Oh, it's a night of terror, alright. The script is a terror, the performances are a terror, but the running time is thankfully brief.
A crazed maniac (Edwin Maxwell) is skulking around the countryside, stabbing random people to death and leaving his calling card- newspaper clippings of his own murders. He begins stalking around the Rinehart mansion, where Arthur (George Meeker) has invented a fluid that renders oxygen unnecessary for life (after one hysterical near-attack by the maniac, he should have invented a potion to improve his peripheral vision). He plans to inject it into himself, be buried, and then dug up and brought back to life with a serum. Arthur's benefactor, Richard (Tully Marshall) has reservations about the young scientist. Arthur's fiancee Mary (Sally Blane) thinks he's dreamy if not a little distracted, as she fights off the romantic overtures of jerk reporter Tom (an always annoying Wallace Ford), who basically forces himself on her every chance he gets.
Arthur goes through with his experiment, despite Richard's eventual murder at the hands of the maniac. Richard's will splits his money evenly between his greedy brother John (Bryant Washburn), John's wife (Gertrude Michael), and the help- exotic Degar (Bela Lugosi in a turban) and his wife Sika (Mary Frey), who, as luck would have it, is capable of communicating with the dead. The bodies begin piling up when it's found out that when an heir dies, the money is then split between the other heirs.
First of all, the art direction and set decoration are awesome. The dark old house setting is flawless, and Joseph A. Valentine's cinematography is full of shadows and gray. Stoloff directs a simple but crowded film, with more than enough red herrings to fill the screen. The acting is alright across the board with the exception of the cast's only African-American, driver Martin (an uncredited Oscar Smith). Checking Smith's filmography, he was relegated to porter, shoeshine, and waiter roles through his entire career, and his scared servant shtick is embarrassing. Also embarrassing is Ford's character Tom, who was probably supposed to be flippant and fun, but comes off as a creepy lecher who keeps kissing Mary when she least expects it. I know Ford from a role he had on "The Andy Griffith Show" almost thirty years after this was made, and his demeanor rubbed me the wrong way in that episode as well. The screenplay is strictly on the level of Ed Wood, with Mary seemingly screaming every three minutes, in direct opposition to everyone else's lackadaisical reactions to the bloodshed, and there are a lot of murders here. The last names are similar to each other, confusing me as to who was who- the Rinehart family, reporter Tom Hartley, and professor Arthur Hornsby.
This was considered a lost film for a while, not receiving a home video release, and maybe it should have stayed that way. Definitely for Lugosi completists only, who may be disappointed that he might have top billing, but his role is only supporting.
Stats:
-Directed by Benjamin Stoloff
-Screenplay by Beatrice Van & William Jacobs, based on a story by Willard Mack
-Cast: Bela Lugosi, Wallace Ford, Sally Blane, Bryant Washburn, Tully Marshall, Mary Frey, Gertrude Michael, George Meeker
-Media: Streaming on Amazon Prime
-Running Time: 62 minutes
-Letterboxd rating: (* 1/2/* * * * *); IMDb rating: 3/10
-Not Rated, contains physical violence, some adult situations, tobacco use
