Night Key *** (1937, Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, Warren Hull, Samuel S Hinds, Alan Baxter, Ward Bond) – Classic Movie Review 10,464

Director Lloyd Corrigan’s 1937 crime thriller Night Key stars Boris Karloff as the kindly, mild-mannered, half-blind inventor David Mallory, who gets a crook called Petty Louie (Hobart Cavanaugh) to help him get even with the people – his business partner Steven Ranger (Samuel S Hinds) and attorney Kruger (Edwin Maxwell)  – who stole a burglar-alarm invention from him 20 years before. Now Mallory has invented a new electric eye night key security system that disables his security systems.

Night Key is a modestly made, bizarre thriller that is brought splendidly to life by Karloff’s affecting central performance as the genius/ madman seeking his revenge. Despite the ordinary script by Tristram Tupper and Jack Moffitt [John C Moffitt], based on an unusual original story by William A Pierce, and the modest Universal Pictures production, Karloff fans will thrill to this non-horror effort.

Also in the cast are Jean Rogers as Mallory’s daughter Joan, Warren Hull, Samuel S Hinds, Alan Baxter, Ward Bond, Hobart Cavanaugh, David Oliver, Charles C Wilson, Frank Reicher, Edwin Maxwell, George Humbert, Nina Campana, Michael Fitzmaurice, Ruth Fallows, Ralph Dunn, Frank Hagney, Ethan Laidlaw, Tom Hanlon, George Cleveland, George Magrill, Monte Montague, Henry Roquemore, Charles Sherlock, Charles Sullivan, Jack Watson, Hal Cooke, Antonio Filauri, and Jack Cheatham.

It is a welcome change of pace and style for horror icon Karloff. The new owners of Universal Pictures in 1936 believed horror movies were over, but Karloff’s contract stipulated one more film, so Universal commissioned a story by William A Pierce to give him a suitable non-horror role.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,464

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