Hangover Square, Wake Up a Murderer

There you are.  You wake up, or snap out of it!  No memory of the last hour, or 24. The newspaper is filled with stories of young women strangled in your neighborhood and the cops have no clues. Anything to worry about?  For our protagonist, or is he an antagonist, in our film, there might be.  Even worse, there are two babes in his life...both have necks that scream, "Strangle me!" Laird Cregar usually plays the heavy, but in today's film, he plays a sympathetic sort who might be the victim of a weird amnesia. Our feature is 1945's "Hangover Square," directed by John Brahm.

George Harvey Bone (Cregar) is a wonderful pianist and composer. He's working on a beautiful concerto that will be performed and conducted in a big concert hall and directed by the great composer Sir Henry Chapman (Alan Napier). Uh oh, as the film begins George is murdering an antique dealer. Hey, we all have bad days. He'll wake with no memory of the past 24 hours and is worried he murdered someone. The cops investigate and George's buddy, Dr. Allan Middleton (George Sanders) assures George the knife in George's possession has no blood or fiber on it. Oh, George is sweet on Sir Henry's daughter, Barbara (Faye Marlowe). She's so pure and nubile. Uh oh, Allan is also sweet on her. Allan prescribes a treatment for George to rid himself of these spells...stop composing music. George has a concerto to finish for Sir Henry so he disregards this advice.  

George wanders into a dancehall and sees Netta (Linda Darnell) sing to a bunch of drunks. Her dancehall flair is not becoming of polite society but George is captivated by her. He writes a song for her to sing and she loves it. Now Netta uses and seduces George to keep writing her songs. George is entranced by this siren and is at her command. George thinks they are in love, though Netta is actually desiring to marry promoter Eddie (Glenn Langan). Uh oh, George has more spells and he also has a strong cord, perfect for strangling.  The bodies pile up and George keeps getting pulled deeper into Netta's world of seduction, exploitation, and ruin. Netta keeps seducing and she looks really great doing it.  George seems to be more focused on her neck, now.  As George is conflicted between writing a concerto for Sir Henry, and writing bar songs for Netta, his mind seems more apt to fall into one of his spells.

Will George murder one of the two babes in his life?  Will Allan wrest Barbara from George? Is George a good bloke or a prurient murderer that rivals Jack the Ripper? The ending of this film is one of the best endings ever put on the silver screen.  Ms. Darnell and Ms. Marlowe turn in incredibly seductive performances.  Laird Cregar, if you are unfamiliar with his work, is an actor you need to see more of. For suspense, and horror, and a great ending, see "Hangover Square."