LOVE FROM A STRANGER
UK, 1937, 86 minutes, Black and white.
Ann Harding, Basil Rathbone, Binnie Hale, Bruce Seaton, Jean Cadell, Joan Hickson.
Directed by Rowland V. Lee.
This film is based on an Agatha Christie short story which was dramatised for the theatre by Frank Vosper. There have been a number of versions of the story including a 1947 period-setting version with Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak.
It is best not to look at the poster before seeing the film because the villain is revealed in the tagline as well as the photo! For those who follow the film without this information, it doesn’t need Poirot or Miss Marple to indicate that Basil Rathbone is a villain who is after Ann Harding’s money which she has acquired from winning the lottery.
However, halfway through the film, the camera focuses on his face and rather insane expressions – and his performance revs up from there, many considering it quite over the top.
The story is fairly straightforward. Ann Harding portrays Carol a young woman who teaches piano and supports her friend Kate, Binnie Hale, and her eccentric aunt Lou, character actor Jean Cadell. Carol is also engaged to a nice young man, Bruce Seaton, but falls in love with the charming but sinister gentleman who comes to rent a room, Basil Rathbone, on the verge of being both Sherlock Holmes and the Sheriff of Nottingham and a very successful career.
When Basil Rathbone borrows money from his wife, intending to pay her back, we know that everything is sinister. He buys a cottage in the country and bans everyone from going into a cellar. The audience sees him behaving quite oddly down the. His wife becomes concerned, especially when playing the piano and he urges her to play faster and faster and faster. When he is in the cellar, the background music is Grieg’s In the Halls of the Mountain King.
The final confrontation between husband and wife occurs when it is revealed that he has a book written about himself and his murders. He is grandiose and narcissistic. His wife tries to defend herself from his killing her by saying that she too had got away with murder and spins a story, which he recognises from the book he has read, but she indicates that he is being poisoned, which he is not. However, he collapses and his wife is saved.
1. An Agatha Christie short story? From the 1930s? As dramatised for the stage?
2. The British settings, Carol and her American accent? The rooms, the music lessons, workplaces? International travel? Paris and the collecting of the money? The cottage in the country, the interiors, the cellar? The musical score? The use of Grieg and the pace of the music?
3. The title and its irony? For box office, the change to Night of Terror?
4. Carol, her life, with Katie and the aunt, the aunt’s eccentricities and hypochondria? The piano lessons? Winning the lottery? Going shopping? Promising to help Kate and her aunt and doing so? Ronnie and his absence, his return, her offering the money, his not wanting to be dependent, wanting his new job?
5. The arrival of Gerald Lovell? Basil Rathbone’s appearance and manner? Gentlemanly? The situation, his return, examining the flat, accepting?
6. Carol, the clash with Ronnie about his work? Gerald Lovell on the rebound? His following her to Paris? His devotion, her falling in love? Ronnie and Kate visiting? The revelation of the marriage? The travel? Gerald as the devoted husband?
7. His borrowing the money from Carol, promising it was just business? Buying a house in the country? Their going? Hobson and the management, the garden? Emma, rather slow-witted, her role in the plans? Hobson forbidden to go into the cellar, Gerald saying his photography equipment was there?
8. Buying the piano, Carol playing, his urging her to play faster? The burning of the photos? Carol going into the cellar, his outburst? The concern about his health, the doctor? The discussions about Peter Fletcher and his murders, the book, the absent photo?
9. The promise about the Fair, Hobson and his help in the garden? Emma, clumsy? Being paid, going to the fair? Gerald and Carol? The doctor with the book, the photo of Gerald, blond?
10. The edginess, Carol preparing the meal, the eating it? Gerald and his increasingly odd behaviour? Explanations about Peter Fletcher and his brilliance, his murders, charming women
11. the long dialogue between Carol and Gerald? Her pretending that she had committed a murder, his being intrigued, then recognising the story? The issue of poison, his heart? Collapse?
12. Ronnie and Kate having visited, the return, the rescue of Carol?
