Stranger on the Third Floor

Infobox_Film
name = Stranger on the Third Floor


caption = Theatrical Poster
director = Boris Ingster
producer = Lee S. Marcus
writer = Frank Partos
Nathanael West
starring = Peter Lorre John McGuire Elisha Cook Jr.
music = Roy Webb
cinematography = Nicholas Musuraca
editing = Harry Marker
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
released = August 16, 1940
runtime = 64 minutes
country = United States
language = English
budget = $171,200 (estimated)
amg_id = 1:47215
imdb_id = 0033107|

"Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940) is a film noir thriller, featuring Peter Lorre, co-written by Nathaniel West, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The picture was directed by Boris Ingster. [imdb title|id=0033107|title=Stranger on the Third Floor.]

It is often referred to as the first "true" film noir of the classic period (1940-1959). [See, e.g., Lyons (2000), p. 36 ("RKO is usually cited as having produced the first true film noir, "Stranger on the Third Floor"); Server (1998), p. 158 ("Often credited as the 'first' film noir")] [Silver, Alain, and Elizabeth Ward, eds. "Film Noir: An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style," "film noir" review and analysis by Bob Porfiero, page 269, 3rd edition, 1992. Woodstock, New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 0-87951-479-5.] It has many of the hallmarks of "noir": an urban setting, heavy shadows, diagonal lines, low camera angles shooting up multi-storey staircases, and an innocent protagonist falsely accused of a crime and desperate to clear himself.

Plot

Reporter Michael Ward is the key witness in a murder trial. His evidence – that he saw the accused Briggs standing over the body of a man in a diner – is instrumental in having Briggs deemed guilty.

Afterwards Ward’s fiancee Jane is worried whether Ward was correct in what he saw and Ward becomes haunted by this question. Next Ward’s neighbour is killed the same way as the man in the diner. But Ward is arrested for trying to point this out to the police. And so Jane goes out to try and clear Ward by finding the sinister stranger that Ward saw on the stairwell.

Cast

* Peter Lorre as The Stranger
* John McGuire as Mike Ward
* Margaret Tallichet as Jane
* Charles Waldron as District Attorney
* Elisha Cook Jr. as Joe Briggs
* Charles Halton as Albert Meng
* Ethel Griffies as Mrs. Kane, Michael's landlady
* Cliff Clark as Martin
* Oscar O'Shea as The Judge
* Alec Craig as Briggs' Defense Attorney
* Otto Hoffman as Charles Evans, the Police Surgeon

Critical reception

Upon its release in 1940, "The New York Times" film critic, Bosley Crowther, called the film pretentious and derivative of French and Russian films, and wrote, "John McGuire and Margaret Tallichet, as the reporter and his girl, are permitted to act half-way normal, it is true. But in every other respect, including Peter Lorre's brief role as the whack, it is utterly wild. The notion seems to have been that the way to put a psychological melodrama across is to pile on the sound effects and trick up the photography." [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9A01E6D6133EE432A25751C0A96F9C946193D6CF&oref=slogin Crowther, Bosley] . "The New York Times," film review, September 2, 1940. Last accessed: December 29, 2007. Last accessed: February 21, 2008.]

The staff at "Variety" also believed the film was derivative, and wrote, "The familiar artifice of placing the scribe in parallel plight, with the newspaperman arrested for two slayings and only clearing himself because of his sweetheart's persistent search for the real slayer, is used...Boris Ingster's direction is too studied and when original, lacks the flare to hold attention. It's a film too arty for average audiences, and too humdrum for others." [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117795252.html?categoryid=31&cs=1&p=0 "Variety"] . Film review, 1940. Last accessed: February 21, 2008.]

Dave Kehr, writing for the "Chicago Reader," calls the film "An RKO B-film from 1940, done up in high Hollywood expressionism. It's absurdly overwrought (which was often the problem with the German variety), but interesting for it. The director, Boris Ingster, is better with shadows than with actors—venetian blinds carve up the characters with more fateful force than Paul Schrader's similar gambit in "American Gigolo", and there's a dream sequence that has to be seen to be disbelieved." [ [http://onfilm.chicagoreader.com/movies/capsules/12526_STRANGER_ON_THE_THIRD_FLOOR.html Kehr, Dave] ] . "Chicago Reader", film review, 1996.]

Currently, the film has a 80% "Fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on five professional reviews. [ [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stranger_on_the_third_floor/ "Stranger on the Third Floor"] at Rotten Tomatoes. Last accessed: December 29, 2007.]

References

Additional references

* Lyons, Arthur (2000). "Death on the Che

* Server, Lee (1998). "The Black List: Essential Film Noir" in "The Big Book of Noir", ed. Ed Gorman, Lee Server, and Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-0574-4

External links

*.
*.
*.
* [http://noiroftheweek.blogspot.com/2007/11/strangers-on-third-floor-1940.html "Stranger on the Third Floor"] at Film Noir of the Week.