ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

Steineded How sad is this?

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

dougdoepke 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.

blanche-2 I love British mysteries, and having a mystery done during wartime makes "The Brighton Strangler" even better.The plot is similar to "A Double Life" from 1947, concerning an actor (Ronald Colman) playing Othello who starts strangling women in real life.In this film, an actor, Reginald Parker (John Loder) plays the Brighton Strangler in a long-running play. After closing night, as he's in his dressing room, there's a bombing. The theater is hit, and he's knocked unconscious. When he comes to, he confuses the play with reality, to the extent that he gives his name as Edward Grey, the name of his character. After boarding the train to Brighton, he meets a young WAC (June Duprez) who sees that he's wounded and helps him. He's invited to her home. Little does anyone know that he's following the script of the play.Atmospheric thriller with a great rooftop set at the end. Lots of references to things like clothing coupons and the war.People here are raving about John Loder; I found him fairly one note. I also didn't find the play he appeared in very well directed. The first scene is from the play, and Edward Grey announces to the young woman he's with that he's the Brighton Strangler. There he is, with silk rope in his hand, and she just stands there. . Oh, well, you can't have everything. Really enjoyable.

kidboots The most popular play on the West End is "The Brighton Strangler". It is the last performance for Reginald Parker as he wants a rest from being "a strangler" and to spend more time with his fiancée Dorothy Kent (Rose Hobart). She is also writing a new play for him. Parker is a gentle and kind man, but caught in a bomb blast at the theatre, he literally becomes Edward Grey, the character he played in "The Brighton Strangler". He goes to Victoria Station and meets April (June Duprez) who is going to Brighton to visit her parents for Christmas. The word "Brighton" triggers an association in his brain, so he goes there too.He then sets about recreating the play - killing first the Mayor, who he feels sent him to jail - the Mayor (Ian Wolff) doesn't know a thing about it of course. His next victim is Inspector Allison (Miles Mander). April is to meet her husband (she is secretly married but because her parents have recently lost their son in the war she doesn't want to tell them.) She asks Grey to give her an alibi by going to a concert that she is supposed to be attending. He uses the concert as an alibi for himself so he can kill the Inspector and then get back to the concert without causing suspicion. April's husband is called back to his base so April can go to the concert after all but she doesn't see Grey there.The film ends as the film began - with the final scene from the play "The Brighton Strangler". I really enjoyed this film a lot more than "A Double Life" which I found a bit dull.John Loder is good as always - I just loved him in "Non Stop New York" - he plays Reginald Parker. The beautiful June Duprez's most important film was "The Four Feathers" (1939), the technicolor showing off her dazzling beauty. She plays April. Rose Hobart was an American actress whose most famous role was as Muriel Carew in "Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde" (1931) - she fitted in well with the English cast as Dorothy Kent.

bob the moo Reginald Parker is the writer and star of the hit play "The Brighton Strangler" although the repetitive play and the constant performances have gotten to him and, despite the sell-out crowds he plans to draw it to an end and do something different. However a bombing attack on London during opening night leaves him stumbling around on his own with a head injury. As he tries to piece things together all he can get is snippets of his play and soon he finds himself remembering the life of character Edward Grey as his own and he boards a train for Brighton.Although starting out with a clever (if dated) concept this film doesn't do anything of real value with it and instead just plods towards the ending that is actually quite good in a strange way. With a central idea that was probably fresh and new back in the 1940's, the film mainly focuses on following Parker as he becomes his own creation. Problem is that, past this idea and about two moments where he struggles with his conflicting memories, there is nothing to this film and it easily becomes just a simple story about the Brighton Strangler and, if Parker's play was as straightforward as this film then I cannot understand why it sold out so much! I would have liked the character of Parker/Grey to have been complex and interesting as a result of his mixed personalities but as it is he is very straightforward and lacking imagination.Loder is good at the start and as he becomes Grey but once he is in character (literally) he just does the basics and lacks any sort of flair or style – by the end of the closing credits I had already forgotten what he even looked like. His support is just as uninspiring with solid but unmemorable turns from Duprez, St Angel, Mander, Hobart and Evans to name the main players. The director does quite well with the sets but without the material being darker and/or deeper there was only going to be so much he could do.Overall this is an interesting idea but the film doesn't carry it further than that. The characters of Grey and Parker briefly cross over twice but other than that there is nothing in either of them to produce a real interest. The murders are quite engaging but without the moral darkness they are only as atmospheric as the music and direction allows them to be. Worth seeing as a light thriller but with so much missed potential it is understandable why it is rarely seen these days.