Hangover Square (film)

Hangover Square is a 1945 film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the 1941 novel Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon who made a number of changes to the novel, including the change of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the story as an early 20th-century period piece.[3]

Hangover Square
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJohn Brahm
Produced byRobert Bassler
Screenplay byBarré Lyndon
Based onHangover Square
1941 novel
by Patrick Hamilton
StarringLaird Cregar
Linda Darnell
George Sanders
Glenn Langan
Music byBernard Herrmann
CinematographyJoseph LaShelle
Edited byHarry Reynolds
Production
company
20th Century Fox
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • February 7, 1945 (1945-02-07)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,154,400[1]
Box office$850,000[2]
$1,798,500 (worldwide)[1]

The movie was released in New York City on February 7, 1945, two months after its star, Laird Cregar, suffered a fatal heart attack.

Plot

In Edwardian London, in the summer of 1903, a Scottish shopowner in Fulham is stabbed to death and his shop set on fire by distinguished composer George Harvey Bone (Laird Cregar), who stumbles out onto the street in a stupor. George eventually makes his way back the next night to his basement flat at 12 Hangover Square in Chelsea to find his girlfriend Barbara Chapman (Faye Marlowe) and her father Sir Henry Chapman (Alan Napier) inside. George admits privately to Barbara that there is "a whole day missing" from his memory. The newspaper has stories of the murder and fire, and George goes to see Dr. Allan Middleton (George Sanders) who works at Scotland Yard. Bone tells Middleton that when he is stressed or overworked he suffers from periods of amnesia brought on by discordant sounds. Middleton's advice is to go out among ordinary people and observe how they work and recreate.

On August 29 at a smoking concert at a working-class pub, George meets an ambitious and conniving singer named Netta Longdon (Linda Darnell) through his buddy Mickey (Michael Dyne). Although Netta, who also lives in the square, is a mediocre talent, George is enamoured of her. Netta finds George boring, yet nonetheless mercilessly manipulates him to get money, dinners, drinks and all kinds of favours for months. Meanwhile, Barbara is put off by George's interest in Netta, as Middleton tries to get closer to her. George is driven to the point of having another amnesia episode and almost strangles Barbara to death.

George finally strangles Netta to death on Guy Fawkes Night. He carries her wrapped body through streets filled with revelers and deposits it on top of the biggest bonfire. Having no memory of the killing, George is able to convince the police that he had nothing to do with it; however, Middleton remains suspicious. He later confronts George on the night of his concerto premier, and insists that he be taken in for his own protection. However, George locks Middleton into his flat and performs the concerto as planned. Middleton's banging is heard by a local workman and he is freed. Midway through the concerto performance he enters the music salon with several other policemen, causing George to enter into one of his episodes. He is forced to stop performing and asks Barbara to carry on playing; however, whilst being questioned by the police in a separate room he attacks them, in the process of which a gas lamp is knocked over, setting the room alight. George proceeds to continue with his piano concerto, unmindful of the conflagration around him and ignoring Barbara's pleas to escape, as flames consume everything. As Middleton and Barbara look on from outside, Middleton says that "it is better this way".

Cast

Production

Laird Cregar, a fan of the original novel, encouraged 20th Century Fox to buy the film rights. Fox agreed, but wanted to recreate the success it had enjoyed the previous year with The Lodger, and made several changes to the story, including the main character's personality and the setting. Cregar, George Sanders and John Brahm, who had all worked together in The Lodger, were announced as working on the film.

Cregar, who had ambitions of being a leading man and was worried that he would always be cast as a villain, refused the role and was put on suspension. Glenn Langan was announced as his replacement.[4] However, Cregar realized he could use his romantic scenes with Linda Darnell and Faye Marlowe to his advantage in order to change his public image into a more romantic one. He thus accepted the role, but began a radical crash diet to give his character more physical appeal.

The film had to be shot entirely in sequence so as to be consistent with Cregar's real-life weight loss.[5] This frustrated director John Brahm, who frequently clashed with Cregar over how the film should be handled. Cregar, a real-life musician, was eager to perform the musical pieces on his own; however, Brahm insisted that Cregar mime. Cregar used amphetamines to aid his rapid weight loss, which led to erratic behavior on his part. Brahm lost patience with Cregar, and forced the entire cast and crew to sign a document stating they were on Brahm's side and not Cregar's in order to humiliate the actor into submission. When filming had ended, Cregar told Brahm: "Well, I think we've worked together long enough to know we never want to work together again."

George Sanders also brought complications. Having been put on suspension the previous year for refusing to perform in The Undying Monster, he accepted the role of Dr. Allan Middleton. However, he was unhappy with his script, particularly the final line in the film, which required him to justify the death of George Harvey Bone by saying, "He's better off this way." When shooting the scene, which was very expensive to film, Sanders repeatedly refused to say the line. He later got into an altercation with the film's producer, Robert Bassler, which ended in Sanders punching him. The line was later changed to, "It's better this way."[6]

The American composer Stephen Sondheim has cited Bernard Herrmann's score for Hangover Square as a major influence on his musical Sweeney Todd.[7]

Reception

Box office

The film made a profit of $27,700.[1]

Critical

The film received mixed reviews. The staff at Variety magazine liked the film and wrote, "Hangover Square is eerie murder melodrama of the London gaslight era—typical of Patrick Hamilton yarns, of which this is another. And it doesn't make any pretense at mystery. The madman-murderer is known from the first reel...Production is grade A, and so is the direction by John Brahm, with particular bows to the music score by Bernard Herrmann."[8] The New York Times said, "There is not a first-class shiver in the whole picture."[9]

CD release of Herrmann's music

In 2010, the British label Chandos released a CD that includes a 17-minute concert suite from Hangover Square, assembled by Stephen Hogger. The film's musical tour de force is a sonata movement for piano and orchestra in the Lisztian style (where the scherzo and adagio movements, which are typical as succeeding movements in a concerto, are compressed and presented in place of a central development). Slightly revised by the composer in 1973 for Charles Gerhardt's RCA film music series and retitled "Concerto Macabre", it has been recorded by RCA, Naïve, Koch and Naxos, in addition to the recording paired with Hogger's suite. Save for that released by RCA, all of the recordings of the Concerto relied on the version edited and engraved in 1992 by Christopher Husted, editor of the Bernard Herrmann Edition. The disc also includes Stephen Hogger's extended suite based on Herrmann's incidental music for Citizen Kane (1941).

gollark: Perhaps.
gollark: Or Urn.
gollark: There are no fake languages, only stupid and/or unimplemented ones.
gollark: Or [ANYTHING ON ESOLANGS.ORG].
gollark: I don't like it.

References
  1. Mank, Gregory William (2018). Laird Cregar: A Hollywood Tragedy. McFarland & Company.
  2. Solomon, Aubrey, Twentieth Century-Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Rowman & Littlefield, 2002, p. 220
  3. Hangover Square on IMDb.
  4. "Alexis Smith Gets Role of Nora in 'Human Bondage' -- Two New Films to Arrive Today". The New York Times. August 12, 1944. p. 16.
  5. "Expert Laird Tells How to Lose Weight". The Pittsburgh Press. December 3, 1944. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  6. Robinson, Judy (May 5, 2012). "George's 'bad boy' antics behind the scene". Retrieved May 16, 2015.
  7. National Theatre: Platform Papers: Stephen Sondheim. June 1993. Last accessed: July 16, 2008.
  8. Variety. Staff film review, February 7, 1945. Accessed: August 6, 2013.
  9. Mank, Gregory William (1994). Hollywood Cauldron: Thirteen Horror Films from the Genre's Golden Age, p. 347. McFarland & Company.

Streaming audio
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.