Blu Ray Review: Night World (1932)

Kino’s consistent releases of pre-Code Universal films continues with Night World, a top drama with a truly remarkable cast.

Boris Karloff plays a nightclub owner dealing with a shrewish, untrustworthy wife.  Lew Ayers is a wealthy college boy whose mother killed his father over another woman. George Raft is a gambler with eyes for chorus girl Mae Clarke.  Russell Hopton is head the dancers at the club, and is having an affair with the club owner’s wife. Lesser known director Hobart Henley weaves all of these characters and situations effectively so that the film never becomes confusing or disjointed.

Universal is a studio that doesn’t seem to be well known for their pre-Code output other than their noted monster movies.  But a film like Night World shows that their crime dramas could be near the level of what Warner Bros was doing so effectively at the same time.

One of the most impressive performances in Night World comes from Black actor Clarence Muse, who plays the club’s door man Tim.  He is worried because his wife is critically ill in the hospital and he wants to go to her bedside.  However, every time he asks to go home early, he is refused.  Finally, just as the night is ending, the doorman reveals this his wife has died.  Muse was often cast in stereotypical roles during his career (which lasted into the 1970s), but rarely he would get a more layered role and he would always rise to the occasion.  His work in Night World is certainly among his finest performances, offering sadness, desperation, and finally heartbreak,  which he conveys most effectively. 

Lew Ayers is another one of the film’s acting highlights, especially during a scene when he is confronted by the woman with whom his father was having an affair.  His powerful, violent reaction is well performed and effectively filmed.  Boris Karloff, coming off his career-defining performances in the same studio’s Frankenstein, is quite effective as he deals with the operation of the club, and his own personal issues with his wife. George Raft was coming off Scarface.  Mae Clarke had done The Public Enemy. Smaller roles are covered by the familiar faces of Jack LaRue, Louise Beavers, Byron Foulger, and Robert Emmett O’Connor.

Kino’s blu ray release is a brand new HD Master from a 2K scan of the 35mm fine grain elements.  It includes a new audio commentary by film historian Jeremy Arnold, and another by novelist and critic Tim Lucas and jazz broadcaster/ film expert Joe Busam.

This exceptional pre-Code is most highly recommended.  It can be ordered at this link: 

NIGHT WORLD