Portia Hilton
Blistering performances.
Matho
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
Mathilde the Guild
Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
Spikeopath
Night Key is directed by Lloyd Corrigan and adapted to screenplay by Jack Moffitt & Tristam Tupper from a story by William A. Pierce. It stars Boris Karloff, Jean Rogers, Warren Hull and Samuel S. Hinds. Music is by Louis Forbes and cinematography by George Robinson. Plot sees Karloff as aging inventor David Mallory, who once again finds himself cheated by security business boss Stephen Ranger (Hinds). With his eyesight failing and a daughter (Rogers) he wants to set up before he passes on, Mallory decides to teach the scheming Ranger a lesson. However, the criminal element headed by The Kid (Alan Baxter) have designs on using Mallory and his "Night Key" device for their own ill gotten gains.Well Louis! We are in.Out of Universal Pictures, Night Key was knocked out in under a month and budgeted, unsurprisingly, on the cheap. Yet the film belies these matters to be a good old fashioned yarn for entertainment. Melodrama mixes with a touch of sci-fi as the story unfolds as an interesting character piece, the veins of which are mostly pumped by an honest versus dishonest theme. Within there's a burgeoning romance etched in to the narrative, but this is handled well by the director as it aids the flow and reason of plotting, while the odd bit of action here and there stops the film from being too staid. The effects from John P. Fulton, too, are good fun and leave a favourable mark late in the story.Picture gets most of its strength from Karloff's performance. An undervalued talent at the best of times, Night Key gives viewers the chance to see just what he could do away from the horror iconography that defined his career. Here as the sombre and fragile David Mallory, Karloff isn't just looking the part because of make-up, he is able to match his body to the aged state of the character, simultaneously garnering great empathy from the viewers. It's a character, courtesy of performance, that firmly has us rooting for against the baddies. Around Karloff are effective turns from Rogers (bright), Hinds (weasel like), Hobart Cavanaugh (fun as the comedy side-kick, Petty Louis) and Ward Bond, who as henchman thug is an imposing presence.It's all very daft and goes where we expect, and want, it to go, but with Karloff leading the way this is a comfortably recommended time filler. 7/10
MartinHafer
This is one of the oddest Boris Karloff films I have ever seen. I don't mean this in a bad way, but say this because the plot is so atypical of his films. Instead of a horror film, it's sort of like sci-fi and comedy combined! Now calling is 'sci-fi' might be problematic. The film looks like it was set in 1937 but the electronics shown in the film really weren't possible for the day--you just need to suspend disbelief and enjoy.The film begins with Karloff and his daughter excitedly talking about how much better their lives are about to become. It seems that Karloff is an electronics genius and has invented a super-advanced alarm system for businesses. Now he can afford the eye surgery he needs AND give his daughter everything she wants. However, Karloff is soon cheated out of his plans by an old business rival who did exactly the same thing years before--so you'd wonder why Karloff would agree to sell the same jerk this patent! Well, it's not totally unbelievable, as Karloff's lawyer secretly is working for the jerk!! When Karloff finds out the truth, he threatens to do bad things if they don't honor their agreement. The jerk laughs it off and so Karloff, who invented the original system to the company 20 years earlier, uses one of his inventions to break into the businesses with contracts with this monitoring service. But he doesn't steal anything, as he's basically a good man. Instead, he leaves silly messages that the system stinks and can easily be compromised--thus hurting the jerk's reputation. Karloff assumes that eventually the jerk will give in and honor his crooked contract.In the meantime, two things happen. First, the jerk refuses to budge at all--sending out his goons to harass and threaten Karloff's daughter. Second, real criminals find out about Karloff's device and kidnap him--trying to force him to work for evil. So what is Karloff to do--help the crooks or back off on his attack on the jerk? Well, there's a lot more to it than that and I won't ruin it by saying more.The bottom line is that the film has clever writing and despite a fantastic story, it was handled so well that you can't help but get sucked into the film. The great acting and breezy direction sure helped--making this one of the better B-films of the era.Exciting, clever and fun from start to finish.
pryor-notice
Typecast as "Boris Karloff" the monster, William Henry Pratt (his real name) was cast almost exclusively as monsters and mad scientists. He shows glimmers of real humanity in most of these roles, but rarely got to play a hero.Here is the exception. A kindly old scientist steps over the line only slightly in order to compel a ruthless businessman who has twice cheated him to do the right thing. In the end, he proves himself loyal, kind, honest, and courageous, in spite of being elderly and nearly blind.A movie like this (though definitely a "B" movie) demonstrates that this did not have to be the case. Karloff/Pratt could easily have played many a kindly grandfather or filled many other likable roles. What a pity he so rarely got the chance!
doctorsmoothlove
This is Karloff's least memorable movie (since he isn't the antagonist). However, Karloff does portray the hapless inventor well. The only fault I see is that the film didn't make use of his individual talent as well as it could have. Any person could have been Mr. Mallory. Nevertheless, "Night Key" is a pleasant film because of its just funny dialog and realistic acting. I recommend it not only because it offers a change of pace for Karloff fans but also because its noir elements make it still entertaining. This film is surprisingly memorable not just because of the creative story but because of the amusing dialog. For example, when Ranger arrests Petty Louie he laments that the 10,000th person that his alarm has helped him arrest wasn't a big-name criminal. Louie apologizes and says that he was too shy to have been a more loathsome criminal. Also, Louie's accent and his constant recognizance of Mallory as his "boss" if very amusing just by how out of place the dialog feels. Even though Karloff gets the credit as the popular actor, Cavanaugh has the best performance. Mallory could have been portrayed by any actor.
