BEFORE DAWN (1933)
Article #814 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 6-7-2003
Posting Date: 11-4-2003
Directed by Irving Pichel
Featuring Warner Oland, Stuart Irwin, Dorothy Wilson

When a bank robber dies in the hospital, several people set their sights on the one million dollars he stole from a bank; however, it appears his ghost is guarding the money.

Title check: Accurate enough; the last scenes do take place during the night. However, it’s a little too vague to be a really effective title.

There are some effective moments in this little chiller, particularly in the way certain scenes are staged, and there is one surprising moment involving a staircase at one point (watch out for that last step!). It’s also interesting that one of the characters is indeed truly psychic. Other than that, this one is pretty predictable. You should be able to figure out the villain two minutes into the movie, though I will say that the role was effectively cast. Minor, fun, but merely okay.