The Many Grays of the Thames
The Lodger (1944)
directed by John Brahm
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Unfortunately, there's so little mystery surrounding the lodger's true identity, it isn't so much a question of waiting for a climax as it is making the most of details along the way. Laird Cregar helps, of course - he of "His Excellency" fame from Heaven Can Wait, and a much too early death. And I don't know if the story of Merle Oberon falling in love with cinematographer Lucien Ballard is true, but it's an awfully romantic use of Ballard's foggy London streets and attic rooms shaped by gaslight. I'd never heard of the Black Museum before, and cannot imagine it as anything other than a disappointment now, having been introduced to me first by George Sanders as the man with a fingerprint kit from Scotland Yard.
directed by John Brahm
rating: 3 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix
Unfortunately, there's so little mystery surrounding the lodger's true identity, it isn't so much a question of waiting for a climax as it is making the most of details along the way. Laird Cregar helps, of course - he of "His Excellency" fame from Heaven Can Wait, and a much too early death. And I don't know if the story of Merle Oberon falling in love with cinematographer Lucien Ballard is true, but it's an awfully romantic use of Ballard's foggy London streets and attic rooms shaped by gaslight. I'd never heard of the Black Museum before, and cannot imagine it as anything other than a disappointment now, having been introduced to me first by George Sanders as the man with a fingerprint kit from Scotland Yard.
posted by NPK at 7:51 AM
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