Night Monster is a 1942

1942 in film

The year 1942 in film involved some significant events, in particular the release of a film consistently rated as one of the greatest of all time, Casablanca.-Events:...

 American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 horror film

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

 featuring Bela Lugosi

Béla Lugosi

Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...

 and produced and distributed by Universal Pictures Company

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

. The movie uses an original story and screenplay by Clarence Upson Young and was produced and directed by Ford Beebe

Ford Beebe

Ford Beebe was a screenwriter and director...

. For publicity value, star billing was given to Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill

Lionel Atwill

Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...

, but the lead roles were played by Ralph Morgan

Ralph Morgan

Ralph Morgan was a Hollywood film, stage and character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan .-Early life:...

, Irene Hervey and Don Porter

Don Porter

Donald Porter was an American actor who appeared in a number of films in the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron, but is perhaps best known for his role as Russell Lawrence, the widowed father of 15-year old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence in the 1965 ABC television series...

, with Atwill actually in a character role as a pompous doctor who becomes a victim to the title character, and Lugosi in a small part as a butler who simply disappears from the script about halfway through the film.

Synopsis

In a small Southern town bordering a swampy region, unexplained murders and rumors of mysterious happenings surround the swamp-based home of the reclusive but respected Curt Ingston (Morgan). Ingston uses a wheelchair, and has invited to his home the three doctors who were trying to cure him when his paralysis set in. Already in the household are his grim-humored butler Rolf; a lecherous chauffeur, Lawrie; a mannish housekeeper, Miss Judd; an Eastern mystic, Agar Singh; and Ingston's allegedly mentally-ill sister, Margaret. Outside, the gate is watched by a shrivelled old hunchback called Torque.

Coincident with the arrival of the three male physicians is the appearance of a woman psychiatrist, Dr. Lynn Harper, summoned secretly by Margaret to prove she is not insane and help her secure freedom from the control of Ingstrom and Miss Judd. She arrives accompanied by neighbor mystery-writer Dick Baldwin, who has rescued her after her car's broken down in the swamp. Neither Ingstrom nor Miss Judd welcome her presence, but must contend with keeping her over night until her car can be fixed.

Following dinner, at which Ingstrom's conviction that the three doctors are directly responsible for his current condition, the party witness an exhibition of materialization of an Egyptian skeleton by Agar Singh. Dr. Harper is forbidden to meet with Margaret. Then, one by one, the doctors are frightfully killed as they prepare for bed. Suspecting Ingston, Dick and police Captain Beggs confront him in his room, but discover he is actually not paralyzed but a quadruple amputee. Suspicion then falls on Lawrie, who was last seen driving a murdered ex-employee of the household back to town; but he too winds up dead.

In the climax, Dick confronts the killer outside the estate as he menaces Lynn, and discovers it is Ingston after all: by studying under Agar Singh, he has learned how to materialize arms and legs, hands and feet for himself, long enough to accomplish his evil deeds. As Dick struggles with him to the death, Margaret sets fire to the unholy house, committing suicide while taking the malevolent Miss Judd to the grave with her. As the house burns to the ground, Dick and Lynn are saved by Agar Singh, when Singh shoots Ingston. Only Captain Beggs escaped the burning household.

Cast

Actor	Role
Ralph Morgan Ralph Morgan Ralph Morgan was a Hollywood film, stage and character actor, and the older brother of Frank Morgan .-Early life:...	Curt Ingston
Irene Hervey	Dr. Lynn Harper
Don Porter Don Porter Donald Porter was an American actor who appeared in a number of films in the 1940s, including Top Sergeant and Eagle Squadron, but is perhaps best known for his role as Russell Lawrence, the widowed father of 15-year old Frances "Gidget" Lawrence in the 1965 ABC television series...	Dick Baldwin
Faye Helm	Margaret Ingston
Doris Lloyd Doris Lloyd Hessy Doris Lloyd was an English actress.She appeared in over 150 films between 1920 and 1967, including the 1933 low-budget Monogram Pictures version of Oliver Twist, in which she played Nancy...	Sarah Judd
Leif Erickson Leif Erickson Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...	Lawrie
Nils Asther Nils Asther Nils Anton Alfhild Asther was a Danish-born Swedish actor active in Hollywood from 1926 to the mid 1950s, known for his beautiful face and often called "the male Greta Garbo"...	Agar Singh
Lionel Atwill Lionel Atwill Lionel Atwill was an English stage and film actor born in Croydon, London, England.He studied architecture before his stage debut at the Garrick Theatre, London in 1904. He become a star in Broadway theatre by 1918, and made his screen debut in 1919. He acted on the stage in Australia but was most...	Dr. King
Frank Reicher Frank Reicher Frank Reicher , was a German-born American stage and film actor, director and producer.-Early life:Frank Reicher was born in Munich, Germany, the son of actor Emanuel Reicher and Hedwig Kindermann, a popular German prima donna who was a daughter of the famous baritone August Kindermann...	Dr. Timmons
Francis Pierlot Francis Pierlot Francis Pierlot was a stage and film actor with over 90 film credits.His first film credit was in 1914, but he didn't begin appearing in films full time until 1940 at the age of 63...	Dr. Phipps
Bela Lugosi Béla Lugosi Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó , commonly known as Bela Lugosi, was a Hungarian actor of stage and screen. He was best known for having played Count Dracula in the Broadway play and subsequent film version, as well as having starred in several of Ed Wood's low budget films in the last years of his...	Rolf
Robert Homans	"Cap" Beggs, sheriff