Rent Stranger on the 3rd Floor (1940)

Lorre Crash - Stranger on the 3rd Floor review by griggs

Strange on the Third Floor has a reputation as “the first film noir.” But I’m not convinced that makes it essential viewing. It’s more a fever dream of Dutch angles, expressionistic lighting and overwrought acting than a fully formed thriller. Peter Lorre finally appear—with silent menace—in the last 10 minutes, and suddenly it feels like a real film. Shame, then, that the rest of it is so stiff. The leads are acting so much as clawing through the script, and the dialogue doesn’t help. It’s a curiosity, not a classic—worth watching if you love noir history, but not much more.

Pre-Noir Oddity. - Stranger on the 3rd Floor review by Steve

Fascinating curiosity which pre-dates many of the techniques and motifs which would soon be applied to film noir. A reporter (John McGuire) gives evidence at a trial which may send an innocent man (Elisha Cook Jr.) to the chair for murder. Under this pressure, the newsman's psyche begins to unravel just as he spies a mysterious stranger (Peter Lorre) who may be the real killer.

This was a minor, low budget release and it's isn't likely that it inspired the pioneers of noir. But some of its technical team became key players in the genre, like cinematographer Nicolas Musuraca (Build My Gallows High) and art director Van Nest Polglase (Gilda). They are the main contributors here, giving the film an ostentatiously expressionistic look.

There are quirky details that predict noir themes. McGuire is eventually accused of both murders and his girlfriend (Margaret Tallichet) must investigate to clear his name, which is a classic noir premise. There is voice over narration, a dream sequence, and a sense of oppressive uncertainty with an innocent man confronted by a malign, inexorable fate.

It was clearly influenced by Franz Kafka and feels like the work of the Hollywood socialists of the period. Authority figures are shadowy, menacing figures. The individual is helpless to resist. McGuire and Tallichet lack star wattage, but Lorre brings a surge of energy towards the climax and is appropriate casting for a production that owes a debt to German Expressionism.