Excellent, Without a doubt!!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

After a lengthy, rather silly voice-over intro about dreams, THE NIGHT WALKER begins. Irene Trent's (Barbara Stanwyck) blind, jealous, clock-collecting husband, Howard (Hayden Rorke) suspects his wife has been seeing another man. Howard's suspicions are mostly based on his overhearing of Irene's dreams. Soon enough, tragedy strikes, resulting in a spook-o-thon. But wait! Is anything as it appears to be? While this could have been a fascinating experiment in psychological horror, it is instead, another William Castle cheeeze-log. Forever attempting to be another Hitchcock, the terminally un-subtle Castle, unable to help himself, opted for long, dull stretches of nonsense, interrupted by his signature "rubber-mallet-to-the-cranium" approach to suspense. One feels great sorrow for Ms Stanwyck, who must have been wondering what she had done to deserve such a fate as this cinematic absurdity. At one point, her overwrought screams seem to say, "My god! What happened?! I was in DOUBLE INDEMNITY! Noooo!" Actually, the best thing about this movie is the theme music by none other than Vic Mizzy (the genius behind the music for THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN and TV's THE ADDAMS FAMILY). Other than that, expect non-stop malarkey...

Sadly not available on DVD at time of writing, "The Night Walker" seems to be one of William Castles more neglected films. It tells the tale of a woman named Irene,who is haunted by strange recurring dreams, which she eventually cannot distinguish from reality. Is she going mad or is something more sinister happening?As usual with a Castle film, the production is effectively made, even with the evident low budget, the lighting and photography and performances are all well handled. Barbara Stanwyck makes a good effort in the leading role, and the supporting cast is fine too. The story starts off in a fairly intriguing way with a bizarre four and a half minute prologue about dreams that has some superb kitsch imagery, and there are a few chilling moments as Irene starts to experience her weird dreams. As with a lot of William Castle movies there are just a handful of exceptional scare moments that really stand out...I sometimes wonder if this a fluke when he does this, but he can create some of the most delicious scares, such as the blind hag in "House on Haunted Hill" and the mute woman's hallucinations in "The Tingler". Well there are a couple of shriek moments even in this more humble offering, one down to the appearance of a ghoulish figure in fright make-up, and another, when Irene think she has woken up from a dream, only to realise in terror that she has not, and seems incapable of waking up at all, which is quite a deep concept for the general tone of the movie.Sadly at the half way point, things become less dreamlike and more mechanical as a few truths are revealed and the layers of mystery are stripped away. The last 20 minutes does not equal the first hour at all, which may be part of the reason why few people rate this very highly. Still, its a competent and entertaining piece of work, and definitely worth seeing. What a shame it's impossible to find.

This bargain basement Hitchcock plagiarism (from the author of 'Psycho') stars Barbara Stanwyck as an unhappy widow who fears the ghost of her tragically killed husband is trying to drive her insane. But is she truly haunted, or only hallucinating? And who is that tall, dark and handsome stranger who stalks her dreams night after night? There are more plot holes than you'd care to count before the astonishing resolution, but like any guilty pleasure the film is certainly enjoyable in a ludicrous, low rent sort of way. It's all very stylish and improbable, and thrown together (like all good B-movies) with a brazen disregard for logic. Along the way are (surprisingly) one or two truly frightening moments, and the atmospheric (if not exactly subtle) chiaroscuro visual effects are first rate. Don't miss the portentous introductory narration, explaining the psycho-significance of dream imagery.

Howard Trent(Hayden Rorke), hideous face with creepy white eyes, whose cane taps the floor loudly wherever he walks, suspects his wife, Irene(Barbara Stanwyck)of adultery due to her "sleep-talking" embracing her gentleman caller within the realm of blissful fantasy. He suspects that his attorney, and confident, Barry Moreland(the dashing Robert Taylor, always the kind of leading man with the ability to conceal whether he's trustworthy or carrying malicious intent)of being her lover. The third party of the story is private investigator George Fuller, hired by the insanely jealous Howard to follow Irene. When Howard dies in an explosion within his private laboratory, Irene is haunted by dreams/nightmares depicting her dream love(Lloyd Bochner), Howard's interference on her encounters with him and various places that she is taken by her fantasy-man which feel so incredibly & vividly real. With Trent's hesitant assistance(he carries a look of concern for Irene as if wondering whether or not she should see a shrink), Irene seeks answers to the riddles of her dreams and does indeed find that places she was taken to by her dream lover are real, but unlike the way she saw them the night before. Does Irene truly experience real encounters with a real man, or is she truly completely bonkers?Through the wizardry of director William Castle and writer Robert Bloch, this wonderfully campy delight runs the gamut of twists and surprises. They use dreams/nightmares as a psychological tool to craft their tale and we follow Irene's journey through the unusual crisis she faces. I thought Rorke's Howard was perfectly sinister..they really dress him up as a creepy intruder to Irene's serene, while also strange, encounters with her ideal man. Taylor, as I mentioned above, again appears sympathetic to Irene's cause, showing that he would like to believe that what she experiences is true. The third party, Lloyd Bochner has a pivotal role in this flick..his character is the one who leads Irene through all the bizarre scenarios that occur in the supposed dream-world they inhabit. One particular sequence, my favorite of the film, has Bochner's dream man and Irene associated in an eerie ceremony, in a chapel, where the parties involved(priest, pianist & witnesses)are plastic mannequins, interrupted by Howard.The film opens splendidly with a montage of images with the deep resonant voice of the narrator asking us, "What are your dreams" What do they mean? What do you know about the secret world you visit when you sleep?" It goes on for minutes and I can imagine the groaning of many having to sit through it. But, I thought it was hokey, well-intentioned fun. Babs' histrionics might make her devoted fans cringe, and her character is a bit naive, but she's always a pleasure to watch. I've read that many compare this film to Babs to Crawford's final role in TROG, but I think that's way off base. If you love William Castle and know what to expect(..gorgeous B&W moody cinematography, a plethora of red herrings piled on each other, schlocky & gimmicky narrative), this should be right up your alley.