Stranger on the Third Floor
Stranger on the Third Floor
Is a high quality low budget noir from RKO starring Peter Lorre. I wish that it was on DVD.
Ken, I posted the following the other day on a different thread (THIS GUN FOR HIRE) but it definitely belongs here, on your new thread.
Any number of early 1940s noirs (MALTESE FALCON, THIS GUN FOR HIRE, etc) are often cited as "the first American film noir." But that honor would go to the unheralded 1940 RKO "B" gem, STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR. Released in the summer of that year, it was literally the first film to blatantly exploit many of the defining elements that would later come to typify film noir: expressionistic, high contrast photography (the director, Boris Ingster emigrated to the US from Germany; the cinematographer was Nicholas Musaraca, who would subsequently be responsible for the Val Lewton classics "Cat People" and "The 7th Victim" as well as future noir standards "The Spiral Staircase," "The Locket," and "Out of the Past"), a studio contrived urban milieu comprised of dingy rooming houses and seedy diners and populated by characters drenched in cynicism and paranoia. At the center of it all is Peter Lorre in a small but crucial role, one which echoes somewhat his performance in Lang's M a decade earlier. The film also features a disturbing, expressionistic dream sequence unlike anything you're likely to see in a "B" picture!
TCM runs this film periodically and it should not be missed under any circumstances. Incidentally, it is truly a crime of omission that Warner Home Video has curiously avoided including this landmark title in their various Film Noir box sets. Over the years it has been released on both VHS tape and Laser Disc.
Any number of early 1940s noirs (MALTESE FALCON, THIS GUN FOR HIRE, etc) are often cited as "the first American film noir." But that honor would go to the unheralded 1940 RKO "B" gem, STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR. Released in the summer of that year, it was literally the first film to blatantly exploit many of the defining elements that would later come to typify film noir: expressionistic, high contrast photography (the director, Boris Ingster emigrated to the US from Germany; the cinematographer was Nicholas Musaraca, who would subsequently be responsible for the Val Lewton classics "Cat People" and "The 7th Victim" as well as future noir standards "The Spiral Staircase," "The Locket," and "Out of the Past"), a studio contrived urban milieu comprised of dingy rooming houses and seedy diners and populated by characters drenched in cynicism and paranoia. At the center of it all is Peter Lorre in a small but crucial role, one which echoes somewhat his performance in Lang's M a decade earlier. The film also features a disturbing, expressionistic dream sequence unlike anything you're likely to see in a "B" picture!
TCM runs this film periodically and it should not be missed under any circumstances. Incidentally, it is truly a crime of omission that Warner Home Video has curiously avoided including this landmark title in their various Film Noir box sets. Over the years it has been released on both VHS tape and Laser Disc.
Lorre's first line in the movie (he has appeared without speaking prior to this) is wonderfully macabre, even if it turns out to have a mundane explanation.
This is a good movie that straddles the line between horror and noir. (I think it was released as a horror film and is now seen as the first noir.) "Among the Living" with Albert Dekker is another film from the same year that is a horror/noir hybrid.
This is a good movie that straddles the line between horror and noir. (I think it was released as a horror film and is now seen as the first noir.) "Among the Living" with Albert Dekker is another film from the same year that is a horror/noir hybrid.