Night World

Taking a cue from Grand Hotel, this star-studded 1932 gem is set within the walls of a swanky nightclub owned by affable racketeer Happy MacDonald (Boris Karloff). In the course of a single evening, MacDonald is double-crossed by his faithless wife (Dorothy Revier) and a choreographer (Russell Hopton); the philosophical doorman (Clarence Muse) fears for his beloved wife’s life; an alcoholic socialite (Lew Ayres), the son of an acquitted murderess (Hedda Hopper), finds love in the arms of a hard-boiled chorus girl (Mae Clarke); and a beat cop (Robert Emmett O’Connor) bursts in to foil a pair of trigger-happy mobsters. Throw in a full-blown musical number by Busby Berkeley—overhead camera angles and all—and you get a true treasure trove for pre-Code movie lovers!