You won't be disappointed!

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

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.

Bowery At Midnight has Bela Lugosi cast as a psychology professor who doubles as a master criminal using a Bowery mission as a blind for his activities. It was a great role for Lugosi and perfectly illustrative of the tragedy of that man's career. In fact the part once again proves that Bela could go way beyond the horror genre if needed though there is a bit of ghoulishness provided by someone else in the cast.If this had been done at major studio with a tighter script and infinitely better sets, this could have become a classic. Lugosi gives a great performance and he was followed closely here by Tom Neal who plays a truly malevolent and murderous hood. The lack of continuity that so typified a Monogram product is present here, especially when you find out that someone who Neal shot at point blank range is quite alive at the end of the film. Lugosi really carries this one to stratospheric ratings for a Monogram film. Bowery At Midnight sad to say had some unrealized potential.

Kindly soup kitchen operator and professor of criminology Bela Lugosi uses his soup kitchen as a front for a criminal gang who commit a series of daring robberies and murders.The biggest problem with this film, at least for me, is that it has fallen into public domain and nobody has come along to clean it up. I understand the process might be costly, and it would be a labor of love because this film will never be a big seller. But that is what it needs. The acting is solid, the plot is strong... it just looks like a 1920s rather than 1940s film, and that is a travesty.Bela Lugosi made some stinkers in his day, but this is not one of them. Although I only gave the film an "average" score, I could bump it up a bit if the film was properly restored to full glory. Have a film historian or Lugosi biographer do a commentary track on top of it, and you would have a decent disc. Just saying.

One of the best of Bela's Monograms, mostly due to it's total craziness. This is the 5th of Bela's nine Mongrams' and by the looks of it, the plot was SO twisted the censors were just about ready to toss up there hands in incomprehension..and ignored stuff they might have nailed in years past. How else do we account for Bela's angry line about cats 'DESECRATING' his graves?? (Yeah, that's the word he uses. Not 'digging in'. It might be the first time a movie character complained about cats using graves as a litter box..) And it's not the only eyebrow raising thing...there is a sick creepy vibe that runs through this thing..really neat, actually. The plot has Bela doing multiple roles and defies logic or description. He kills folks in lots of scams and buries them in the basement in clearly marked graves with CROSSES no less...and has a drug addicted ex doctor side kick who has created zombies in the sub basement..(got that??) He also has the ability to work all night while telling his doting wife he is really writing, and then turn around and go back to run a soup kitchen or class room...Maybe the speed he would HAVE to take to DO such feats has fried his mind... But the cast and crew...this is one from your dreams. Fox, and Schnitzer directed and wrote CORPSE VANISHES from last time. Vince Barnett, also from CORPSE, is along for the ride. Archer made KING OF THE ZOMBIES..a flick that Bela was SUPPOSED to have made and SHOULD HAVE...Leading lady Wanda MacKay came back for VOODOO MAN, and keep your eye out for Ralph Littlefield...he's the friendly guy playing checkers and graduates next time to a pivotal role in THE APE MAN. You also get Tom Neal from DETOUR and Dave ("Play it FASTER!!") OBrien from REEFER MADNESS. It's one of the best Poverty Row casts ever assembled. And Bela is clearly DIGGING it...he gets KICKS out of double crossing folks and shooting them in cold blood, getting them pushed off roofs...the man is positively GLEEFULL. Now, of course, you HAVE to have the ALLS WELL THAT ENDS WELL ending so Archer SOMEHOW comes back and marries MacKay, but you won't forget those graves...or the cat