BY JOHN M. WHALEN
All struggling young reporter Mike Ward (John McGuire)
wants is a break. He needs money so he can move out of his crummy room in a
three story boarding house, get his own place, and marry his girl, Jane
(Margaret Tallichet). His break arrives when he becomes the star witness to the
murder of Nick, the owner of Nick’s Coffee Pot, a neighborhood eatery right
across the street from where he lives. The newspaper he works for gives him a raise
and assigns him to cover the murder trial. At first he and Jane are elated
about Mike’s turn of fortune, and they began planning their future. But soon Jane
wonders if the young man Mike is going to testify against, a young cab driver
named Briggs (Elisha Cook, Jr.), is really the killer. “He’s so young,†she
says. Her attitude begins to put a damper on their relationship. After a trial
that seems a mockery of justice, Briggs is convicted on the basis of Mike’s
testimony and sentenced to death. Jane becomes more estranged from Mike as a
result. The lucky break Mike had hoped for now doesn’t seem so lucky.
“Stranger on the Third Floor,†directed by Boris Ingster,
and released by RKO Radio Pictures in 1940, is considered to be the first film
noir ever made. Based on a script by Frank Partos and an uncredited Nathaniel
West, it tells the story of the steady erosion of Mike’s confidence that he did
the right thing testifying against Briggs, and how easy it is to suddenly have
“the fickle finger of fate pointing at you.†The night after the conviction, he
comes home alone and finds a weird-looking stranger (Peter Lorre, looking more bizarre than usual), sitting
on the front steps of his building.
Mike goes up to his room and the film becomes more
introspective, with the addition of Mike’s voiceover, telling us what he’s
thinking. We get an inside look at his
life. He hates the place he lives in. He especially hates the neighbor in the
next room, a man named Meng (Charles Waldron), who is heard snoring on the
other side of the thin walls. In flashbacks, we see how Meng makes life
miserable for him. For one thing, he complained about Mike to the landlady
because of the noise he made when he used to work on his typewriter in the
evenings. In another incident he complained when Mike brought Jane up to the
room to get her out of a rain storm. Unpleasant words were exchanged.
Mike tries to shrug it off. When he goes to use the
bathroom down the hall, he sees the stranger who had been sitting outside,
standing on the stairway. He asks him what he’s doing there and the stranger
runs for it. Mike goes back upstairs, and notices Meng’s room is quiet. He
suddenly wonders if the stranger did something to him. He’s afraid to find out.
He remembers now that at least twice he threatened to kill Meng in front of
witnesses. If he found Meng dead, and reported it to the cops, he might end up
suspect No. 1. With his mind in turmoil, he falls asleep and goes into a dream.
Ingster and cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca, (who went
on to lens such classics as “Out of the Past,†“The Blue Gardenia,†“Where
Danger Lives,†and “Clash by Nightâ€) pulled out all the stops for the lengthy dream
sequence that makes up the centerpiece of the film. It’s the thing that most
people talk about and remember about “Stranger on the Third Floorâ€. Full of noir imagery derived from German
expressionism, with exaggerated camera angles, lots of dark shadows, and some
brilliant lighting, the sequence is daring and cinematically compelling. It is
a bit heavy-handed, however, in the way it shows how anyone can be caught in a
criminal justice system that doesn’t care if your guilty or innocent. The
defense attorney is an incompetent shyster who urges him to plead guilty, the
jury is literally asleep during the trial, and all the press cares about is
whether it makes a good story. Even dear Jane is forced to give testimony that
only sinks him deeper. It may be overwrought, but it makes its point.
When Mike awakens from the dream he finally checks on Meng
and finds him dead. His throat is slashed the same way Nick’s was. His first
instinct is to run, but Jane persuades him to call the cops. He does and you
can guess what happens.
It all sounds a little far-fetched and I suppose it is,
but somehow the script manages to bring all of its paranoid element together in
a reasonable fashion, even if the nice, tidy ending is a bit of a stretch. As
you watch “Stranger on the Third Floor,†the filming techniques and the story
line, having become so familiar by now, you may think you’ve seen it all
before. I’m sure you have. It’s been imitated hundreds of times in film and TV.
But this arguably was the first of its kind.
Warner Archive has released this remastered print of “A
Stranger on the Third Floor,†on DVD only. The film looks good, the stark black
and white cinematography has been well transferred to disc. Don’t be alarmed
when you start the movie though. The opening credits look terrible, but after
that, it’s all good. They must have had to use a different film element for the
opening. There are literally no extras on the disc. This obscure 64-minute
movie is well worth watching and is more than just a curiosity. Definitely for any
fan of film noir. The only thing better would be a Blu-ray with some film
historian commentary giving the picture its due.
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John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon)