Hunt Stromberg, a major M-G-M producer in the ‘30s, brings that studio’s posh sensibility to this handsome, but underdeveloped murder pic; with director Douglas Sirk & lenser William Daniels working up dense London atmosphere (less fog than usual) on a serial killer tale that (for once) has nothing to do with Jack-the-Ripper. Instead, the focus is on Dance Hall gal Lucille Ball, very glam here, a pal of the latest victim, recruited by Scotland Yard Inspector Charles Coburn to act as bait by answering a series of personal ads to hopefully flush out the murderer . . . if she doesn’t get killed first. Yikes! With Boris Karloff as an early, slightly crazed suspect; George Sanders, a more likely culprit Ball falls hard for; and George Zucco as her police protector. Add Joseph Calleia, Alan Mowbray & Cedric Hardwicke as ‘Red Herrings’ (or are they the real guilty party?) for more than enough characters to investigate. But the film winds up delivering less than the sum of its procedural parts. Maybe it’s a structural problem, with a smuggling operation (a ‘wrong’ crime solved) pulling focus away from the main threat. It makes for a redundant third act, talky & anticlimactic.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Ball, at 5'6", and Sanders, at 6'3", make a swell on screen couple.
DOUBLE-BILL: Ball probably had her best film noir outing the previous year in Henry Hathaway’s THE DARK CORNER/’46.
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