Hangover Square

Plot synopsis:
Set against the backdrop of the days preceding Britain declaring war on Germany, the main character is George Harvey Bone, a lonely borderline alcoholic who suffers from a split personality. He is obsessed with gaining the affections of Netta, a failed actress and one of George's circle of "friends" with whom he drinks. Netta is repelled by George but, being greedy and manipulative, she and a mutual acquaintance, Peter, shamelessly exploit George's advances to extract money and drink from him.
George suffers from 'dead moods' in which he is convinced he must kill Netta for the way she treats him. Upon recovering from these interludes, he cannot remember them. However outside these he embarks on several adventures, trying in vain to win Netta's affections, including a 'romantic' trip to Brighton which goes horribly wrong (Netta brings Peter and a previously unknown man with whom she has sex in the hotel room next to George's).
Apart from being a source of money and alcohol, Netta's other reason for continuing to associate with George is because of Johnnie. He is one of George's long-time friends who works for a theatrical agent, and Netta hopes that through him she will get to meet Eddie Carstairs, a powerful figure in the theatre. However, in a final reversal of fortune it is George, not Netta, who ends up attending a party amongst the theatrical great and good whilst Netta is cast aside by Eddie who (unlike George) has immediately seen her for the unpleasant person she is. George suddenly realises what it is like to be surrounded by 'kind' people who are interested in him as a person rather than what he can provide.
This potentially promising turn of events in George's life is, however, dashed, when he suddenly clicks into a dead mood and resumes his murder plans. He executes his murder of Netta (and also of Peter, whom the narrative describes as a 'fascist' moments before he is murdered) before escaping to Maidenhead. Throughout the novel, Maidenhead represents for George a semi-mythical new beginning, and representing a picture of traditional Englishness in contrast to the seaminess of Earl's Court. However, in the closing pages of the novel the stark fallacy of that dream becomes apparent to George. It is the same as everywhere else. Now penniless, he gasses himself in a dingy Maidenhead boarding house.

Tags: insanity, romantic, murder

Review:
Hangover Square is the last film Laird Cregar made in his brief, remarkable career.
Like the previous year's The Lodger, also a Cregar-Brahm collaboration, this is a killer on the loose in Victorian London movie.
Aside from some fancily shot scenes early on, this would not in itself be an extraordinary film but for Cregar's portrayal of the lead character, a man who murders when he hears loud, sudden noises.
In his quieter moments the man is, of all things, a composer!There are many fine scenes in this film but it's basically Cregar's show from start to finish, and he does not disappoint.
Perhaps the best way to describe Cregar's acting style here is to imagine A Streetcar Named Desire being performed entirely inside someone's mind, with the characters of Stanley and Blanche being played by the same actor, in a Victorian setting, disguised as a murder story.
Not too shabby for a morbidly obese man several inches over six feet in height who, while still in his twenties, was playing men well into their forties.Cregar had a way of making even accomplished co-stars like Cedric Hardwicke and George Sanders look like amateurs by comparison.
Once he gets rolling, scene after scene is jaw-dropping in his array of lights and shadows - superb stuff.Laird Cregar, meanwhile, is mesmerizing as "George Harvey Bone," a demented composer who, upon hearing discordant notes, literally goes insane and gets violent, intending to choke the life out of the last person who got him upset.
particularly since his career was so short.Linda Darnell adds a lot of sex appeal and evilness to "Hangover Square" and George Sanders - surprise - plays a good guy.
HANGOVER SQUARE is one of my favorite films in which LAIRD CREGAR appeared--in fact, his last before a crash diet ruined his health and led to his death at age 28.
LINDA DARNELL makes an attractive romantic presence in her period costuming (it takes place in Victorian London), and GEORGE SANDERS does a nice job as a doctor (a good guy for a change).The scenes that stand out are Cregar climbing the ladder of a bonfire to dispose of his latest victim and the finale where he's playing the piano in a deserted building as the flames spread around him--all the while Bernard Herrmann's score is making an impact.It's a delicious LAIRD CREGAR performance and a fitting finale to his short but illustrious career.
The 2 main leads, Cregar & Sanders, the director & writer were involved in the making of The Lodger - a Jack the Ripper film - the year before..
HANGOVER SQUARE was Laird Cregar's last film (he died at 28) and he turns in a fine performance.
John Brahm was a terrific director who was not afraid to use unusual shots (ever see the work he did for TV's Twilight Zone?), the performances are exceptional, and Bernard Herrmann's score is top-of-the-line.Having said that, I must ask the big question:  why must the lovers of this film have to wait over a decade between screenings?
In 1903, in London, the prominent classical pianist George Harvey Bone (Laird Cregar) stabs a shop owner to death and set his store on fire.
The music score by Bernard Herrmann is awesome and Laird Cregar convinces in the role of a pianist in his last work.
This (unfortunately) little-known movie is one of the best, and would easily make my top 100 list for many reasons, but mostly for the brilliant Bernard Herrmann score which features a superb one-movement piano concerto, one of his greatest works..
This film reunites Cregar and Sanders with director Brahm from "The Lodger" the previous year, and, like the earlier film, it is visually opulent but the story is less than compelling.
Character actor Laird Cregar received his first starring role in this exceptionally loose adaptation of Patrick Hamilton's novel about a mild-mannered composer with a latent homicidal streak.
In gas-lit London (via Hollywood), Cregar falls hard for Linda Darnell, playing a greedy chanteuse who uses the pianist for his songwriting talents; little does she know, he also harbors a 'Mr. Hyde'-like tendency to go off the beam whenever he hears loud, obtrusive noises.
The British Catalogue Of Music lists him as a Distinguished Gentleman...1944 saw producer Robert Bassler, writer Barré Lyndon, director John Brahm and leading actors George Sanders and Laird Cregar, make the terrific and atmospheric The Lodger.
Linda Darnell {what a pair of legs}, George Sanders, Glenn Langan and Faye Marlowe all contribute to what is a top notch production.Hangover Square, a captivating tale about passion, obsession, insanity and murder.
Herrmann is the man behind the music for a whole slew of great movies from "Citizen Kane" to "Psycho." He writes with gutsy, vigorous originality, a striking counterpart to that other legendary composer, Max Steiner, who is more clever and graceful in his scoring.
Herrmann feels more like a tortured serious composer trapped in a movie world, and it really works.Now throw in one of the handful of best cinematographers of the 1940s, Joseph LaShelle (around this time he did both "Laura" and "Fallen Angel") and you have a sensual film through and through.
In a way, it probably isn't so much an escape for war-torn Britain in early 1945 but a reminder of it, a fictional echo of pure chaos and fear.The centerpiece of the movie is a young actor who I knew only from his really compelling role in "This Gun For Hire." This is the unlikely lead man, Laird Cregar, who died just after filming this movie, at the age of 31, due to complications caused by preparing for the part.
Oh, and George Sanders, one of my favorite secondary men in these British movies, is terrific but oddly underplayed, maybe to let Cregar have the spotlight.If you do like this as much as I did, you might want to know that the director, John Brahm, did a number of interesting films, including the terrific "The Lodger" which has some of this same edgy stylizing, and a dozen early "Twilight Zone" episodes.
Laird Cregar made this movie another Film Classic with his great acting skills, he made you feel for his pain and suffering as a mentally disturbed musician.
The music score still rings in my ears and during the final scene of the film where  Laird Cregar gave his final performance in more ways than one.
Freudian movies were countless in the first half of the forties:from "Cat people" to "spellbound" ,and from "secret beyond the door" to "the dark mirror" ,there were plenty of good movies inspired by the good doctor.I do not think that "Hangover Square" is in the same league as the four previous works,but it would be unfair to overlook it.A musician who does not want his art to be mistreated ,in a way.A dissonant note can drive him crazy and ready to commit murder.There are suspenseful scenes ,particularly towards the end when the gorgeous Linda Darnell plays the piano in a concert the high society attends.Bernard Herrmann's score is terrific as ever.He will never be surpassed..
This film also stars the beautiful Linda Darnell, George Sanders, Faye Marlow and Alan Napier and has a fantastic Bernard Herrmann score.Cregar plays Bone, a brilliant composer in Victorian times who falls under the spell of a singer (Darnell) and is persuaded to write ditties for her.
John Brahm provides good direction.Like so many films, one could say this, like "Blood and Sand," is a jinxed movie - Cregar dead at 28, Darnell at 41, Sanders a suicide - but it's more important to appreciate the work of these people and be grateful we have it.
It also has the haunting music by Bernard Hermann, and with fire, being an important part of this film.The ending, is made more poignant, when you realize that Laird Cregar had died before the film was even released into theaters.
Like George Bone, the character Cregar plays in this film.
Whilst the performance of Laird Cregar as George Bone was good, the rest of the film was an entire mess.
Hangover Square (1945) *** (out of 4) Nice thriller has Laird Gregar playing a brilliant musician who turns into a psychopathic killer whenever he hears a loud sound.
what a character, since then l'd always keep track of this unsual actor on "The Lodger", "Hot Spot" and finally his last movie "Hangover Square" his sudden death with just 28 years old was devastating for film industry a heavy lost of a promissing star, this picture brings to us an astonishing music score supplied for an atypical moving camera, all those elements amplified this macabre thriller to turn in insanity, the powerful score was too louder on opening acting that seems plays for Craing himself, the mind blackout suggest a mental illiness, also for the first time George Sanders wasn't the bad guy who always he does and the sexy Linda Darnell was evil than ever using this charming to get all she wants, a valuable last movie from the unforgetable Laird Cregar!!Resume:First watch: 2019 / how many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.
I found it impossible to watch this highly-charged melodrama without thinking of the sad fate of its leading actor Laird Cregar, who embarked on a crash diet to lose weight in the hope of getting less stereotypical "heavy" (no pun intended) roles but died of a likely related heart attack before this film was released.
You can see here that he's less bulky than in some of his previous films and can certainly understand his artistic frustration but what a shame he died so young at age 31.This movie may just be another Gothic-flavoured murder mystery set in period London after the manner of "Gaslight", "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" and even the immediately preceding film of Cregar, his co-star George Sanders and director John Brahm, "The Lodger", but it's well staged, acted and filmed from first to last.Cregar is the aspiring young classical music composer all set for an artistic breakthrough and happily in tow with his loving fiancee and her well connected orchestra conductor father, only he keeps experiencing black-outs when he hears discordant sounds and when he wakes up later, someone in the neighbourhood has been murdered.
Laird Cregar stars as George Harvey Bone, a turn of the 20th century London composer.
Bernard Herrmann is one of the most valuable assets that the film can boast, as his lush score & concerto provide the perfect accompaniment for these melodramatic goings-on.One clever highlight: Bone taking advantage of a fiery Guy Fawkes celebration night.Eight out of 10..
"Hangover Square" has always been my favorite film noir because of that incredible noir brainstorming : John Brahm directing (he found his best level in this genre), Bernard Hermann's haunting music, Joseph LaShelle vertiginous camera, Barré Lyndon's script from the Patrick Hamilton's novel.
And in addition to these fantastic creators, the casting : Linda Darnell, George Sanders and the hallucinating Laird Cregar, who died too quickly.
Blacking Out. Subject to lengthy spells in which he cannot recall his actions, an overworked London composer begins to question whether he is committing murders during his blackouts in this stylish thriller starring Laird Cregar in his final big screen performance before his untimely death.
The second half of the movie is admittedly pretty solid though and Bernard Herrmann's atmospheric music score is excellent throughout, nicely coinciding with the heightened sound effects that indicate that Cregar is about to black out.
I did not know Hangover Square was the follow-up to the 1944 Lodger, and when I saw the opening scene with Cregar, I knew I was in for a treat.
By the ending climax of the film, with Cregar actually playing his Concerto (beautifully scored by Bernard Herrmann) it is the Concerto itself, which also provides the background music to drive the film, that eventually takes over.
While RKO had Val Lewton and his psychological classic like "The Seventh Victim" and "Cat People" Fox had John Brahm, a much underrated director most famous for "The Lodger" a study of Jack The Ripper that also starred this film's leading man, Laird Cregor.
This time rather than Scotland Yard detective Sanders plays a police alienist who Brahm initially seeks out when he has reason to believe that he has committed murder during one of the "missing time" intervals.Set in 19th century London, the film benefits from brooding atmosphere and a set peculiarity.
Sanders committed suicide, and while many people give the nod to Cregar in his last performance before his death, surely the most eerie aspect of the film is what happens to Darnell..
Hangover Square turned out to be the premature farewell performance of Laird Cregar who starred as the mad composer/pianist who both creates beautiful music, courtesy of composer Bernard Herrmann and strangles people who get on his wrong side.The film if it had to be a farewell was a great one as it is dominated by Cregar's performance who like in The Lodger gets both the pity and revulsion emotions going with the viewer.
As you know those across the pond celebrate it with bonfires and it's certainly an interesting way director John Brahm uses it.The famous Hollywood legend about how Laird Cregar endangered his health by trying a crash diet and then going for surgery to shrink his stomach is supposedly because Cregar wanted to get leading man roles, but his big frame and girth worked against that.
It also reunites many of the personnel from the loose 1944 remake of Hitchcock's THE LODGER, including stars Laird Cregar and George Sanders as well as director John Brahm and screenwriter Barre Lyndon.
Amid gorgeous Edwardian settings accompanied by one of the great Bernard Herrmann's most powerful scores, George Sanders is as suave as ever, while Linda Darnell is so convincing as the selfish, grasping songbird who uses and dumps poor lovestruck Laird Cregar that you're rooting for him to hear a loud noise, go nuts, and strangle her.
Admittedly, I couldn't help thinking about this as I watched HANGOVER SQUARE, but even if you don't know anything about Cregar's short life, this is a corker of a thriller.
The Actor who looks to have been born to play Oscar Wilde (and it says "on the internet" that he forced Hollywood to notice him by staging a 1 man show about Oscar), Laird Cregar evidently he died trying to transform himself into "a beautiful man" at 33 his dieting for this film killed him it says here another source told me that he died as a result of plastic surgery.
The Lodger provided the great George Sanders with a more lucrative role, but even in Hangover Square, he still impresses(..when does he not?)as a police psychiatrist who suspects Cregar might be the person responsible for the murder of a crooked antique dealer, and behind an attempted strangling of Barbara Chapman(Faye Marlowe).
This will undoubtedly seal her fate, as Bone, after entering into another lapse, strangles her, placing her corpse in a bonfire.I think maybe it's a bit unfair to compare Hangover Square with The Lodger since both are infinitely different films(..and Cregar, to his credit, is able to create two distinctively different characters), but I think what set the latter apart was the star power, with not only Sanders having a much richer part, but the likes of a Merle Oberon and Cedric Hardwicke included, it has advantages in this area alone.
I still think Hangover Square benefits because Cregar has the central core of the film based around him, not having to share with other stars.
This is basically a remake of 1944 Lodger, starring Laird Cregar as another serial killer terrorizing Victorian London of 1940's Hollywood, shot again as black and white, written again by Barre Lyndon, directed again by John Brahm and and featuring Linda Darnell (replacing Merle Oberon) as another glamorous vaudeville performer courted by the killer.
Set in the often fog-shrouded London of 1903, it tells the story of a classical musician who's aware that he has periodic blackouts and starts to become increasingly concerned because, after they've passed, he can never recall what has happened.The man in question is well-respected composer and pianist, George Harvey Bone (Laird Cregar) who's working on a new concerto that has been commissioned by Sir Henry Chapman (Alan Napier).
As the net eventually starts to close in on him, George's only remaining priority is to ensure that he manages to perform his completed concerto at Sir Henry's soiree and this leads to the movie's spectacular finale.In 1944, 20th Century Fox had scored a big hit with "The Lodger" which was a "Jack the Ripper" film and so, in an effort to repeat that success, studio head Darryl F Zanuck brought cast members, Laird Cregar and George Sanders, director John Brahm and screenwriter Barre Lyndon together again to produce the same magic with a "Jekyll and Hyde" type story.
Masterstrokes like turning Bone into a composer, setting the period back from 1939 to the turn of the century, inventing the trigger mechanism of the discordant noise (in Patrick Hamilton's novel, Bone just clicks in and out of schizophrenia without rhyme or reason), plus the film's highly-charged set-pieces (none of which, including the fiery climax, are even so much as hinted at in the book) can be credited solely to Lyndon.All the screenplay's marvelous effects are superbly realized by director John Brahm, who re-enforces their impact with extraordinarily fluid camera movements and highly imaginative compositions.The movie is also most impressively served by its star, Laird Cregar, whose crash diet led to his untimely death at the age of twenty-eight, shortly after this picture was completed.
The gorgeous Linda Darnell vamps it up as a woman determined to get rich and famous, but the standout is Laird Cregar, who apparently lost so much weight for this last movie role that he died soon after.