Tonight's Movie: Night World (1932) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

NIGHT WORLD (1932), an entertaining 58-minute pre-Code from Universal Pictures, has just been released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber Studio Classics.

The movie, directed by Hobart Henley, starts with a fantastic opening montage of nighttime in New York City.

The screenplay, written by Richard Schayer from a story by P.J. Wolfson and Allen Rivkin, then zeroes in on one specific place, a nightclub run by Happy MacDonald (Boris Karloff) and his unfaithful wife Jill (Dorothy Revier).

A great deal happens in a single night at Happy's club, including threats to Happy from racketeers; a rich but troubled society man, Michael (Lew Ayres), falling for a sweet dancer, Ruth (Mae Clarke); and the doorman (Clarence Muse) fretting over his hospitalized wife.

The movie's tone veers all over the place, including comedy, drama, romance, and shocking violence; believe it or not, there's even a musical number designed by Busby Berkeley!

Yet somehow it all works, keeping the audience on its toes; for instance, there's a lovely marriage proposal, quickly followed by a genuinely disturbing murder sequence.

There's an interesting cast on hand, which also includes George Raft as a man trying to corner Ruth into dating him; Hedda Hopper as Michael's evil mother, who murdered his father, and Dorothy Peterson as his late father's mistress; and Robert Emmett O'Connor as a genial policeman.

Smaller roles are filled out by Florence Lake, Jack LaRue, and Harry Woods.

The performances by Clarke and Muse are especially good, very natural and likeable. I especially loved an early scene with Muse and O'Connor chatting in front of the club; given the era, the genuine friendship and respect O'Connor's white policeman conveys toward the black Tim is refreshing. And indeed, Tim proves to be the most mature and dignified character in the film.

The print is an HD master from a 2K scan of the 35mm fine grain. The disc does a nice job showing off the black and white cinematography of Merritt Gerstad. There are minor speckles but for a film of this vintage, it's in great shape, with a clear soundtrack free of skips and jumps.

Since the movie was so short, I restarted it with the commentary track by Jeremy Arnold as soon as it finished. Arnold provides a great deal of context, including on the careers of Clarke and Muse; Muse's career lasted decades longer, ending with THE BLACK STALLION (1979). 

Arnold comments on the film's admirable treatment of Muse's character, the performances (justifiably pointing out the weakness of Hopper's scene), and details on the rest of the cast.

My second look at NIGHT WORLD with the commentary track also gave me a greater appreciation for just how engaging the film manages to be in its brief running time; as Arnold notes, this little movie has entertainment value exceeding that of many films which run far longer. Between that and the inclusion of not one but two commentary tracks, this disc is a great pickup for fans of pre-Codes.

The second commentary track, which I look forward to hearing, is by Tim Lucas and Joe Busam. There's also a trailer gallery for six additional films available from Kino Lorber.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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