The Bowery At Midnight

What's that smell in the basement?
Bowery at Midnight (1942) stars Bela Lugosi in one of his many 'poverty row' films, a time when Lugosi was on the outs with the major studios and subsequently worked with independent studios like Monogram and PRC. Directed by Wallace Fox (the back of the box mistakenly says Wallace 'Cox'), most known for his westerns, who also directed another one of Lugosi's low-end films called The Corpse Vanishes (1942). Bela plays three roles in this film, a kindly soup kitchen operator on skid row, a psychology professor and loving husband, and finally a vicious crime lord (I kept wondering when this character found time to sleep).

Basically the plot runs that Bela runs a soup kitchen, enlisting the aid of various criminal elements that pass through to perform heists, jobs, scores, whatever, while maintaining a secret life as a educator...once an individual outlives his usefulness in Lugosi's crime organization, that individual is then eliminated, keeping turnover high and costs...

DVD Tranfer from a less than spectacular source print
This is the first Alpha Video DVD I have purchased and I must say, "you get what you pay for." Yes, this DVD is cheap, but it isn't entirely worthless. The source print for the DVD is from an Astor Pictures rerelease. There are several scratches, but the picture is pretty clear. The sound is not perfect, but typical of the Monogram pictures of the period. There are some annoying splices that break some of the dialogue.

The film itself is probably in the middle of the pack of Lugosi's Monogram programmers. Not the best, but certainly far superior to his two East Side Kids films. Lugosi plays a man leading a double life, one a college professor and the other as a ruthless gangster. Not really a true horror picture other than the drug addicted doctor that works for Lugosi.

Just a couple of more comments about Alpha Video. There are no extras on this DVD and there are only 4 chapters (and they don't even cover the entire film!). Also amusing is that the website listed on the...

Good Script . . . Excellent Bela
One item few fans know about Bela Lugosi is that, in his spare time, he was an excellent gourmet cook. Give him a few ingredients, a little time, and he could give the Iron Chef a run for his money. This philosophy also influenced Lugosi's films. Quite often he was called upon to make a decent meal from scattered leftovers. Sometimes his main ingredient would be a portion of ham, depending on the film involved. But, give him a good script and he shone like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day.

"Bowery at Midnight" gives Lugosi a chance to stretch his acting legs. He plays a character who uses three different guises during the course of the film. By day he is a respected professor of criminal psychology as the City University. In his spare time, he is a kindly do-gooder who runs a soup kitchen in the Bowery. But we soon learn this is a cover for his real persona, a snarling, ruthless crime boss who mistreats everyone who had the bad fortune to work for him. Work for this Lugosi...

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