Rent Stranger on the 3rd Floor (1940)

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

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

This is a very minor, low budget release and it's isn't likely that it inspired the pioneers of noir, but some of its technical team would become 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 many quirky plot points that predict emerging noir themes. McGuire is eventually accused of both murders and his girlfriend (Margaret Tallichet) must investigate to clear his name, just like Phantom Lady or many other adaptations of Cornell Woolrich stories. There is a voice over narration, a dream sequence, a feeling of oppressive uncertainty with an innocent man confronted by a malign, inexorable fate.

The narrative 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. Aside from historical interest, it is an entertaining and unusual film. 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.