Night World (1932) User Reviews (25)

A Night In New York

[telegonus · 8/10 · 4 November 2001]

Fun, saucy, fast-moving and short, Night World is a neat little movie from the early thirties, before Prohibition was repealed, when Hoover was still in the White House; and with a Depression still new there was yet a Gatsby mood in the cities.

The credits of this movie are unusual. Busby Berkeley did the choreography. Alfred Newman composed what music there is. The cast is oddball for any sort of film, but especially peculiar for this kind: Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff, Hedda Hopper, George Raft and Jack La Rue. Director Hobart Henley handles his material extremely well, and gives it pace and energy. There is joy, sadness, corruption, disillusionment and heartbreak in the movie, and the ending is bittersweet but not downbeat.

Universal ventures into the precode world

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 20 January 2009]

Universal in the early 30's is mainly remembered as the home of the horror film, but in fact they ventured into other kinds of films as well. This fast little precode seems like it might have come from Warner Bros., but instead it is the product of Universal. Boris Karloff plays "Happy" the owner of a night club and husband to an unfaithful wife, not that he doesn't have a roving eye himself. George Raft shows up briefly in the film as a tough guy who has an eye for chorus girl Mae Clark. Finally there is Lew Ayres as the son of a prominent family whose mother has just recently shot his father dead and been acquitted. This is not the mom of a heart of gold that you see in so many depression era films, and the young man spends night after night in Happy's club trying to forget his troubles. Add in a snappy Busby Berkeley number and Happy's run-in with the suppliers of his bootleg whiskey and you have a very fast moving little precode. The film is visually interesting too, with an introduction similar to 1929's "Broadway", also by Universal, minus the silver-skinned giant calling the city to awaken and join him in his debauchery. Highly recommended, that is, if you can ever find a copy.

Lew Ayres and Mae Clarke Shine

[soren-71259 · 7/10 · 18 June 2018]

I had never seen this film and Lew Ayres was a friend of mine years ago and came to lecture to my film class at the University of Arizona ca. 1975. He was a deeply religious man, a conscientious objector during World War II and ambulance driver and former husband of Ginger Rogers and Lola Lane of the fabulous Lane Sisters. He said that the breakup of the marriage with Ginger was his fault because she got more famous than he and he couldn't deal with it. He was a thoughtful, intelligent and decent guy and very gentle in real life but he caught fire on screen or in live performance. When he WAS acting, he was all show business and you needed to get out of the way of him because of the intensity of what he was doing. Then when he was done and the public spotlight would go away, he'd return to being the great guy he was. I liked him enormously and he had just finished directing his religious film Altars of the World about his trips all over the world to study various religions and their belief in a guiding spirit. I'm not a religious guy but he believed in treating everyone with the spirit that he had found and that feeling just made him nice to be around. This movie features also a winning performance from Mae Clarke who shows that she can actually dance pretty well. She was a natural actress, not a raving beauty, but someone who radiated attractiveness from deep within and it spilled out onto the screen. She should have been much more famous. Pity she's known for getting that grapefruit shoved in her face by Cagney because here she delivers a solid and winning performance. George Raft appears briefly and does that gangster coin flipping stuff that he would do so much in his forties movies. Clarence Muse is absolutely wonderful as the black doorman of Happy's Club and projects a terrific emotional range, conveying a good bit of what it must have really been like to be black back then in a white man's world.. The screenplay is solid and there's a Busby Berkeley dance number. It's small scale and lacks the wonder of his work at Warner Brothers or the amazing color kaleidoscope he did at Fox in The Gang's All Here in 1943--don't miss that one!! But it's still a fun interlude to see Busby in his early period a little bit post Whoopee and Palmy Days. There's also Boris Karloff, fresh from his triumph as the Frankenstein monster the year before and one of the characters actually makes an inside joke in the film, referring to Frankenstein. Karloff's British accent doesn't quite fit well with the thug part he has to play but he's still pretty effective and Hedda Hopper, later to be a feared gossip columnist who wrote Under Hedda's Hat in syndication everywhere, does a terrific turn as Lew Ayres' murderous mother. All in all it is a night club Grand Hotel with the various problems of many characters, good and bad people, interweaving nicely and very well written. It's a short film so you needn't invest much time but it moves along swiftly and ends with a running gag about Schenectady, New York. I give it seven stars and especially enjoyed seeing Lew Ayres who, if one takes the drinking part away in the film, was essentially playing the man he really was, a highly decent guy who had an up and down career but a career that spanned more than 65 years in the movies and tv and near the end of his life he was playing the older crush of a young Mary Tyler Moore on her tv show and being convincing about it. The man was really special from top to bottom.

Boris Karloff as a fast talking gangster?

[boris-26 · 2 November 2001]

NIGHT WORLD is an interesting hour for film buffs (running time 58 minutes) It was made at Universal Studios in 1932 using cast members from their famed monster films. Of course, the headliner is Boris Karloff as Happy McDonald, the owner of a midtown Manhattan nightclub. He's a fast talking gangster who is not afraid to use his glib talk, his fists or his gun. In FRANKENSTEIN, Mae Clarke, was kinda drab, and not very pretty. Here she shows she's a spunky, funny and sexy actress. Bert Roach, of MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE turns up as an annoying drunk. The rest of the cast includes young Lew Ayres, Hedda Hopper, George Raft and Robert Emmet O'Connor. Busby Berkeley supervised the sparse dance numbers, and his trademark, naughty camera angles are here. I had a lot of fun with it.

Odd little film for buffs

[ROCKY-19 · 7/10 · 5 October 2006]

Poor Mae Clark was in loads of films yet is most known for getting a grapefruit in the kisser from James Cagney in 'Public Enemy.' So it's nice to see her in a part with a few more brains. She is just part of an odd mixed-salad of a cast. Some, like Boris Karloff as an awkwardly gangly night-club owner, and Bert Roach as a silly drunk, seem to be in strange waters. Others, like Lew Ayers and George Raft, get roles typical of their young careers. Though she has only one scene in this very short film, Hedda Hopper steals the show as the world's worst mother.

The only character to really warm to is The Doorman, Tim Washington (Clarence Muse). He is clearly in a horrible situation which those around pity at best and ignore at worst. So many African-American roles in the white films of the '30s are painful to watch, but Muse brings something special to this thankless part.

Cinematographer Merritt Gerstad shows an inventive eye both in the opening montage and in scenes that would otherwise be nothing to look at. And of course, we get brief Busby Berkeley numbers, which would never really work in a night club, but allowances must be made for Hollywood.

"Alright, big shot. Turn on the heat."

[utgard14 · 7/10 · 26 June 2017]

Fun, somewhat bizarre pre-coder about one night at a nightclub and the assorted people there. Worth a look for the great cast and the odd mixture of gangster movie and musical comedy. Lew Ayres plays a rich guy drowning himself in drink because his mom killed his dad. Mae Clarke plays a showgirl who helps him. The two fall in love quickly, Old Hollywood style. They have a cute chemistry. Great support from Boris Karloff, Clarence Muse, George Raft, Bert Roach, Dorothy Revier, and, hey, there's future gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Also features a forgettable number choreographed by Busby Berkeley. Ayres is fine but upstaged by the rest of the cast, especially Clarke and Muse. It's from Universal although it seems a bit like it's trying to be a WB movie. A good way to pass an hour. There's also a Frankenstein joke, although Karloff is not in that particular scene.

Racy and Risqué !!!!.......

[kidboots · 10/10 · 4 January 2011]

....just what a true pre-coder should be like!!! The opening shots instantly introduce you to the world of vice - "pick-ups" discreetly putting on their stockings while men lie, intoxicated, on the bed, bootleg hooch flowing freely and gangland shootings - just another night in the city.

This was the last of 5 movies Mae Clarke made for Universal, who used her to great advantage as the weary prostitute in "Waterloo Bridge" and the monster menaced bride in "Frankenstein" (there is even an "in joke" in "Night World" about "Frankenstein"). She had such a fresh and natural charm that hasn't dated and it has always puzzled me why she didn't go further than leads in Bs and even smaller films.

"Night World" is like a minor league "Grand Hotel" (it seemed every studio had one) - events taking place over 24 hours in a night club - "Happys". For a short film (only 58 minutes) this movie packs in a lot of plot. Boris Karloff, despite having an extremely long career, seemed to be given more diverse roles at the start of his career. He plays "Happy" MacDonald, the proprietor of "Happy's Club" which as the movie progresses is anything but. He isn't very "happy" himself - he is tough on his staff but is being made a fool of by his faithless wife (very sultry Dorothy Reiver) and Klauss (Russell Hopton), his right hand man.

Michael Rand (Lew Ayres) is a dissipated young millionaire who wanders drunkenly into the night club. His parents were involved in a sensational murder and he is slowly drinking himself to death to try to forget. His mother (Hedda Hopper) has been acquitted of the murder of his father, but Edith Blair (Dorothy Peterson) sees Michael at the club and gives him a motherly heart to heart talk about the way his mother really treated his father. Lew Ayres moment comes in a showdown with his mother, when he realises just how vicious her feelings are toward him and his father. On hand to administer sympathy and advice ("I'm trying to live long enough so I can see good liquor some day" she replies when Michael offers her a drink) is Mae Clarke (with a lovely fluffy perm) as Ruth Taylor, a young up and coming chorus girl ("You're in front of her - by about 10 years" says ungallant Ed Powell (George Raft) to another older chorus girl on why he prefers Ruth). Ed is too tough for Ruth and she proves her loyalty to Michael when a fight erupts. When the next day dawns, several people are dead and Ruth and Michael are on their way to a hopeful future.

Like Clarke, Lew Ayres, also under contract at Universal, made the most of whatever part he was given but the studio couldn't give him the boost that guaranteed him permanent stardom - it was up to MGM and it's Doctor Kildare series to do that. There was no doubt that George Raft would be a star - his part was only that of a thug but his impact was immediate and memorable. Another actor you remembered was Clarence Muse as the philosophizing doorman.

Some funny quotes - "I'm from Syracuse - Was your mother there at the time" - that was from a (to me) particularly racy scene played out in the Gentleman's toilet between a drunken patron and an obviously (it was from the early thirties) gay man who seemed determined to be picked up. "Will you do me a favour - No, why should I drop dead"!! - sweet talk on the dance floor. Busby Berkeley was the choreographer on the very cheeky "Who's Your Little Who-Zit" - his overhead shots of chorus cuties shows why he was out on his own.

Highly, Highly Recommended.

Quickie pre-code, without much of a plot, but still entertaining in a bizarre way.

[scsu1975 · 6/10 · 21 November 2022]

Boris Karloff runs a nightclub, unaware that his wife and one of his employees keep ducking into a closet for some reason ... wink wink, nod nod. Lew Ayres plays a drunken customer; his mother (Hedda Hopper) killed his father because she thought he was fooling around. Mae Clarke, who sings/dances at the nightclub, takes a shine to Ayres, which ticks off her current suitor (George Raft). There is a running gag involving the doorman (Clarence Muse) trying to phone his wife, who has been hospitalized.

This is essentially it. The film takes place over a few nights, so don't expect a soap opera. Jack LaRue shows up as a torpedo, Robert Emmett O'Connor plays a cop for the one millionth time, Byron Foulger plays a really, really, really gay customer, and Louise Beavers is onscreen for all of about five seconds.

It's interesting that the New York State censor board ordered some dialogue and scenes removed (notably at the climax), but the lines and scenes were intact in the version I saw.

Clarke is perky, adorable, and looks very cute in shorts. Muse comes off best as the most tragic figure in the film. The ending is crazy. Worth a look.

Nice work by all in unheralded little film

[dcole-2 · 9/10 · 27 May 2007]

Yes, it's a cheap versions of GRAND HOTEL, but I think it works just fine. I'm going to disagree with some previous reviewers: I think Karloff is marvelous as the club owner, bringing a fierceness and bravado to it that others would lack. The rest of the cast is also good: Ayres, Marsh and Muse all register strongly. Hedda Hopper is indeed amazing as the bad mother. And George Raft stands out in his small part. A little of it is creaky and dated, but overall, I thought the camera-work was fluid and fine, the story moved fast and the characters were well-written. Nice little Busby Berkeley number near the top, too. Well worth checking out.

wow - this is a real precode

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 5 September 2017]

"Night World" is a short-ish film from Universal about a night in the Big Apple during prohibition, centering on a night club, Happys, run by, of all people, Boris Karloff.

This is the kind of rough film one associates with Warner Brothers, but instead it's the horror film studio of Universal.

We have a gay guy in the mens room, the depressed son of a man (Lew Ayres) whose father was just murdered by his mother (Hedda Hopper) and acquitted, the girlfriend of the murdered man telling his son what his mother is really like, a performer, Ruth (Mae Clarke) at the club trying to comfort him, a tough guy (George Raft) trying to pick up Ruth, the owner's (Karloff) wife being unfaithful to him, a shootout, and a philosophical doorman, Clarence Muse. Muse was a very accomplished black actor; I highly recommend reading his bio on IMDb.

Busby Berkeley did the choreography, utilizing the overhead camera to show his various patterns - not that the actual nightclub audience could see them. And the movie doesn't hide the fact that several of these chorines fool around.

Everyone is very good, with Muse, Clarke, and Ayres standouts.

If you want to see a racy precode, this is it.

Underwhelming Wonderbar

[1930s_Time_Machine · 4/10 · 9 October 2022]

It certainly feels authentic; Universal effortlessly immerse you into the anonymous sanctuary of a night club in the early hours of a cold snowy night in 1932. The initial fly on the wall approach, picking up a few phrases from various strangers' conversations make you feel that anyone, including yourself can surreptitiously fit into this place. This is a real place full of real people.

The plot focuses on two main stories: a whirlwind romance which could only happen in such a fishbowl environment and Boris Karloff's troubles with his cheating wife and his beer suppliers. Both stories don't really attempt to blend together, they just happen and that lack of contrivance helps to convey a feeling of realism.

A couple of years later, Warner Brothers would make WONDER BAR, which is almost a remake of this but that one tried too hard, was poorly written and justifiably drew comparisons with their other vastly superior Busby Berkeley films. Although Wonder Bar had better production than this, shabby old Night World is a much better film.

So it's got a great atmosphere, believable characters and, because it's squeezed into just an hour, a fast moving engaging script. That said, there's something missing. The team behind this don't seem to have quite got into the swing of making this type of film yet. You'll care about these characters enough to make you watch until the end but as though you had too much of that club's illegal beer last night, you'll probably have forgotten about them when you sober up in the morning.

Sort of like a soap opera set in a speakeasy....and they sure cram a lot into 57 minutes!

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 2 January 2016]

You can certainly tell that "Night World" is a pre-code picture. It's set in a speakeasy--just the sort of sordid locale that wouldn't have been allowed after the new Production Code went into effect in mid-1934. Of course, by then alcohol was legal and speakeasies were a thing of the past anyways. The film is very much like a soap opera--with a variety of folks and love affairs going on during the course of the picture.

Several story lines are going on at the same time in this film and at then end, they all converge. One story is about the owners of the club, Happy (Boris Karloff) and Jill. However, Jill is cheating on her hubby and the way this story ends is pure dynamite. The main story involves a young man who's been drinking himself into oblivion (Lew Ayres). Why and his relationship with a girl who works in the club (Mae Clark) is fascinating. Finally, the doorman (Clarence Muse) has something going on with his sick wife. Again, all three stories converge at the end for a very slick and tense finale.

I rarely give short films like this such high scores. However, with this one, the writing was so good and the ending so enjoyable I highly recommend it. Thrilling and enjoyable throughout.

By the way, the dance numbers, though smaller in scale than his trademark choreography, were directed by Busby Berkeley.

Bold pre-Code drama

[gridoon2024 · 6/10 · 9 July 2017]

"Night World" has a dynamic start and lots of promising pre-code elements, which, however, don't quite jell; maybe the problem is the lack of a really compelling plot. But it has a natural, unaffected performance by Mae Clarke, one early Busby Berkeley dance number (with lightly dressed girls) that's a clear sign of things to come from him, and a hard-hitting finale. If you like this film, you must watch "Wonder Bar" from 1934 - it's similar, and even better. **1/2 out of 4.

B version of Grand Hotel in a nightclub

[Mike-764 · 4/10 · 23 June 2010]

Happy's Club, a non speakeasy nightclub in Manhattan, is home to many stories and characters. Owner Happy MacDonald is threatened by rival bootleggers and decides to settle matters with them himself. Happy's wife Jill is keeping on an affair with the nightclub's entertainment director Klauss. Dancer Ruth Taylor is falling for young Michael Rand, who's been drinking away at Happy's after the recent events of the murder trial concerning his mother shooting his father. All the events come together (sort of- see review) where people with grudges against each our cast come to Happy's for a showdown.

The film has a great cast and almost all of them do a bang-up job, but the film falls flat because the various stories don't really gel together and a lot of characters have their roles wasted (Clarence Muse and George Raft especially). In a sense the only draw of the film is the Busby Berkeley choreographed dance sequence about 10 minutes in.

Rating 4 out of 10.

Strange

[Michael_Elliott · 13 March 2008]

Night World (1932)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Strange Pre-Code from Universal takes place at a nightclub during the Prohibition era where the women wear very little clothes and the alcohol is running free. Outside some Pre-Code dialogue and situations the story here is rather weak because it seems the director was only wanting to show the women and booze. The film runs a very fast 56-minutes but a few of the scenes go on a bit too long even with the short running time. Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff and George Raft star. Watch for the joke aimed at James Whale's Frankenstein.

Boris Karloff and Mae Clarke reunited after "Frankenstein"

[kevinolzak · 7/10 · 28 March 2021]

1932's "Night World" began shooting Jan. 28, from a story suggested by director Hobart Henley (working title "Night Club"), previously at the helm for Bette Davis' screen debut "The Bad Sister." It appears that all the major stars at Universal found time to appear, from Lew Ayres ("All Quiet on the Western Front") to both Boris Karloff and Mae Clarke from James Whale's blockbuster "Frankenstein," adding George Raft for two scenes (reunited with Boris from "Scarface") and future columnist Hedda Hopper for just one. Right from the opening moments of this hour long pre-Code gem we are privy to the worrisome tribulations of doorman Tim Washington (Clarence Muse), whose wife is expected to recover from an operation, itching for a chance to join her at the hospital if Karloff's "Happy" MacDonald would allow him to. As the owner of Happy's Place, third billed Boris spends the entire film decidedly unhappy, a faithless wife (Dorothy Revier, his previous costar in "Graft") cavorting with the choreographer (Russell Hopton), and the often soused socialite Michael Rand (Ayres), in occasional need of a sock on the jaw. Mae Clarke is credited below Ayres as chorus girl Ruth, desperate to put off Raft's advances ("my apartment never closes!") while seeing that Rand doesn't drink himself to an early grave mourning for a beloved father brutally murdered by a heartless mother. Bert Roach effortlessly wears out a gag about looking for anybody from Schenectady, but the amazing Busby Berkeley numbers simply dazzle, especially one kaleidoscopic shot of the entire chorus line from high above and another that movies through the girls' open legs ("the more he comes, the lower he gets!"). For all the action going on, Boris is only around for 9 minutes screen time, a perpetual smile planted on his kisser even at the moment of his demise at the hands of unruly bootleggers, no doubt pleased that they shot the wife first! (his next film found him top billed in James Whale's "The Old Dark House," bidding farewell to forgotten supporting parts).

Night World is racy in more ways than one.

[st-shot · 6/10 · 7 November 2019]

Featuring some hilarious political incorrectness, Night World is an excellent glimpse at pre-code Hollywood pushing the envelope. With a running time of under an hour it covers a lot of edgy vice and mawkish romance that only offers respite from this orgy of cynicism.

Things are pretty lurid at Happy's (Boris Karloff) a prohibition nightclub featuring hard boiled dancers and mobbed up staff. Customers tend to over imbibe and make fools of themselves around the hoofers while wives seek out affairs and other patrons drown their sorrows in booze. One desolate fellow (Lew Ayres) hooks up with a sympathetic dancer (Mae Clarke) in the film's only situation where decency may prevail but even that hangs in the balance as they are threatened by a predatory gangster (George Raft) and witness the murder of Happy and his cheating wife.

Director Herbert Henley covers a lot of exposition early with a fast moving montage of Night Life in the big city followed up by the overview and wisdom of the doorman (Clarence Muse) who sums up the scene with his own well tempered theory. Once inside the club the pace takes on a rat a tat tat style as Henley jumps from character to character with comedic and ominous overtones while Busby Berkley fleshes things out in some kaleidoscopic dance numbers.

Ayres is a self pitying annoyance most of the way, Clarke decent in other scenes such as with Raft. Karloff's Happy is the most intriguing character in the film but it is Muse who has the best scene early and while hanging on the periphery throughout that gives the film its most powerful character and performance.

Perhaps the greatest pre-code film that nobody ever heard of.

[mark.waltz · 8/10 · 16 April 2017]

Deliciously seedy, this hour long pre- code drama with music is a gem of writing, photography, prohibition era violence, slang and tough luck. It's filled with a vision of Times Square as it once was: delightfully seedy in that Damon Runyon way where guys and dolls traveled along the big street to forget their woes in alcohol soaked nightspots like this, rub shoulders with the rich, the poor, the notorious and the desperate. This takes several of the songs later used in "42nd Street" and the "Gold Diggers" films and gives a dramatic interpretation of what they were all about.

A Busby Berkley choreographed musical number, "Who's your little who?" Features chorus girls gossiping while showing more than just a lot of leg, dealing with various types of customers, and introducing the film's troubled hero, Lew Ayres, and later introducing him to chorus girl Mae Clarke. Clarence Muse gets some of the best moments as the wise doorman, a rare opportunity to see a black character treated with respect, often smarter than the wealthy patrons and hard boiled gangsters and chorus girls.

Then there are Boris Karloff and George Raft, co-stars in the same year's "Scarface", cast in the gangster parts, providing the crime element of the story. Future gossip legend Hedda Hooper is prevalent among the supporting cast as Ayres' husband killing mother This is a film students of the prohibition era should study, because it remains as fresh as it was 85 years ago. I'm surprise that this film didn't usher in the code era before 1932, although I'm glad they held out for a few more years.

little seen gem from the pre-code era

[christopher-underwood · 9/10 · 2 January 2019]

Thanks to the discovery that I could throw YouTube onto my TV and the subsequent exploration of its myriad contents, I was able to uncover this little seen gem from the pre-code era. Unusual opening credits are followed by a mind boggling multi image montage, the speed of which is the clue to just how fast this little film is going to move. Thanks to Busby Berkeley we are soon into our first stunning dance sequence full of kaleidoscopic upskirt shots and fabulous movement. The varied and various cast are introduced and whilst the girls are lovely and the rogues worrying it is the miserable and violent seedy nightclub host that attracts our most attention. Boris Karloff, no less, plays 'Happy' who grudgingly permits people entrance but is happiest using either his fist or his gun. Good all the way through, this short feature has a delirious climax that makes you want to watch it all over again.

1930's Night Life

[view_and_review · 1/10 · 12 February 2024]

Night life in the 30's was something else. It's almost like it was a different world, especially compared to night life today. Sure, we have night clubs, drinking, and dancing, but, for better or for worse, it's not the same.

"Night World" is a movie that highlights an aspect that permeated just about every 1930's movie: the night club/speakeasy scene. The movie began as a rather random, scattered affair giving us snippets of the lives of the various nightclub patrons and staff. There were cheaters, drunkards, lovers, gangsters, professionals, and everything in between. Slowly the movie began to focus on a few main characters and I wasn't impressed.

I watched the movie mainly because of Boris Karloff who played Happy MacDonald, the proprietor. His wife, Jill (Dorothy Revier), was cheating on him with his manager, Klauss (Russell Hopton). It was the same old story you see in half the movies of that era.

The movie also focused on Michael Rand (Lew Ayres) for no good reason. He'd been attending the joint for several nights straight drowning his sorrows in bad booze. One of the dancers, Ruth Taylor (Mae Clarke), took an interest in him probably because she's one of those women who likes to nurse wounded animals back to health. She doted over him and protected him all while he was drunk and sobering up. By the time he was fully sober he asked her to marry him because that's some of the idiotic things they did back then. Usually proposals came after a day or two. If a proposal came after a few hours, it was because the man was drunk. In this case he may have still been a little drunk. It was a lame pitiful attempt at romance as if it were thrown in there just to check a box.

Michael got to be her hero on two occasions which were probably for the society crowd who fancy themselves brave. The first time was when he knocked out Ed Powell who was a gangster played by George Raft. George Raft and Jack La Rue were always playing gangsters. It was clearly type-casting, but work is work.

The second time Michael got to play hero was when he and Ruth were at gunpoint at Happy's Club. Ed and his boss just got through gunning down the doorman Tim (Clarence Muse), Happy, and his double-crossing wife. He was about to gun Michael and Ruth down as well, but Michael first had to hold Ruth tight and tell the gangsters what he thought of them. It was an uninspiring scene that made me like Michael even less.

He was saved from meeting his maker when a fat flatfoot somehow snuck in behind the two gangsters and shot them in the back. He saved the lovers from the grave and gave the movie the unceremonious end it deserved.

Free on YouTube.

Very good film

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 8/10 · 16 March 2017]

At only 58 minutes the film packs a lot of drama into its running time. Murder, humour, adultery, violence, philosophy, dancing, tragedy and love to name a few. It is impressively filmed from the saucy opening montage to the final scene in the snowy street. Set in a nightclub over one night it weaves together several stories, light and dark. Tim the Doorman says of the people in the night club,"Most all them folks is starving for something, and it ain't food."

The cast is fine; Lew Ayres as the deeply troubled young man, Boris Karloff as the club owner beset by gangsters and his unfaithful wife, Dorothy Revier as the wife, Russell Hopton as the 'other man', Byron Foulger as a very gay man and the great Clarence Muse as the doorman worrying about his sick wife. One of the club dancers is played by Mae Clarke and she is the shining centre of the film. Clarke gives a feisty and radiant performance. It baffles one how under used she was in films and never got to be a big star.

It has been called a low budget 'Grand Hotel' but it stands on its own very well.

BORIS KARLOFF IS A NIGHT CLUB OWNER!

[whpratt1 · 21 March 2003]

"Happy" MacDonald (Boris Karloff) plays the owner of a night club and his wife "Mrs. Mac" (Dorothy Revier) works as a cashier at the same club. She has an affair with Klauss(Russell Hopton)the dance manager of the club's floor show. Ruth Taylor (Mae Clarke) is the club's leading dancer, and becomes friends with Michael Rand(Lew Ayres). A gangster tries to sell MacDonald bootleg liquor, but Karloff refuses. The bootlegger returns with a gunman who kills MacDonald(Karloff) and his wife,"Mrs. Mac". Karloff with his English accent does not sound like a gangster from New York and it was better he died quicky in this film along with his wife. This was a film with great actors and actresses and very poor writers and direction.

Tremendous Fun

[boblipton · 10/10 · 7 April 2022]

I can sum it up in one word: Whee! It's a slick, fast-moving Universal Pre-Code nightclub-gangster flick that has everything you could wish for: a cast that includes Lew Ayres, Mae Clarke, Boris Karloff (in a straight role as the tough night-club owner) and Busby Berkley choreography that showcased exactly what he was going to do the following year at Warner Brothers, with shots through chorines' legs and overhead crane shots. There are plenty of wise cracks, George Raft as a hood, Robert Emmett O'Conner as a cop on the beat, Clarence Muse stealing the show, and, of course, editor Ted Kent doing his best to amortize that optical printer that Laemmle had bought back in 1929.

It was director Hobart Henley's next-to-last movie and I have no idea what happened to him to cut his career short. Anyone who could direct a movie like this should have been in demand.

Pre Code

[januszlvii · 8/10 · 4 December 2022]

Night World is without question a pre code movie. You see things you will not see for decades: Hedda Hopper as a woman who murders her husband and gets away with it ( although that took place off screen) and a gay drunk just to name two examples. The thing that is really striking is how nasty most of the characters are, and a couple of them ( George Raft and Russell Horton) like Hopper pay no price for their actions. Boris Karloff who is a gangster named Happy McDonald, is actually one of the more sympathetic characters in the movie and spoilers ahead: Gets murdered along with his evil cheating wife Jill ( Dorothy Revier), and good guy doorman Tim Washington ( Clarence Muse). Washington is interesting because it is a rare good role for a black character in that era. It is fair to say this is very dark movie that takes place during one night at a speakeasy run by Karloff. But there is one bit of light in the movie: That is Ruth Taylor (Mae Clarke). She is the only good character who gets the happy ending. She ends up engaged to millionaire Michael Rand ( Lew Ayers). Rand really needs her. He saw his mother (Hopper) kill his father ( and get acquitted in court) and is drinking himself to death ( until Ruth sobers him up). The best part of the movie is when Hopper comes in the speakeasy and Ayers confronts her and gets her to admit she only married her husband for money and she never loved her son. Basically one of the nastiest women in motion picture History and you will not forget her. The other really good scene involved Ayers, Clarke snd Raft. Raft wanted Clarke to come to his apartment for sex and Ayers said no, and actually knocked him out with one punch ( he explained he boxed in college so he actually had a spine and backbone). At the end they decide to get married and go to Java ( he actually asks her to marry him before asking her name). Who is best? Muse, Karloff, Clarke and Hopper. You will not forget her. 8/10 stars. Ps. You can find it on YouTube.

Nocturnal life

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 12 June 2022]

In this 58 minute precode from Universal, we get a slice of nocturnal life. Most of the action occurs at a popular nightclub called Happy's Place, which is owned by a charming bootlegger (Boris Karloff). We're told patrons are starving not only for food, but also for attention. This is the hottest spot in town to see and be seen.

The somber attitude of a wealthy patron (Lew Ayres) is at odds with the festive goings on. His mother (Hedda Hopper) shot and killed his father a short time earlier, and everyone's talking about the sensational murder case. Ayres is trying not to listen, and he's drinking like a fish to deaden the pain of his fractured family life.

While Ayres consumes a large quantity of booze to forget his father's death, he meets his father's female friend (Dorothy Peterson). She insists it was just friendship, but she loved his father and will never forget how his mother took all that away.

Meanwhile another patron (George Raft) shows up. He's a crooked gambler who likes to ogle chorus girls. He snags a date with one of them (Mae Clarke). But she is more drawn to Ayres and his emotional problems.

Though there is some heavy drama, the mood is also light...thanks in large part to the music and dancing scenes. Floor show numbers come to life under the choreography of Busby Berkeley, whose style is unmistakable. The routines show off the ladies' anatomies, particularly their legs.

There aren't many sets used here, since most of the main action is inside Karloff's club. However, a fluid camera often pans from one end of the floor to the other, then cuts to the dressing room and office. Like GRAND HOTEL, we follow all the different subplots that play out simultaneously and anticipate various outcomes.

The characters' lives are entwined with one another, as if it is a big soap opera. Karloff's wife (Dorothy Revier) is cheating on the side, while he wages war with a rival gangster. A kind doorman (Clarence Muse) has a wife dying in a nearby hospital but cannot leave work. And of course, Clarke is torn between two men who both want her...they square off to decide which one will emerge victorious.

Several situations at the club go too far, and not everyone will live to see the morning light.