Wonderful character development!

Please don't spend money on this.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Love From A Stranger" is notable as one of the first film adaptations of Agatha Christie's work, and certainly the earliest that is commercially available today. The first three quarters of its length are not too thrilling (they are a little padded - the script was based on a short Christie story, after all), and Basil Rathbone's eyebrow-raising gives away his evil intentions too early (to be more specific, at the scene where he gets Ann Harding to sign the papers about their new house), but the last 20 minutes will have you glued to your seat. I would go as far as describing them as a masterclass in building screen suspense. Also fun to watch a young Joan Hickson, one of the future Miss Marples, playing someone on the opposite side of the intellectual spectrum. **1/2 out of 4.

"Love from a Stranger" (original title) AKA "A Night of Terror" (1937). Basil Rathbone goes insane, Ann Harding falls in-love - and I loved every minute of the film. This one is a good crime thriller based on a romance - great climax! Carol Howard seems to be one lucky but highly naive woman - she wins the lottery but ends up loosing her childhood sweetheart Ronald Bruce due to the money going to her head Ronald felt, besides he wanted to be the one to get her out of the slums and to marry her. Carol wants to take her money and go on a trip to France with her best friend Kate Meadows and Aunt Lou. She wants to someone in her flat while she's away and a man arrives to take over the place - Gerald Lovell. Carol and her friends board a ship to set sail and she bumps into Gerald Lovell who starts wooing her. Carol and Gerald marry much to the dismay of Ronald Bruce. The newlyweds buy a home and move in - that's when Carol starts seeing Gerald's true colors. 8.5/10

I was so glad I came across this movie for my Christmas treat. I'd never heard of it but was delighted to see it was based on an Agatha Christie story. Ann Harding grabbed my attention immediately, with her lovely eyes and strong, composed features. As the story developed I quickly saw parallels to themes developed in other films by Hitchcock in particular, and wondered if Hitch borrowed some of the ideas from this story. At any rate, while the suspense was slow to build, there were foreshadowings. Once the suspense hit, it built to a mesmerizing climax with breathtaking acting in particular by Basil Rathbone. I was very impressed with Harding's acting, too, conveyed largely by subtle changes of expression. Loved the film and will watch it again.

If you didn't know this was from a story by Agatha Christie, you wouldn't know this was from a story by Agatha Christie.The entire first half of the film is a romantic melodrama of no particular interest, except perhaps for Basil Rathbone's skanky performance as the smiler with a knife. I saw him on Broadway as a comforter in Archibald MacLeish's "J.B.", but it was no use. Every time I see Rathbone trying to be a nice guy I see Mr. Murdstone and the Sheriff of Nottingham.When he sweeps the newly minted Ann Harding off her feet and marries her, the director Rowland V. Lee looses the reins on Rathbone's performance and he begins to blow fuse after fuse, each one worse than the preceding one.Ann Harding, awash in a sea of love, attributes his spells to his time in the trenches in World War I or something. And, like all good wife abusers, he apologizes profusely.At least until the night of the murder arrives. Rathbone has sent the staff away and locked all the doors and windows, preparatory to strangling his wife. She prevents her own death by precipitating his. He drops dead and she rushes screaming to the door of the cottage, which is immediately broken in by three or four friends who were evidently waiting just outside for their cue. They had no other reason for being there.If this is worth sitting through it's because this is -- Basil Rathbone AS YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HIM BEFORE! Man, he overacts. He glares, he spits, he snarls, he chews his tongue, he chews the furniture.I understand he was a pretty good amateur fencer.