Night of Terror

This is a classic murder mystery set at a spooky old mansion. Wealthy Richard Rinehart is murdered at his posh estate. There are plenty of kooky and creepy people about who frequent the manor. Bela plays a household servant, a mystic who believes in his wife's ability to foretell the future.

Wallace Ford plays the wise cracking reporter who seems one step ahead of the police. While the police believe an escaped maniac is the killer, Ford probes to learn who will benefit from Rinehart's murder.

One problem I have with the film is the escaped maniac who is about and who is killing people in the area. We are told that he has already murdered 12 people. The police then announce he was last seen around the Rinehart estate. He murders a yard worker at the estate early on and then spends the rest of the film peering in windows and skulking about the estate. It is beyond reason that the maniac is not captured or that the police are not hunting madly for a man who has murdered 13 people. That said, I understand he is present as a red herring and the murderer has used the maniac's present to commit the murder.