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.

STAMBOUL QUEST: the puppy and the pulchritudinous

1934's STAMBOUL QUEST is not one of MGM's finest productions but it does have two things going for it, and one of them is the deliciously beautiful Myrna Loy.
Made immediately after she had completed the first 'Thin Man' movie and therefore before she had become etched into the public's consciousness as the witty, sophisticated, stylish and distinctly up-market Nora Charles, she plays a character who is brazenly sexual and not above showing a generous amount of skin if it'll advance her cause.

Set in Germany and Turkey in 1915 she plays legendary German counter espionage spy Fraulein Doktor. Recalled to Berlin she's handed her most important assignment - to uncover proof that the Turkish commander of the Dardanelles is passing vital military information to the British. Success could alter the whole course of the war, but her mission is complicated by an ardent American suitor who just won't take no for an answer.
A pre-Warner Brothers leading man George Brent plays the American lothario and does so to the detriment of the picture. He's everything that Loy isn't and not in a good way. Brent's medical student Douglas Beall is an over-excited puppy yapping at the heels of the alluring Fraulein, desperate to get her attention and show him some affection. About the only thing he doesn't do is pee on the carpet. It's very easy to understand what he sees in her but it's much more difficult to comprehend what a woman of her experience finds appealing in him. He doesn't even have the pencil mustache that was to become a Brent trademark at Warner! He's impetuous and immature, professing that he loves her within two hours of meeting her, and proposing marriage a couple of hours later. The Fraulein seduces men for a living and makes it a rule never to fall in love so what is it about Beall that makes her change her mind?
Both as characters and actors Loy and Brent are in different classes. Myrna is poised, self assured, confident and measured while George is all over the shop. Perhaps he was trying too hard because he knew he was too old for the part - he's thirty five attempting to pass for twenty. No wonder the Fraulein's boss, the wonderful Lionel Atwill, finds it hard to believe his most effective asset is losing her edge. Atwill by the way, is the second thing this film has going for it. He was one of that select group of character actors who enhanced any film they appeared in regardless of the script and direction, and both elements are founding wanting here.
Convoluted, clunky and implausible even by 1930s Hollywood standards STAMBOUL QUEST is still worth watching solely for the pleasure of spending 80 minutes in the company of the ravishing Miss Loy.