Bela Lugosi once again dons a turban (easily his favorite movie headgear) for a cliched turn as Degar, sinister Hindu servant of a well-to-do but overly disfuntional family, in "Night Of Terror", a seldom seen, quasi-horror thriller from Columbia studios. Although top-billed, Lugosi is mired in an undistinctive supporting role, which calls for him to skulk around, look mysteriously sinister and discover a freshly murdered corpse every 10 minutes or so. Still, he provides the ONLY reason to watch this movie.
A maniac killer on the loose is blamed for a series of murders, but it's pretty obvious that one of the family members is the true fiend, plotting to control a family inheritance. Spooky elements are sprinkled throughout; secret passages, a seance, a suspended animation experiment that requires a man to be buried alive, not to mention frequent cutaways to the hunchbacked lunatic who's constantly lurking about the estate. None of it adds up to much.
Wallace Ford plays a smart aleck reporter, a role he would repeat with slight variations throughout his career. "Comedy relief" is provided by a black chauffeur, who jumps and stutters at every shadow - tired, overly familiar stuff, to be sure!
The ending is ridiculously hokey, as the lunatic killer threatens the audience with death if they reveal the ending of this film to anyone. Not much of a threat when you're too embarrassed to tell anyone you watched this flick in the first place.
A maniac killer on the loose is blamed for a series of murders, but it's pretty obvious that one of the family members is the true fiend, plotting to control a family inheritance. Spooky elements are sprinkled throughout; secret passages, a seance, a suspended animation experiment that requires a man to be buried alive, not to mention frequent cutaways to the hunchbacked lunatic who's constantly lurking about the estate. None of it adds up to much.
Wallace Ford plays a smart aleck reporter, a role he would repeat with slight variations throughout his career. "Comedy relief" is provided by a black chauffeur, who jumps and stutters at every shadow - tired, overly familiar stuff, to be sure!
The ending is ridiculously hokey, as the lunatic killer threatens the audience with death if they reveal the ending of this film to anyone. Not much of a threat when you're too embarrassed to tell anyone you watched this flick in the first place.