Wed 12 Mar 2014
LURED. United Artists, 1947. George Sanders. Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn. Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Boris Karloff, George Zucco, Joseph Calleia, Alan Mowbray, Robert Coote, Alan Napier. Screenplay by Leo Rosten. Story by Jacques Companéez, Simon Gantillion & Ernest Neuville. Directed by Douglas Sirk.
Douglas Sirk’s name is primarily associated with a series of glossy brilliant soap operas made in the 1950’s such as Written on the Wind, Tarnished Angels, and All That Heaven Allows, but before turning to these lush technicolor films the European Sirk produced three droll crime films: A Scandal in Paris with George Sanders as the thief turned policeman Eugene Francois Vidocq, Summer Smoke again with George Sanders and based on Anton Chekhov’s short novel The Shooting Party, and this, Lured.
The setting is post war London where the city is paralyzed by a series of murders of young women who all answered ads in the agony column of the London Times. After each killing the murderer sends a taunting poem to Scotland Yard daring them to catch him.
Inspector Harley Temple (Charles Coburn) is in a bad mood, because so far his investigation is getting nowhere, but when he meets Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball), the best friend of the latest victim, he has a bright idea. What if he turned the killers method of meeting his victims against him — set a trap for him with an attractive lure — and Sandra Carpenter a smart savvy American showgirl is the perfect lure.
George Zucco is the sardonic Officer Barrett assigned as Ball’s bodyguard. She will answer the ads, meet the men who sent them, and when the killer shows his hand Barrett will pounce.
After a couple of false starts, including a fine performance by Boris Karloff as a mad dress designer, they get their first real lead, Robert Fleming, a nightclub producer and impresario whose shows Ball had been trying to get into from the beginning.
But the game is complicated when Ball starts to fall for Sanders even though she has been warned by his business partner Julian Wilde (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), and he fits the bill of the killer all too well.
Ball resigns, convinced Sanders is innocent, but then a turn convinces her she was wrong, he is arrested, and then the real killer makes his move …
Coburn is a pleasure as the Inspector, and Zucco, fine in a rare comic performance, is a droll delight. In fact Zucco comes near stealing every scene he appears in, which is no easy thing because Ball is not only beautiful, but holds the screen with real star power.
If you ever thought George Sanders would be an odd match for Lucille Ball you’d be wrong. They are a perfectly matched romantic pair here, and Sirk builds some real suspense because even cast as the hero Sanders had played so many villains it was no sure thing which side he would turn out to be on.
The word that best defines this movie is droll. The screenplay by Leo Rosten is sharp (Dark Corner, Captain Newman MD, Where Danger Lives, Silky …), and the cast is a fine collection of character actors from the Hollywood Raj. It’s the kind of film where the smallest performance is perfectly timed and delivered.
Comedy, romance, and suspense are expertly blended in this one. Sirk’s notable cinematic eye never lets the viewer down and a fine cast are all at their best.
Still even among that fine cast. Lucille Ball and George Zucco are standouts and even if it is little more than a bit, it is nice to see Boris Karloff in a first class production having a bit of fun on screen.
These three films were impossible to see for many years, but A Scandal in Paris and Lured have been issued in handsome DVD’s from Kino Video and both have played on TCM. Summer Storm was released on DVD by VCI in 2009 and is worth obtaining since it contains fine performances by Sanders and Edward Everett Horton as nineteenth century Russian noblemen caught up in a crime of passion.
March 12th, 2014 at 10:43 pm
No time tonight. I’ll add some images from the film as soon as I can. (There are plenty to choose from.)
March 13th, 2014 at 12:33 am
David, a really fine job describing and evaluating Lured. I thought the film sharp but the Karloff sequence designed for effect rather than to advance the plot. No problem with it, but…Also thought Sanders and Ball not quite right together. Coburn marvelous, as was Zucco.
March 13th, 2014 at 8:42 am
I saw this film recently and was surprised to see it listed as a film noir in some reference books. Not film noir in my opinion.
Still, an enjoyable crime film with comedy elements. George Sanders and George Zucco are big favorites with me. But then again, so are Lucille Ball and Boris Karloff. A great cast.
March 13th, 2014 at 12:34 pm
I’ve just added three photo images from the movie and I’m glad I did. In spite of David’s statement that Lucille Ball and George Sanders made a good pair on the screen, I couldn’t even begin to imagine it until I saw them together myself.
March 13th, 2014 at 3:19 pm
An enjoyable film, true, but anyone who can’t spot the “surprise” killer early on needs to be sent back to Mystery School.
March 13th, 2014 at 4:29 pm
Have to agree Dan, how could it turn out to be anyone else?
That aside the suspense element works because of how cleverly this is written and directed.
Barry, you are right about the Karloff sequence, but he is having such obvious fun and seemingly Ball as well it’s worth it even if he is a very red herring.
I was impressed how good Sanders and Ball look together, both tall and with very distinct features. and he was married to the three Gabor sisters, Lucy shouldn’t be a stretch.
In the film he plays a type of charming potential rat I personally know many women have fallen for so I found it believable her showgirl would be impressed with the handsome, well to do, upper middle class playboy/rogue.
That said Sanders doesn’t just fall back on his usual screen persona, his Robert Fleming is more complex than his usual charming potential rat and his romance with Ball ironic as he finds himself the romantic impractical member of the duo.
It is almost impossible to praise Coburn or Zucco enough in this film. They take what could be clichéd roles and play with them finding a comic edge. There is a scene in the film where Lucy is in the park walking a Pekingese and seated on a bench with Zucco, and without a word his expression steals it all.
It makes me sorry Zucco didn’t get to do more such parts. This and his Moriarity in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are outstanding career highlights showing a range far beyond the cheap horror films he too often stared in. It’s a shame no one looked beyond that face and voice and saw the perfect timing he was capable of in comedy.