Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), directed by Boris Ingster.

I review this because it is called one of the early foundations of film noir. It is a decent 63m thriller which might have been an anthology TV episode 15 years later.

A reporter's testimony will send a pathetic little man to the electric chair. When the newspaperman becomes a suspect in another murder he enters a world of guilt and paranoia.

The great Nicholas Musuraca's photography seems so familiar to us now with those dominating shadows and tilted angles. Critics at the time were not as impressed: just a copy of German Expressionism.

Common noir tropes:

• Cynical reporters and cops; unjust legal system

• the bad city

• insanity

• the inner monologue as narration

• nightmare dream sequences

Peter Lorre had many talents, but he was born to play a lunatic killer.

Elisha Cook Jr.: you have to cry for the poor falsely accused man.

Another collaboration between Musuraca and composer Roy Webb, who worked on an astonishing 79 films together. I've always wondered if they got their heads together or just concentrated on their own crafts.

Webb has 270 film composer credits but you hardly ever hear about him when film music is discussed. I don't think collections of his music were ever issued.

Available on Blu-ray.