LURED

US, 1947, 102 minutes, Black and white.
Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff, George Zucco, Robert Coote, Alan Napier.
Directed by Douglas Sirk.

Lured has a British setting. It has a strong British cast led by George Sanders and Cedric Hardwicke to give it some authenticity. However, it was made in the United States, with Lucille Ball in the central role, as a dancer stranded in London. Charles Coburn is the Scotland Yard inspector. And there is an amusing turn from an at first seemingly-sinister George Zucco.

Audiences familiar with the Jack the Ripper stories will have them in mind as they watch this story of a serial killer in contemporary London. The film has a sinister atmosphere rather than explicit violence.

Lucille Ball is always a strong screen presence. Here she is a dancer who is used by Scotland Yard to do some detection as to who the killer might be. Employed as a servant, she also exposes a ring of people who abduct women and send them to South America. She encounters a wealthy owner of nightclubs, a suave George Sanders, and falls in love with him. Plot-wise, he is an obvious suspect. But he shares rooms with a lawyer, played by Cedric Hardwicke, and by mid-film is not difficult to see that he is the killer. However, the inspector plays a cat and mouse game with him to prove his guilt. One of the characteristics of the killer is his sending poems to Scotland Yard announcing his killings, the theme of death in beauty – the poems based on the French poet, Baudelaire.

At one stage, Boris Karloff appears as a mad costume designer, a potential suspect, but merely an unusual interlude in the film.

Lured was directed by Douglas Sirk who had migrated from Germany in the 1930s, made a number of dramas in Hollywood in the 1940s but was to become very famous and an influence on later directors like Todd Haynes with his melodramas, Magnificent Obsession and All that Heaven Allows.

1. An entertaining melodrama of the 1940s? American-made? British-set? The British cast and authenticity? Lucille Ball as an American, explanations given for her presence in London?

2. The recreation of London, Piccadilly circus, the clubs, theatre, homes, Scotland Yard, the dark streets? The atmospheric score?

3. The title, considered too like ‘lurid’ at the time, the change to Personal Column?

4. The serial killer genre, conventions for picking up the girls, the advertisements in the personal columns, the gullible girls, the rendezvous, shadow suggestions of the killer, his writing the poems, based on Baudelaire, sending them to Scotland Yard? The range of possible suspects?

5. The taxi dancers, the hall, the clientele, the girls and their reaction? The boss? Lucy working there, answering the personal column, hoping for something new, the meeting, her death? Sandra, wanting to help? The card for the audition for Fleming? The phone call, thinking it was Fleming’s secretary, the repartee on the phone, Fleming being attracted?

6. Lucy missing, the effect on Sandra, going to Scotland Yard, the interview with the inspector, his testing her out, using her as bait, her strength of convictions? The other members of Scotland Yard force?

7. Sandra’s job in answering personal columns, the various meetings? The rendezvous with the dress designer, Boris Karloff’s presence and performance, his madness, dressing her in the gown, for her performance to the audience, the dog and the mannequins? His mania about his designs being stolen? The attack on Sandra? The intervention of Barrett, his fight with the designer, the arrest, his coming to get Sandra, revelation that he was an officer, and his assignment to protect her?

8. The rendezvous with the music lover? The wrong man in the wrong seat? Fleming and his accompanying Julian to the concert? Schubert’s Unfinished? His watching Sandra, meeting her at the interval, her discovering that he was Fleming and his discovering who she was? Her going into the park, the attack, Fleming and the fist-fight, rescuing her? Barrett turning up?

9. Sandra and the interview for going into service, the interviewer and his staff, sinister, her work, meeting the mastermind, his rejecting her, the name of the ship, the taking of the girls, reporting to Scotland Yard? A chance meeting with Robert?

10. The end of her work for Scotland Yard? Commendation? Engagement, buying the dress, socials, going to the nightclub, getting the girl to sing the song again?

11. The inspector and his deciding that the serial killer was still at large? That the smuggling group would not be sending poems to Scotland Yard?

12. Robert and his sharing the rooms with Julian, Julian and his skills, business, design, law?

13. The party, Sandra discovering the photos, the evidence of the murdered women? Suspicions of Robert? The inspector arriving, showing him the photos? Robert and his puzzle, his being arrested?

14. The effect of the arrest on Robert, refusing to see Sandra, the evidence against him?

15. The range of suspects with Julian the only one left? His suspicious behaviour? His being at the concert? His sinister look? Embarrassment with women?

16. The visit of the inspector, speculations, cat and mouse and suggestions of how Julian could be the killer? The poems of Baudelaire? The themes of beauty in death? The range of poems sent by the killer, using these themes? Scotland Yard and the typewriter, the typing, the paper, all connected with Robert? Robert’s confession of guilt?

17. Julian, getting the air ticket, the taxi? Sandra’s arrival, forcing him to stay, setting off his madness, his attempt to kill her, the arrival of the inspector and the police, the arrest?

18. Sandra going to the club, meeting Robert, getting two glasses for the drink?