THE BRIGHTON STRANGLER (1945)

The awful trauma endured by British cities during the Blitz of September 1940 to May 1941 could never be underestimated. Even by 1945 when The Brighton Strangler was released, it would be a very vivid memory for millions. This B-movie made by RKO used the hideous personal effect of bombardment as an inciting incident for a horror-tinged murder thriller.

The lead dual-role is that of actor Reginald Parker and his murderous stage character Edward Grey with whom he confuses himself after a Blitz bombing raid causes him concussion – leading him to act out his theatre role for real. They were played by John Loder who in real life had already suffered front-line duty fighting in Gallipoli and the Somme during World War One. He had followed this with a busy film career in Britain for the esteemed likes of Alexander Korda in The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), Alfred Hitchcock in Saboteur (1936) and even supporting Boris Karloff in 1936’s The Man who Changed his Mind (see review). His Hollywood period saw roles in notable vehicles but he never quite caught the public’s imagination as a lead, instead becoming a busy freelancer.

The Brighton Strangler was a rare lead for Loder who acquits himself well enough. In general, the film’s cast are professional without being distinguished as such, which is par for the course in B-movies of the period. German-born director Max Nosseck had begun as an actor and jazz band leader before coming to America in 1933 to escape the rising persecution of his Jewish countrymen. His direction is decent enough, with a strikingly-realised depiction of the Blitz as a backdrop through which Parker staggers. He co-wrote the functional screenplay with Hugh Gray and Arnold Lipp.

Loder’s co-stars included glamorous June Duprez who had a promising start during the early war years, in particular for Korda as well - in The Thief of Baghdad (1940) until her representation over-estimated her market value in Hollywood. As April, the WAAF who befriends Parker/Gray almost to her cost she is a beguiling partner. Michael St Angel has the right clean-cut American looks and aw-shucks pleasant persona as Lt. Bob Carson, the Air Force flyboy whose lingo befuddles the Londoners around him and is the first to spot that Parker’s Gray identity is unstable:   “There’s something fishy about that guy”.

Parker/Gray begins to live out his theatre part for real, imprinting on Ian Wolfe’s unfortunate Mayor the homicidal vengeance he dished out eight times a week to his defending barrister on stage. The gentlemanly Miles Mander also finds himself in the firing line as Chief Inspector Allison, who would have regretted showing Gray (under the guise of a researching crime writer) his murder case mementoes if he’d known his prize noose would end up dispatching him.

Along the way, there are hints to Gray of his real self trying to break through: a newsreel mentioning his theatre workplace and a reference to New Year’s Eve when he was supposed to meet his attractive fiancé Dorothy Kent (Rose Hobart) briefly stem his impulses twice.

Intrepid Bob happens to connect Parker’s actor and concussed fictional selves after seeing a pub poster of him advertising cigarettes - a common and lucrative form of product placement for Forties stars. This leads us to a race against time as Gray attempts to kill April on a hotel rooftop in a way that exactly replicates the stage climax of his play that we saw in the opening. Instead of attempting hostage negotiation psychology, Dorothy cleverly encourages the police and friends with her below to applaud him – finally breaking the spell returning Parker’s memory. Sadly, he takes an inadvertent final bow that plummets him to his death – an effective ending for a reasonable supporting feature.