Hangover Square (1945)

[Moorman]

This is a pretty good noir.  George Bone ( Laird Cregar) plays a music composer who has bouts of amnesia.  During one of his bouts he kills a shopowner.  He stumbles back to his flat at 12 Hangover Square and confesses to his girlfriend that a whole day is missing from his memory.   He decides to go see a doctor at Scotland Yard named Alan Middleton ( George Sanders).  He tells Middleton that when he is overworked or stressed it triggers his amnesia.  Middleton advises him to go out among ordinary people and observe how they work and recreate.   George takes his advice and one day goes to a pub and meets Neta a aspiring singer.  She is very conniving and immediately recognizes that she can take advantage of George because he has connections in the music industry.  The plot gets deeper from there.   

I was somewhat distracted when I viewed this but saw enough to say that this is a darn good noir.  The cinematography is just fantastic here.  What really stood out to me is the musical score of this film.  Bernard Herrmann scored this and it is gorgeous.  I will rewatch this so that I can get a better take on the plot.  Its not a straight noir.  I can't really say how to classify this one just yet.   My initial ranking for this is 7.5 out of 10...

 

[Marianne]

I saw Hangover Square a few months ago and I'm not sure how to classify it either. I guess it's noir, but the period costumes seemed to detract from the "noir-ness" of  the film. And, of course, the fact that the story takes place "pre-noir": That's the best way I can describe my reaction to the film.

That scene with the bonfire also seems to put the film closer to horror. It was really creepy.

I'm not a big fan of categories, however, and putting the film into noir and horror would work for me.

[cigarjoe]

A term I've heard for these is Gaslight Noirs