London Blackout Murders

Mary McLeod moves to London to work in a war plant. She takes up residence in a flat over a closed tobacconist. John Abbott welcomes her, puts a shilling in the meter for her ht water and invites her and her boyfriend to a dinner of pre-war tinned sardines. Of course, she suspects him of being the Blackout Murderer, who's been killing random strangers during air raids. So does Scotland Yard inspector Lloyd Corrigan. Dogwalker Anita Sharp-Bolster doesn't know anything about murders. She wants him arrested for leaving the dogs she parks in his shop while she's out getting drunk.

Working from a script by Curt Siodmak, director George Sherman offers a bizarre tale of morality far afield from normal practices, and the claim that when the law is helpless to act, then individuals must do so. I can't tell if the story was this abrupt when it was offered to the produces, or it got trimmed too far by editor Charles Craft, who figured it would never be more than the third film on a triple bill. In any case, it's disturbing.