THE PASSING OF THE THIRD FLOOR BACK

UK, 1935,90 minutes, Black and white.
Conrad Veidt, Rene Ray, Anna Lee, Frank Cellier, Mary Clare, Beatrix Lehmann, Cathleen Nesbitt, Sara Allgood.
Directed by Berthold Viertel.

The Passing of the Third Floor Back is an early British sound film, small-budget, using some of the silent techniques of captions. One of the co-writers was Alfred Hitchcock's wife, Alma Reville. The screenplay is based on a novel by Jerome K. Jerome (Three Men in a Boat).

The film focuses on an enigmatic stranger, a Christ-figure, who comes to a London boarding house and transforms the residents, a bickering and angry and snobbish group. The film focuses also on the put-upon maid who has come from a reform home.

In its brief running time, the film focuses on a range of characters, their interactions, their harshness, the possibilities of transformation - and their final change of heart. The cast includes Conrad Veidt (a star in Germany in such films as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and later to go to Hollywood in such films as Casablanca), Sara Allgood, Cathleen Nesbitt.

The film, while creaky now, is an interesting example of a genre that was to be developed over the decades: the enigmatic stranger who comes and transforms the lives of a group of people.

1.A film of the early '30s? Its creaky techniques? Its theme?

2.Black and white photography, London setting? The streets, the boat? The boarding house? The musical score?

3.The title, the focus on the room, on the stranger?

4.The introduction to the household? Stasia and her status within the house, put upon by the manager, by the other guests, holding up her past to her? Destroying her flowers? Callous attitudes? The range of people in the house, their meeting together for meals, their discussions, their back-biting and pettiness?

5.Stasia, her background, her fears of being sent back to the home? Her work in the house, antagonism towards the landlady? Towards the other guests? Her friendship with the stranger? Interactions, listening to him, seeing her better self?

6.The stranger, his appearance, manner, arrival, the landlady not wanting him, his charming her? Accepting the room? His presence at the meals, observation of characters? Interactions? His taking them all on the boat ride - and the possibility of their being different? His telling of the truth, watching people, listening to them? His confrontation with Mr Wright - and the clash between the angel and devil characters? The robbery, his vindicating Stasia? His disappearance? The Christ-figure, the guardian angel, the enigmatic stranger who transforms people's lives?

7.The landlady, her snobbishness, her treatment of her guests, harshness on Stasia, welcoming the stranger? The outing? Her harshness, the rash judgments?

8.The family, their poverty, signing the cheque, false impressions, gentility but poverty? The pressure on their daughter and her having to marry Mr Wright? The daughter, her loving her would-be fiance, her not having the strength to go against her parents? The agony of the meal, going to her room? The parents and their encounters with the stranger?

9.Mr Wright, new money, industry, temptation - his confrontation with the stranger? His devilish manner, wanting to tempt and seduce people, especially by riches and power? The confrontation and his death?

10.The fiance, his drinking, angers, relationship with the daughter, with the parents?

11.The pianist, the stranger listening to him, classical music, jazzed-up music, the stranger highlighting his potential?

12.The snobbish woman, her name-dropping, her accusing Stasia of being a thief, finding her goods? Arrogance? The model and her presence, her arrogance, style, criticisms?

13.The organ player, the people's treatment of him, playing on the street? The final solution and the death and the robbery?

14.A fable for Britain of the '20s and '30s? The story being adapted over the decades for contemporary audiences? Human nature, the potential for good, the need for a transforming stranger?