#special mention to Hobart C as a delightfully seedy smalltime crook who attaches himself to BK like a stray dog. the only dud note is | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mariocki · 1 month

Text

Night Key (1937)

"Now, listen, Steve. Twenty years ago you robbed me of the patent rights of the system that you're now using. Perhaps there was some excuse for that: because it gave you wealth, success, position, all the things that tempt one man to rob another. But now that you have everything and I have nothing, what possible reason is there for you to do this to me again?"

#night key #lloyd corrigan #1937 #boris karloff #tristram tupper #jack moffitt #william a. pierce #warren hull #jean rogers #alan baxter #hobart cavanaugh #samuel s. hinds #david oliver #ward bond #frank reicher #edwin maxwell #george cleveland #george humbert #charles c. wilson #light hearted karloff vehicle which doesn't really deserve the sci fi label it's been given; yes‚ BK is an inventor of slightly fantastical #gadgets‚ but mostly this film is concerned with big business skullduggery with a side of organised crime. Karloff‚ as he often did‚ is #playing older than he was but he's very good and highly sympathetic as the doddery old prof. there's lots of good performances here‚ from #Jean Rogers' charming daughter to Warren Hull's romantic interest (much less tiresome than the usual role fillers in these movies) and #special mention to Hobart C as a delightfully seedy smalltime crook who attaches himself to BK like a stray dog. the only dud note is #Alan Baxter's weirdly monotone turn as the big bad‚ lacking any of the threat the character needs. the ending is twee and silly and there's #some (understandably) shaky fx work but this is genuinely a very fun time and a pleasant change from the usual Karloff vehicle of the era #one jarring moment: there's a very brief moment where a plot related news bulletin is heard on the radio‚ and as soon as it's finished the #news announcer begins to turn to the 'news from Spain' but the radio is switched off and the film moves on before we hear any more; this is #1937 remember‚ a moment of global tumult and thick in the gathering storm of the years to come but this is the only moment that the real #world is allowed to intrude into the charming and slighty silly world of eccentric inventors and sinister crooks

3 notes · View notes