"Night World" is a short-ish film from Universal about a night in the Big Apple during prohibition, centering on a night club, Happys, run by, of all people, Boris Karloff.
This is the kind of rough film one associates with Warner Brothers, but instead it's the horror film studio of Universal.
We have a gay guy in the mens room, the depressed son of a man (Lew Ayres) whose father was just murdered by his mother (Hedda Hopper) and acquitted, the girlfriend of the murdered man telling his son what his mother is really like, a performer, Ruth (Mae Clarke) at the club trying to comfort him, a tough guy (George Raft) trying to pick up Ruth, the owner's (Karloff) wife being unfaithful to him, a shootout, and a philosophical doorman, Clarence Muse. Muse was a very accomplished black actor; I highly recommend reading his bio on IMDb.
Busby Berkeley did the choreography, utilizing the overhead camera to show his various patterns - not that the actual nightclub audience could see them. And the movie doesn't hide the fact that several of these chorines fool around.
Everyone is very good, with Muse, Clarke, and Ayres standouts.
If you want to see a racy precode, this is it.
This is the kind of rough film one associates with Warner Brothers, but instead it's the horror film studio of Universal.
We have a gay guy in the mens room, the depressed son of a man (Lew Ayres) whose father was just murdered by his mother (Hedda Hopper) and acquitted, the girlfriend of the murdered man telling his son what his mother is really like, a performer, Ruth (Mae Clarke) at the club trying to comfort him, a tough guy (George Raft) trying to pick up Ruth, the owner's (Karloff) wife being unfaithful to him, a shootout, and a philosophical doorman, Clarence Muse. Muse was a very accomplished black actor; I highly recommend reading his bio on IMDb.
Busby Berkeley did the choreography, utilizing the overhead camera to show his various patterns - not that the actual nightclub audience could see them. And the movie doesn't hide the fact that several of these chorines fool around.
Everyone is very good, with Muse, Clarke, and Ayres standouts.
If you want to see a racy precode, this is it.