The Brighton Strangler

During WW II as one of the Luftwafte air raids hits London, Reginald Parker, a successful actor, is knocked out and heavily concussed. Upon awaking he believes himself to be Edward Grey, the notorious Brighton Strangler he has been portraying on the stage!

Clocking in at just 67 minutes, The Brighton Strangler just about has enough time to get in and do it's job excellently. Something of an under seen gem, it's a film that has enough creepy menace about it to reward the black and white thriller fan. Boasting excellent sets, some very neat camera work from director Max Nosseck and a fabulous lead performance from John Loder, I personally feel that it deserves to be seen by more people. Typically it's a picture that rarely gets aired on British TV, and when it does it's sadly tucked away on BBC 2 at some ungodly hour in the AM. Until film's like this get decent exposure from our TV schedulers then they are going to remain criminally under seen. So keep your eyes out for this one, the formula may now be seen as old hat, but transport yourself back to 1945, out in the London smog and be wary of that hatted man coming towards you.........8/10

Sometimes Stylish Director Max Nosseck made this the Same Year as His Celebrated Lawrence Tierney Film-Noir, Dillinger. This One has its Moments and is a Serviceable and Above Average Thriller.

The Setting is London, During the War and Much is Made of Blackouts, Coupons, and Uniforms. There are Dead Flyer Brothers that Lead to Family Deceptions and All Sorts of Odd Things. It is an Air-Raid's Falling Debris that Sends Celebrated Stage Actor John Loder into an Amnesiatic Frenzy of Schizophrenia.

That is the Premise and it is Played Out with the Beginning and Ending Acts that are the Best. It Meanders a Bit in the Middle with a Romantic Sub-Plot with an American Serviceman and some Forced Comedy about American Slang, but it Manages to Keep its Footing for the Final Curtain.

Overall, Worth a Watch for the Life During Wartime Setting and a Few Directorial Touches. There are some Tense Murders and it is Atmospheric in Spots. Recommended for Fans of B-Movies and Thrillers, also for those that Like a Bit of a Twist in Movie Murder Sprees.

It would require the labors of Hercules to spoil a movie that had June Duprez in a lead role. She's startling -- those chubby cheeks, that prominent mental symphysis, those slanted feline eyes, each looking in a slightly different direction, the breathlessly smooth voice. No. She's sui generis.

The movie isn't. It's one of several in which an actor is playing the role of a murderer on stage and gets mixed up about which role is which. Poor John Loder. He becomes amnesic after a bomb strike on his theater during the blitz, wanders around remembering nothing except bits and pieces of his stage role. It leads him to a meeting with June Duprez in Brighton where, following the play's plot, he strangles the mayor and the police commissioner. The last murder committed in the play is that of a woman who has begun to suspect him, and Duprez fits the bill in real life. Does he strangle her, you ask, kiddingly? If it's not entirely original, it's still a tidy little murder drama, nicely acted. Some comic relief is added by Michael St. Angel as an American officer -- "Gee whiz", "That cost twenty smackeroos," and"Okay, you can blow now."

In 1947 Ronald Colman won an Oscar for Best Actor by portraying an actor who becomes obsessed with the role he is playing .This was Othello ,in Shakespeare's play of the same name .The obsession turns into violence and insanity .It was an A movie production featuring the acclaimed Colman and with the prestigious A list director George Cukor behind the camera . The Brighton Strangler was made 2 years earlier and deals essentially with the same theme but has more modest ambitions .It aims merely to be a neat little chiller and it achieves this ambition with some distinction .John Loder plays an actor in the West End of London during the German blitz on the city in World War 2 .He is playing a strangler in a long running play ;when the theatre is levelled by a German bomb he is rendered unconscious but survives .On waking he is an amnesiac and begins wandering the London streets in a dazed condition .He finds himself at Victoria railway station where he overhears a chance remark from a stranger that is an exact duplicate of one from the play .Convinved that he is really a strangler he boards a train for the seaside resort of Brighton where he begins to re-enact his stage role by embarking on a string of strangulation murders ,his steps dogged by the police. Loder is good and Max Nosseck directs with due skill aided by a good script. The supporting cast is capable and the movie will pass an hour or so with some pleasure for the viewer . Its not a major work but is a good study of dual personality along Jekyll and Hyde lines

RKO's great artistic team of Silvera and D'Agostino, along with stylish director Nosseck and photographer Hunt, lift the visuals to near artistic heights. Even when the story falters, the dream-like atmosphere carries the ball. It appears stage actor Parker's (Loder) head gets conked during a London air raid. Now he has trouble separating his strangler stage role from everyday reality. Needless to say, this causes problems for him and a couple of corpses he leaves behind. On the whole, Loder is excellent as the schizoid Parker. His generally low-key demeanor proves as disturbing as anything more florid. If there's a problem, it's with the script's treatment of the lovely April (Duprez), who seems impossibly naïve. Like when she goes to the dark roof with Parker even after some of his semi-loony behavior. Still, I love that amusing moment when the English maid tries politely to get her head around American slang.

I'm impressed with Nosseck's ability to coordinate a spotty narrative into an atmospheric whole. Looks to me like he's in the Edgar Ulmer (Detour, {1945}) category, working artfully and anonymously in Hollywood's lower rungs. His American career appears limited by mostly innocuous programmers-- unlike Brighton-- which may be why he went back to Germany. Nonetheless, he appears to have a real feel for this sort of Gothic material. Overall, the 60- some minutes is close to a sleeper, except for the spotty script. It also helps show why lowly RKO was the studio of record during the post-war 1940's.