Personal Column (1947)
"Lured" (original title)

A serial killer in London is murdering young women whom he meets through the personal columns of newspapers; he announces each of his murders to the police by sending them a cryptic poem. ... See full summary »

Director:

Douglas Sirk

Writers:

Jacques Companéez (story), Simon Gantillon (story),

Stars:

George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn

Cast

Cast overview:
George Sanders	...	Robert Fleming
Lucille Ball	...	Sandra Carpenter
Charles Coburn	...	Inspector Harley Temple
Boris Karloff	...	Charles van Druten
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Julian Wilde (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
Joseph Calleia	...	Dr. Nicholas Moryani
Alan Mowbray	...	Lyle Maxwell
George Zucco	...	Officer H. R. Barrett
Robert Coote	...	Officer Barret
Alan Napier	...	Detective Gordon
Tanis Chandler	...	Lucy Barnard

Storyline

A serial killer in London is murdering young women whom he meets through the personal columns of newspapers; he announces each of his murders to the police by sending them a cryptic poem. After a dancer disappears, the police enlist an American friend of hers, Sandra Carpenter, to answer advertisements in the personal columns and so lure the killer.

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Plot Keywords:

personals column | serial killer | baudelaire | fashion designer | taxi dancer | 

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Taglines:

Don't answer this ad... Don't... don't... don't...

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 September 1947 (USA)

Also Known As:

Angelockt

Filming Locations:

General Service Studios - 1040 N. Las Palmas, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hunt Stromberg Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The title was changed to "Personal Column" midway through the original U.S. theatrical release because staff at the Production Code Administration thought the word "lured" sounded too much like "lurid". Director Douglas Sirk felt the title change confused potential audiences and led to the film's box-office failure.

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Goofs

When Sandra goes to visit Julian towards the end of the movie, they have a conversation, and when Julian says, "That's why he chose death," you can see that Sandra is saying something we don't hear.

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits - a flashlight pans along the side of a building, and the credits are written on the side of the wall.

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Connections

Version of Personal Column (1939)

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Soundtracks

"All for Love"
(uncredited)
Music by Michel Michelet
Lyrics by Jacqueline Duffie
Sung by Ethelreda Leopold

User Reviews

Alluring!

Director Douglas Sirk, later best-known for sappy Hollywood melodramas, makes this early Lucille Ball vehicle about a killer that writes poetry to the police about the victim he is going to kill. Ball plays a dance hall girl that loses a friend and decides to help by joining the Scotland Yard force. She begins to answer personal ads by men looking for attractive young women. Along the way she comes in contact with a slaving-like operation and a bizarre eccentric fashion designer played with incredible gusto by Boris Karloff. Karloff has roughly 5 minutes of screen time, but boy does he know how to use it. This is a very enjoyable film. If you are looking for a lot of action - look somewhere else. What you get here is a lot of talk and character studies. The cast is one of the most complete I have seen in some time. George Sanders, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Coburn, Robert Coote, Alan Napier, George Zucco and Alan Mowbray round out this incredibly talented cast. Zucco really stands out as a plain-clothes policeman. Ball is beautiful, and she does a very credible job in the lead. Sometimes I forget that she was a gorgeous woman with a lot of talent other than making you laugh. But that was certainly her greatest gift. Lured is a good, old-fashioned mystery yarn. The killer is painfully obvious about halfway through, but the actors go through the motions with obvious relish. Unfortunately the DVD release I had by KINO had nothing on it all all in terms of extras...didn't even separate chapters from main feature!