''Night Key'' is a 1937 American

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

crime film Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

starring

Boris Karloff William Henry Pratt (23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969), known professionally as Boris Karloff () and occasionally billed as Karloff the Uncanny, was a British actor. His portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in the horror film ''Frankenstei ...

and released by

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

Plot

The inventor of a burglar alarm attempts to get back at the man who stole the profits to his invention (Hinds) before he goes blind. The device is then subverted by gangsters who apply pressure to the inventor and use his device to facilitate burglaries.

Cast

- David Mallory * Warren Hull - Jimmy Travis (billed as J. Warren Hull) *

Jean Rogers Jean Rogers (born Eleanor Dorothy Lovegren; March 25, 1916 – February 24, 1991) was an American actress who starred in serial films in the 1930s and low–budget feature films in the 1940s as a leading lady. She is best remembered for ...

- Joan Mallory * Alan Baxter - "The Kid" * Samuel S. Hinds - Stephen Ranger (billed as Samuel Hinds) * Hobart Cavanaugh - "Petty Louie" * David Oliver - "Mike" *

Ward Bond Wardell Edwin Bond (April 9, 1903 – November 5, 1960) was an American character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series ''Wagon Train'' from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert th ...

- "Fingers" *

Frank Reicher Frank Reicher (born Franz Reichert; December 2, 1875 – January 19, 1965) was a German-born American actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Early life Reicher was born in M ...

- Carl * Edwin Maxwell - Kruger

Production

Filming began on January 18, 1937, with a budget of $175,000. Filming ended on either February 16 or February 20, 6 days over schedule and $17,000 over budget. This was the last film in which Boris Karloff was billed by only his last name, a policy that Universal had begun with '' The Old Dark House'' in 1932 and had continued for eight films across six years during the height of Karloff's career.

Home video release

This film, along with '' ''Tower of London'''', '' The Climax'', '' The Strange Door'' and '' The Black Castle'', was released on DVD in 2006 by Universal Studios as part of ''The Boris Karloff Collection''. This DVD set contains the rerelease version of this film from Realart Pictures, Inc. It also contains the rerelease version of the theatrical trailer The packaging for this DVD set erroneously indicates that this film has a running time of 78 minutes.

References

External links