Many have said that this Monogram quickie has Lugosi leading a double life, but upon further review, it can be said he leads 4! When you combine that with a basement full of zombies he doesn't even know about, that's a lot of action for an hour and one minute.Lugosi plays Professor Brenner, a respected college teacher who has a wife. What he doesn't tell anyone is that he is also Karl Wagner the benign owner of a soup kitchen on the bowery. However, beyond that, he is also the leader of an underground criminal organization. And beyond that, if one wants to take it seriously he is also Bela Lugosi – In a scene early in the film when two of the characters are in front of a movie theater you can very clearly see Lugosi on a poster for "The Corpse Vanishes", his previous Monogram film. So, there you have it – four lives, or one really busy one. Tom Neal's character says it best about Lugosi in an absolutely hysterical line, "I've never seen a guy with more angles."Lugosi perhaps was never more ruthless than he is here. He literally throws unknowing people off buildings, orders his assistants in crime murdered and without a hesitation even murders his poor wife. If you like seeing Lugosi play bad, look no further. I had avoided this one for years as I'm not a big fan of his very low budget films (and from the title I thought the Bowery Boys were in it), but this may be the last film he did where he looks in his prime physical form. His hair has the classic slicked-back look; his performance is dedicated; and he even throws in some touching moments with his wife and during his bad dreams that you wonder if his character really wants to get away from this crazy life he leads.Of course, the writing doesn't try to explain anything. Why bother leading all these lives? Does it get on his conscience? Why not quit being a professor and just be a crime leader and use the soup kitchen as a front? And how and why the hell are their zombies in this film? They don't even serve a purpose. If you ask me that's the fun in watching a 1930s and 1940s B-movie. You're not supposed to think. You are supposed to suspend all belief and just be entertained. Tom Neal is great as Frankie Mills – you really believe he's a killer; Director Wallace Fox could not keep the pace quicker and with an overtone of harshness that suits the subject just fine. And in this film you are being entertained by the number one bad guy in these kinds of low budget films from that era. So if you are reading this review, seek this one out, sit back, don't think and enjoy and tip your hat to Lugosi when you're done.

Economical tale of split personality psychologist and lecturer (Lugosi), who moonlights as the manager of a soup kitchen, itself a front for a bizarre burglary racket where destitute criminals find the end of their road in shady basement deals. When a wealthy student of Lugosi (Archer) elects to research the plight of the under privileged as part of his thesis, he inadvertently stumbles upon a macabre experiment being conducted in the soup kitchen.Lugosi is professional and assured in comfortable characterisation as the slightly unhinged professor, whose double life of contrasts services both his demented perversions, and the need to study his affliction more closely. The supporting cast including John Archer as the arrogant rich kid, oblivious to those less well-off and Hollywood bad-man Tom Neal as a psychopathic killer eager to accept Lugosi's murderous invitation, performs well alongside the inimitable presence of master horror specialist Lugosi.Ghoulish and atmospheric, it's obviously not going to satisfy most of today's tastes, but if you're familiar and comfortable with the vintage horror flicks and need a fast-paced mystery for entertainment, you could do a lot worse than "Bowery at Midnight".

In the 1942 Monogram horror cheapie "Bowery at Midnight," Bela Lugosi plays quite the enterprising fellow, not just moonlighting...but double moonlighting! By day, he works as a college psychology professor named Frederick Brenner. By night, under his Karl Wagner alias, he runs a soup kitchen/hospital for the poor in NYC's Bowery. But wait...as Wagner, he is also the mastermind of a burglary ring that has lately been scourging the area. This ring is small in number, as Wagner has a habit of killing off one of his henchmen every time a heist is performed, and burying him in his basement...with named placards in lieu of headstones, no less! Anyway, the picture has been competently directed by Wallace Fox, who had already worked with Bela on two previous Monogram films, "Spooks Run Wild" ('41) and "The Corpse Vanishes" ('42); I wonder how this director would have fared with a budget larger than a few thousand bucks, some shoestrings and two bottle caps. In a relatively no-name cast, Tom Neal, playing Bela's sadistic gunsel, is a welcome presence; he would, of course, go on to achieve cult status by dint of his work in that truly bizarre film noir, "Detour" ('45). "Bowery at Midnight," at 63 minutes, never wears out its welcome, despite some occasional lame humor, incredibly chintzy sets and an unfortunate dependence on unlikely coincidence. (Really, what are the odds of Wagner's soup kitchen assistant being the fiancée of one of Brenner's students?) I mentioned up top that this is a horror film, but honestly, the only genuine horror elements here are Bela himself and the fact that his drunken doctor pal manages, inexplicably, to bring all his buried victims back to life. And speaking of inexplicable, just what is the deal with that map of Australia that Wagner keeps on his wall? Best not to ask such questions, I suppose. Just sit back and enjoy the spectacle of one of our true horror icons essentially playing three different roles in one hour. From a Poverty Row studio, that really IS value for money!

Wow, did this little B-movie have a complicated plot! First, Bela Lugosi operates a soup kitchen in the Bowery for hobos. Second, he uses criminals who come into this soup kitchen to commit various crimes. Third, he eventually kills these criminals and gives the bodies to his friend "the doctor". Fourth, he is in reality a psychology professor who teaches at a nearby college. Fifth, he has a wife who he loves and treats very well. What a very complex character--perhaps too much for just one character--more like three or four characters! While all this strains reason, it also is a reworking of another Lugosi movie from just two years earlier. In DARK EYES OF London, Lugosi is an insurance agent who is also the benefactor for a home for the blind. However, this social service organization, like the soup kitchen, is a cover for theft and murder! And in both cases, he uses residents of the programs to do his evil bidding! Of the two films, DARK EYES OF London is probably the better film since the plot isn't so convoluted and overly complex. Plus the graphic details of the murders really make DARK EYES a very scary film, indeed. With BOWERY AT MIDNIGHT, the film just seemed too complicated and silly. Still, it was very entertaining and for fans of Lugosi and B-horror pictures, it's well worth a look.By the way, among the many murders Lugosi commits or orders, the one involving poor Vince Barnett is amazing and made the film really exciting and creepy. Watch for this scene at the top of a building during a robbery committed by cold and sinister Tom Neal.