Why so much hype?

hyped garbage

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Blistering performances.

Screenplay: Barré Lyndon. Allegedy based on the 1942 novel by Patrick Hamilton. Copyright 6 February 1945 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation. New York opening at the Roxy: 8 February 1945. U.S. release: February 1945. U.K. release: 9 April 1945. Australian release: 12 July 1945. 6,966 feet. 77 minutes. SYNOPSIS: London, 1903. A well-known composer is unaware that he has a split personality.COMMENT: This brilliant screenplay is virtually the unaided work of Barré Lyndon. Only the title, the names of the two principal characters (Bone and Netta) and the idea of Bone's split personality derive directly from the novel. Masterstrokes like turning Bone into a composer, setting the period back from 1939 to the turn of the century, inventing the trigger mechanism of the discordant noise (in Patrick Hamilton's novel, Bone just clicks in and out of schizophrenia without rhyme or reason), plus the film's highly-charged set-pieces (none of which, including the fiery climax, are even so much as hinted at in the book) can be credited solely to Lyndon.All the screenplay's marvelous effects are superbly realized by director John Brahm, who re-enforces their impact with extraordinarily fluid camera movements and highly imaginative compositions.The movie is also most impressively served by its star, Laird Cregar, whose crash diet led to his untimely death at the age of twenty-eight, shortly after this picture was completed. Bone's words, "Music is the most important thing in the world to me!" and Middleton's reply, "You're wrong, Mr Bone! The most important thing is your life!" could have been applied to Cregar himself by simply substituting "acting" for "music". Certainly the weight loss evident in the film has made a remarkably difference to his appearance. His features, flatteringly photographed here by Joseph LaShelle, are actually quite handsome. Allied with his natural acting ability and his magnetic personality, his charisma would certainly have built him into a star of the first magnitude had he survived. I like the soft-spoken voice he adopts here too. There's no doubt the operation of transforming Cregar from character player to major star was outstandingly successful. Only one minor drawback: the patient died. Bernard Herrmann's music score must rank as one of the finest ever composed for a motion picture. Other production credits are equally superlative, yet, oddly, the movie was not nominated by any body for any awards at all. Nor, incredibly, were contemporary critics particularly enthusiastic.

A concert pianist is plagued with a mental illness where a specific sound triggers a murderous impulse, this time when he commits murder remains buried in the back of his mind, not understanding the sequence of events which arise, awakening remembering nothing..fragments emerge as time goes by which leave him puzzled, wondering if he may've committed the murders reported.Laird Cregar's phenomenal performance as the haunted pianist, superb sets recreating the Victorian era of London, sweepingly gorgeous camera-work, and a magnificent score from Bernard Hermann all add to what is another masterwork from John Brahm. 20th Century Fox gave Brahm the right tools to bring to life a time and place that feels so incredibly authentic. Unlike The Lodger, Brahm's other masterpiece(..or in my mind anyway), the film is solely focused on Cregar, he gets the entire film. The Lodger provided the great George Sanders with a more lucrative role, but even in Hangover Square, he still impresses(..when does he not?)as a police psychiatrist who suspects Cregar might be the person responsible for the murder of a crooked antique dealer, and behind an attempted strangling of Barbara Chapman(Faye Marlowe). Linda Darnell has a juicy part as Netta Longdon, a dance hall girl who uses George Harvey Bone's(Cregar)affection for her to gain success, secretly wooing a theater producer, Eddie Carstairs(Glenn Langan). Barbara adores Bone and pleads with him to continue a concerto which could bring him the fame and fortune he deserves, knowing that his talent is better utilized elsewhere besides preparing music for Netta, who doesn't love him. We watch as Netta manipulatively goads Bone into providing her with a concerto that will push her over into stardom, playing on his adoration for her, understanding that once he gives her what she so desires, she can dump him for Carstairs. This will undoubtedly seal her fate, as Bone, after entering into another lapse, strangles her, placing her corpse in a bonfire.I think maybe it's a bit unfair to compare Hangover Square with The Lodger since both are infinitely different films(..and Cregar, to his credit, is able to create two distinctively different characters), but I think what set the latter apart was the star power, with not only Sanders having a much richer part, but the likes of a Merle Oberon and Cedric Hardwicke included, it has advantages in this area alone. I still think Hangover Square benefits because Cregar has the central core of the film based around him, not having to share with other stars. It's a tragedy such a talent as Cregar didn't have longer to live, taken far too early, I can't help but ponder all those future performances we'll never get to admire and appreciate. His overwhelming power on screen, the way he can grip you without uttering a word, this kind of skill isn't manufactured, but a gift so few really have and others covet dearly. And, Cregar had one of the most fantastic voices I've ever heard, and the levels in performance he could achieve with the few characters he presented us before his untimely death will stand the test of time. I consider it a privilege to experience such performances as Cregar gave us in The Lodger and Hangover Square. The fiery finale as the concert hall burns around Bone as he continues to play his concerto is unforgettable, a finale curtain call to an icon.

I recently saw the Turner Classic Movies DVD restored version of this surprisingly taut suspenseful film. Having seen and enjoyed The Lodger, (all 3 versions, including the Hitchcock original, and a version with Jack Palance), it was something about Laird Cregar that really sticks with you. It's a subtlety, a subdued cerebral nature, presenting itself in an enormous yet gentle giant. I did not know Hangover Square was the follow-up to the 1944 Lodger, and when I saw the opening scene with Cregar, I knew I was in for a treat. How much so, I had no idea. The movie kept building, in its intensity, just as the Concerto Cregar is writing develops. Following a scene involving Guy Fox Day (the original Halloween) I knew I should expect that anything could happen. By the ending climax of the film, with Cregar actually playing his Concerto (beautifully scored by Bernard Herrmann) it is the Concerto itself, which also provides the background music to drive the film, that eventually takes over. A wonderful actor lost (Cregar's last), this film I call "a must see".

In this variation on the Jekyll and Hyde story, a composer has sporadic episodes where his subconscious takes over and he has no recollections of his actions during these lapses when he comes to. This film reunites Cregar and Sanders with director Brahm from "The Lodger" the previous year, and, like the earlier film, it is visually opulent but the story is less than compelling. Cregar gives perhaps his best performance in this, his final film before his untimely death at age 31 just as he was coming into his own. Darnell, who would also die young, is a sensuous presence as the object of his obsession. Herrmann provides an impressive score, including a piano concerto used in the finale.