact that it's so short helps. Extended for another hour, these flaws would be more than enough to sink the film. As it stands now, it doesn't fully add up but it's definitely an entertaining hour.