It certainly feels authentic; Universal effortlessly immerse you into the anonymous sanctuary of a night club in the early hours of a cold snowy night in 1932. The initial fly on the wall approach, picking up a few phrases from various strangers' conversations make you feel that anyone, including yourself can surreptitiously fit into this place. This is a real place full of real people.
The plot focuses on two main stories: a whirlwind romance which could only happen in such a fishbowl environment and Boris Karloff's troubles with his cheating wife and his beer suppliers. Both stories don't really attempt to blend together, they just happen and that lack of contrivance helps to convey a feeling of realism.
A couple of years later, Warner Brothers would make WONDER BAR, which is almost a remake of this but that one tried too hard, was poorly written and justifiably drew comparisons with their other vastly superior Busby Berkeley films. Although Wonder Bar had better production than this, shabby old Night World is a much better film.
So it's got a great atmosphere, believable characters and, because it's squeezed into just an hour, a fast moving engaging script. That said, there's something missing. The team behind this don't seem to have quite got into the swing of making this type of film yet. You'll care about these characters enough to make you watch until the end but as though you had too much of that club's illegal beer last night, you'll probably have forgotten about them when you sober up in the morning.
The plot focuses on two main stories: a whirlwind romance which could only happen in such a fishbowl environment and Boris Karloff's troubles with his cheating wife and his beer suppliers. Both stories don't really attempt to blend together, they just happen and that lack of contrivance helps to convey a feeling of realism.
A couple of years later, Warner Brothers would make WONDER BAR, which is almost a remake of this but that one tried too hard, was poorly written and justifiably drew comparisons with their other vastly superior Busby Berkeley films. Although Wonder Bar had better production than this, shabby old Night World is a much better film.
So it's got a great atmosphere, believable characters and, because it's squeezed into just an hour, a fast moving engaging script. That said, there's something missing. The team behind this don't seem to have quite got into the swing of making this type of film yet. You'll care about these characters enough to make you watch until the end but as though you had too much of that club's illegal beer last night, you'll probably have forgotten about them when you sober up in the morning.