NIGHT MONSTER: it's got all the parts but they don't come together

This 1942 B-movie from Universal Studios is definitely not the best horror film ever made but it does contain all the elements essential to any self-respecting horror movie released during Hollywood's golden age.

There's the sprawling mansion located in the middle of nowhere, prone to fog, and surrounded by uninhabited countryside that could be England, somewhere in middle Europe or - more likely - some scrubland just east of Los Angeles. There's the owner of said mansion (Ralph Morgan), a crippled, slightly foreign accented, wealthy recluse who may or may not be the harmless old man he appears to be. There's the sinister housekeeper - a mean-spirited, pale skinned hard faced spinster in a severe black dress. There's the equally malevolent butler (Bela Lugosi), creepy and heavily accented who may or may not be the killer. There's the female ingenue Lynn (Irene Hervey), innocent, helpless, pretty, and all too willing to yield her independence to the young, eager, enthusiastic all-American  leading man Dick (Don Porter) who gets drawn into the murder mystery and solves it while simultaneously romancing the ingenue by putting moves on her that would these days be classified as sexual harassment.
But wait that's not all!
Just to spice things up a little there's also the exotic, mysterious and strangely accented foreigner Agor Singh (played by Swedish actor Nils Asther) who dabbles in Eastern mysticism and also may or may not be the killer. And there's the menacing, hulking, lecherous chauffeur (a very young Leif Erikson) who has his own designs on the ingenue and consequently develops an instantly, possibly murderous, dislike of Dick. The killer - the titular NIGHT MONSTER - of course remains unseen except by those about to meet their doom and too terrified to cry out. This allows him/her to bump off residents of the mansion with a speed and deftness that would leave serial killers breathless with admiration.
All this plays out in just 73 short minutes - and I haven't even mentioned the ethically challenged, self important medical doctors (the wonderful Lionel Atwill among them) lured to the mansion under false pretenses.
So why don't all the ingredients gel to form a satisfying whole?
To put it bluntly, there's too much Dick and not enough Bela and Lionel. Lugosi is top billed but the butler is very much a supporting part and there's nothing in the character for the former 'Dracula' star to sink his teeth into. Atwill, as the most pompous of the three medics, is similarly underwritten and thirty minutes in he simply walks out of a scene never to be seen or referred to again. Which leaves us with the bland smarmy Dick and the tiresome Lynn running around the house, always one step behind the killer.

It's the film's nonchalant attitude to multiple homicides that I found its most fascinating aspect. As the bodies pile up Dick and the clueless local sheriff, Constable Capp Beggs, become increasingly blase. By body number three Beggs is diagnosing cause of death simply by looking at the corpse from several feet away, and makes not the slightest effort to search for clues or preserve the crime scene. 
These frequent murders are no substitute for genuine suspense, and that's what NIGHT MONSTER is lacking. Without suspense there's no real sense of fear and without fear the film's not scary. Universal churned out so many of these cheap and quickly made horror movies in the early 1940s that it would have been impossible to get the mix just right every time. This was not one of those times but there's still just enough to hold the attention and provoke thoughts of what might have been with a little more creativity.