Every time I see a film, or a TV-episode, directed by John Brahm, I'm grabbing the opportunity to state my humble opinion that he is (was ...) the most underrated director of all times! His contributions to "The Twilight Zone" prove it, "The Mad Magician" with Vincent Price proves it, and the overlooked werewolf movie "The Undying Monster" proves it. But his accomplishments that prove it the most undoubtedly are the two masterful horror/film-noir hybrids he made together with Laird Cregar. "The Lodger" was a stupendous adaptation of Marie Bellow Lowndes' Jack the Ripper novel, and "Hangover Square" is inspired by the writings of Patrick Hamilton ("Gaslight", "Rope").
"Hangover Square" has occasionally been labeled as a self-conscious attempt to repeat the success of "The Lodger", but I politely beg to differ, since both films are solid classics in their own right. Comparisons are inevitable, for sure. The charismatic Cregar stars again as the anti-hero, this time depicting an overworked and easy-to-manipulate classical music composer George Harvey Bone, who goes on a murderous streak whenever cacophonous sounds cause his brain going into blackout modus. Even though he committed to finishing a highly artistic concerto, the irresistible but scheming night club singer Netta keeps seducing him to waste his talents on hip pop-songs, and that's more than his sensitive nerves can bare. Apart from Cregar's flawless performance and Brahm's tight direction, "Hangover Square" benefices mostly from a wondrous Edwardian era London-setting, Bernard Herrmann's fabulous score, and a handful of downright brilliant sequences. Bone's uniquely chilling method to get rid of a corpse during a Guy Fawkes bonfire is the most remarkable one, obviously, but also the moody opening sequences and the Grand Guignol climax are amazing. Highly recommended.
This was Laird Cregar's final film, as he passed away far too young (30) due to a heart-attack and a heavy stomach operation. Shame, because, purely based on his roles in "The Lodger" and "Hangover Square", he was destined to become a genre monument as big as Vincent Price or Boris Karloff.
"Hangover Square" has occasionally been labeled as a self-conscious attempt to repeat the success of "The Lodger", but I politely beg to differ, since both films are solid classics in their own right. Comparisons are inevitable, for sure. The charismatic Cregar stars again as the anti-hero, this time depicting an overworked and easy-to-manipulate classical music composer George Harvey Bone, who goes on a murderous streak whenever cacophonous sounds cause his brain going into blackout modus. Even though he committed to finishing a highly artistic concerto, the irresistible but scheming night club singer Netta keeps seducing him to waste his talents on hip pop-songs, and that's more than his sensitive nerves can bare. Apart from Cregar's flawless performance and Brahm's tight direction, "Hangover Square" benefices mostly from a wondrous Edwardian era London-setting, Bernard Herrmann's fabulous score, and a handful of downright brilliant sequences. Bone's uniquely chilling method to get rid of a corpse during a Guy Fawkes bonfire is the most remarkable one, obviously, but also the moody opening sequences and the Grand Guignol climax are amazing. Highly recommended.
This was Laird Cregar's final film, as he passed away far too young (30) due to a heart-attack and a heavy stomach operation. Shame, because, purely based on his roles in "The Lodger" and "Hangover Square", he was destined to become a genre monument as big as Vincent Price or Boris Karloff.