HANGOVER SQUARE
US, 1944, 77 minutes, Black and white.
Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Glenn Langan, Faye Marlowe, Alan Napier.
Directed by John Brahm.
Hangover Square is a brief period melodrama. It is in the style of director John Brahm's The Lodger, made the previous year with Laird Cregar and George Sanders. This time the film focuses on a schizophrenic composer who loses his personality and wreaks violence on people who seem to betray him. The black and white photography and the re-creation of turn of the century period is quite effective.
The film is also enhanced by a score by Bernard Herrmann who was to work with Hitchcock in many of his significant '50s thrillers.
Star Laird Cregar appeared in many Fox dramas and comedies in the early '40s. Conscious of his weight, he underwent too strenuous diets and exercise to lose weight for his career and died after the making of this film.
The film has some impact, especially with its violent scenes - and seems quite striking and bold for a film of the '40s.
1. An entertaining thriller? Psychological drama?
2. Black and white photography? Light and darkness, shadow? The re-creation of period, atmosphere? London, the turn of the century? The contribution of Bernard Herrmann’s atmospheric score, the concerto and its place in the climax of the film? The work of author Patrick Hamilton and his thrillers (Gaslight, Rope)?
3. London, the turn of the century, the atmosphere e.g. of Jack the Ripper? The work of John Brahm and his thrillers? The cast and their popularity?
4. Laird Cregar as George: as character, alone and lonely, the audience seeing him kill the shop-owner, set fire to the store? His madness? Lapse of memory? His skill in music, composition? His relationship with Netta, her using him, wanting his music for her songs? Her betrayal of him? Barbara and her father, their support? His attack on Barbara? The periods of loss of memory and his intensity, strangling? The murder of Netta, the death of the cat, carrying Netta to the bonfire? Middleton and the information e.g. of cords and knots? Middleton's trying to understand him? The build-up to the recital, Middleton trying to stop him, his performance after being late, the climax, the police, his not being able to carry on? The visuals of his memory coming to him during the performance? His staying to play in the burning house? A portrait of a mad man?
5. Netta and the background of the theatre, glamour, using George, her relationships, fickleness, her death?
6. The contrast with Barbara, aristocratic, beauty, support and love, George's attempt on her during his madness, her support of him, playing the concerto?
7. Middleton, his writings, his investigations, Scotland Yard and the police?
8. The style of the composition, it being a work of George's personality, the recital? The house burning down and falling around the playing composer?
9. The film's style, detail: houses, streets? The sequences with the cat? The curtain cord? The Guy Fawkes bonfire and the burning of Netta?
10. An entertaining melodrama? Exploration of psychological themes - and the information and styles of investigation in films of the '40s?
