Night Monster *** (1942, Bela Lugosi, Ralph Morgan, Don Porter, Irene Hervey, Lionel Atwill, Nils Asther, Leif Erickson, Frank Reicher, Francis Pierlot) – Classic Movie Review 13,914

Universal Pictures’ 1942 American black-and-white horror film Night Monster features ‘Mystery’s Greatest Thrill Team’ Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill as a grim butler and a doctor in peril, but stars Ralph Morgan, Don Porter and Irene Hervey.

Director Ford Beebe’s 1942 American black-and-white Universal Pictures horror film Night Monster [House of Mystery] stars Bela Lugosi, Ralph Morgan, Don Porter, Irene Hervey, Lionel Atwill, Nils Asther, Leif Erickson, and Frank Reicher. The original story and screenplay are by Clarence Upson Young, though it is greatly indebted to 1932’s Doctor X, both films featuring Atwill as a doctor and ending the same.

A shadowy character is murdering the three surgeons (Lionel Atwill as Dr King, Frank Reicher as Dr Timmons, Francis Pierlot as Dr Phipps) who have amputated the legs of a man, Kurt Ingston (Ralph Morgan), after he has invited them to his creepy house in the swamps.

Night Monster is a thoroughly entertaining, eerie, bizarre chiller, with a good mystery – well an amputee can’t be committing the murders, can he? – and an unusual twist. There is enjoyable acting from all involved, but it is the tremendous Bela Lugosi, in one of his lesser and less well-known roles, who receives star billing as Rolf, the grim and menacing butler, with Lionel Atwill second on the poster, while Ralph Morgan, Don Porter, Irene Hervey have the main roles. Indeed, Universal advertised it as ‘NIGHT MONSTER with Mystery’s Greatest Thrill Team: Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill’.

English actor Cyril Delevanti plays a shrivelled old hunchback called Torque, who watches the gate outside the house. Also in the creepy house are lecherous chauffeur Laurie (Leif Erickson), mannish housekeeper Miss Judd (Doris Lloyd), Eastern mystic Agar Singh (Nils Asther) and Ingston’s allegedly mentally ill sister Margaret (Fay Helm). Arriving on the scene too is psychiatrist Dr Lynne Harper, summoned secretly by Margaret to prove she is not insane 

It is a ripe collection indeed.

Cast: stars Bela Lugosi, Ralph Morgan, Don Porter, Irene Hervey, Lionel Atwill, Nils Asther, Leif Erickson, Frank Reicher, Fay Helm, Doris Lloyd, Francis Pierlot, Robert Homans, Janet Shaw, Eddie Waller, and Cyril Delevanti.

Night Monster [House of Mystery] runs 73 minutes, is made and released by Universal Pictures, is written by Clarence Upson Young (original story and screenplay), is shot in black and white by Charles Van Enger, is produced by Ford Beebe, is scored by Charles Previn, Hans J Salter and Frank Skinner, and is designed by Jack Otterson.

Night Monster was shot from July 6, 1942 to the end of July 1942, and was released on 23 October 1942 in a double bill with The Mummy’s Tomb.

[Spoiler alert] Kurt Ingston’s hairy hands and feet are the same makeup and props created by Jack Pierce for The Wolf Man (1941). Also the foggy forest scene behind the opening credits is the opening one from The Wolf Man.

The Ingston family’s big black limousine driven by the chauffeur chauffeur Laurie (Leif Erickson) is a 1930 Duesenberg Model J Custom Berline, manufactured in Indianapolis, Indiana. It appears in many Hollywood films, including Some Like It Hot (1959). The Duesenberg was fully restored In the 2010s, painted burgundy with a black top and fenders, and sold at auction for $1,016,500 in August 2013.

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,914

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