BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT (1942) Bela Lugosi & John Archer | Horror, Crime | Colorized | Old Hollywood

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Bowery at Midnight is a 1942 American Monogram Pictures horror film directed by Wallace Fox and starring Bela Lugosi and John Archer. The film was re-released by Astor Pictures in 1949.

Synopsis

Lugosi plays a psychology professor by day who, secretly and under an assumed name, runs a Bowery soup kitchen by night called the Bowery Friendly Mission. Lugosi's character uses his soup kitchen as a means to recruit members of a criminal gang, of which he is also secretly the head. Throughout the film, one of Lugosi's henchmen, a doctor who seems to be an alcoholic drug addict, alludes to having plans for the corpses of henchmen Lugosi has had killed. Then, at the end of the film, these corpses are revealed to have been restored to life by the doctor. Lugosi's character meets his demise when the doctor leads the unwitting Lugosi into a basement room where the reanimated corpses attack him. Towards the end of the film, the male lead, played by John Archer, appears to be killed and mysteriously reanimated, in which state his girlfriend sees him. Then, in the film's final scene, he appears restored to his former health, and not like a zombie at all, and is about to (or already has) marry his girlfriend.

In one scene, with two policemen talking outside a cinema, a movie poster outside the cinema entrance behind them advertises Bela Lugosi in The Corpse Vanishes, another Lugosi horror film also released in 1942.

Cast & Crew

Bela Lugosi as Professor Brenner, also known as Karl Wagner
John Archer as Richard Dennison
Wanda McKay as Judy Malvern
Tom Neal as Frankie Mills
Vince Barnett as Charley
Anna Hope as Mrs. Brenner
John Berkes as Fingers Dolan
J. Farrell MacDonald as Capt. Mitchell
Dave O'Brien as Peter Crawford
Lucille Vance as Mrs. Malvern
Lew Kelly as Doc Brooks
Wheeler Oakman as Stratton
Ray Miller as Big Man
Bernard Gorcey as the used clothing shop proprietor

Director: Wallace Fox
Writer: Gerald Schnitzer
Producers:
Sam Katzman
Jack Dietz

Cinematography: Mack Stengler
Editing: Carl Pierson
Music: Edward J. Kay
Production Company: Banner Productions
Distributed by: Monogram Pictures
Release Date: October 1, 1942
Running Time: 60 or 63 minutes
Country: United States
Language: English