The Brighton Strangler (1945)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Max Nosseck

Writers:

Hugh Gray (additional dialogue)
Max Nosseck (original screenplay)

Release Date:

14 September 1945 (Sweden)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

During WW II, one of the hits of the London stage is a play about a murderer who strangles his victims...

Plot Keywords:

Policeman | WWII | Lieutenant | Mayor | Theater

Cast

John Loder	...	Reginald Parker / Edward Grey
June Duprez	...	April Manby Carson
Michael St. Angel	...	Lt. Bob Carson
Miles Mander	...	Chief Inspector W.R. Allison
Rose Hobart	...	Dorothy Kent
Gilbert Emery	...	Dr. Manby
Rex Evans	...	Leslie Shelton
Matthew Boulton	...	Inspector Graham
Olaf Hytten	...	Banks, the valet
Lydia Bilbrook	...	Mrs. Manby
Ian Wolfe	...	Lord Mayor Herman Brandon R. Clive

Runtime:

67 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Spain:13 | USA:Approved (PCA #10272) | Sweden:15

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The establishing shot is a stock picture of the British House of Parliament. Apparently no one noticed that it was printed backwards, as the building is on the wrong side of the Thames.

Quotes:

Reginald Parker: There'll be no New Year for you. You'll go out with the old one.

Loder's performance makes the movie.

John Loder plays Reginald Parker, an actor whose portrayal of a serial killer has made him the toast of London's theater district. During the height of the german blitz Parker has tirelessly played the part to sold out crowds seeking diversion from the horrors of world war 2.

After nearly two years of constant work Parker is on the brink of exhaustion. When his wife and friends demand he take a break he agrees grudgingly but only after one last performance for on leave military personnel.

That night Parker stays late at the theater to review some last minute additions to the script. As he reads german bombers attack London. A stray bomb strikes the theater causing the roof to collapse on the unfortunate actor. He survives but recieves a nasty blow to the head. The blow gives him partial amnesia allowing him to recall nothing save that of the part he has paractically lived for the last two years.

Believing the details of the script are actual memories he comes to believe he is the Brighton Strangler. So it is off to Brighton where he begins hunting down those who resemble his victims from the play.

The plot is a rather far fetched and the story sags in the middle. But John Loder's tormented transform from kindly actor to maniacal killer makes the film worth a look.