Saturday, October 18, 2008

Movie review – “Night Key” (1937) **1/2

Boris Karloff is an inventor who was ripped off years ago by a business associate – twenty years later he gets ripped off again. And this time it’s payback. A later Bela Lugosi movie used the same plot. And to be fair, it’s not a bad plot and this is quite and enjoyable movie. Not a horror flick; it’s a gangster movie if anything else (some gangsters want what Errol’s got).

Boris is very engaging in a heroic old person role. There are other stock elements like the comic wisecracking sidekick, the beautiful daughter, a handsome man who works for the semi-baddy but falls for the daughter, some nasty gangsters. But it's enjoyable, beautifully shot, and quite satisfying (although you can't help wishing Boris' boss got a bit more of a come-uppance).

The performance of the guy who plays the lead gangster is interesting. He's kind of awful in this flat monotone, but its oddness and the youth of the actor playing him makes it watchable.

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