Stranger on the third floor

Movie
Original title	Stranger on the third floor
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1940
length	64 minutes
Rod
Director	Boris Ingster
script	Frank Partos , Nathanael West (anonymous)
production	Lee Marcus
music	Roy Webb
camera	Nicholas Musuraca
occupation
Peter Lorre : The Stranger John McGuire : Michael 'Mike' Ward Margaret Tallichet : Jane Charles Waldron : District Attorney Elisha Cook Jr .: Joe Briggs Charles Halton : Albert Meng Ethel Griffies : Landlady Mrs. Kane Cliff Clark : Martin Oscar O'Shea : Judge Alec Craig : Briggs' defense attorney Otto Hoffman : Dr. Evans, surgeon

Stranger on the Third Floor is an American crime film from 1940. This film, as well as the much better known The Trail of the Falcon, are considered the first films in the Film Noir or Black Series .

action

Reporter Michael Ward is the main witness in a murder case. His testimony that he saw the Defendant Briggs hunched over the body of a dead man in a restaurant was the main reason Briggs pleaded guilty. Later, however, Ward's fiancée Jane is concerned whether Ward actually saw what he said and Ward becomes unsure himself. A short time later, Ward's neighbor is killed in exactly the same way as the man in the restaurant. Ward is arrested for trying to bring this to the attention of the police. Now Jane sets out to acquit Ward of the murder charge and to find the eerie stranger whom Ward saw in the stairwell.

Reviews

When the film came out in 1940, the reviews were rather muted. Bosley Crowther of the New York Times criticized the fact that the film was made to appear as a psychological melodrama by thickly applied sound effects and spruced up camera work, and Variety magazine also labeled it too predictable.

In a 1996 review by Dave Kehr for the Chicago Reader , Dave Kehr described the film as too contrived, but therefore interesting. Director Ingster was better at portraying shadows than his actors. Original quote: "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 [...]."

Web links

• Stranger on the Third Floor in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• filmzentrale.de about Stranger on the Third Floor
• Stranger on the Third Floor at Rotten Tomatoes (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Original quote: "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." (Crowther, Bosley. THE SCREEN; 'Stranger on the Third Floor,' Murder Mystery, at Rialto - 'Gold Rush Maisie' Seen at Criterion . The New York Times . Film review , September 2, 1940. Last accessed April 6 2008.)
2. ^ Stranger on the Third Floor . Variety . Film review, 1940. Last accessed on February 21, 2008.
3. ↑ Kehr, Dave: Stranger on the Third Floor . Chicago Reader . Film review, 1996. Last accessed April 6, 2008