Hangover Square

1945 - 77 mins - Director: John Brahm - Cast: Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders - b&w - DCP

In this moody gaslight noir set in Edwardian London, Laird Cregar, one of the most memorable character actors of the forties, had his first—and final—starring role.  He plays the talented but tortured George Harvey Bone. a classical composer driven by the sounds in his head to create majestic concertos—and beautiful corpses. Linda Darnell plays the alluring but conniving singer who inspires his popular success and his murderous rages, while sleek and sophisticated George Sanders suspects Bone’s sinister secret. 

Joseph LaShelle’s cinematography is a visual feast, and Bernard Herrmann’s extraordinary “Concerto Macabre,” centerpiece of the film’s incendiary climax, is one of the most thrilling works he composed for the cinema. A blackout alcoholic in Patrick Hamilton’s source novel, the studio changed Cregar’s character to better suit his creepy image. However, Cregar never got to see his greatest performance, dying prior to the film’s release at the age of thirty-one.

CREDITS
Director: John Brahm
Cast: Laird Cregar, Linda Darnell, George Sanders
Screenplay: Barré Lyndon
Cinematographer: Joseph LaShelle
Music: Bernard Herrmann
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Presentation: DCP / b&w / 1.37:1