“Lured” (1947)

Lured

Brief Description:

British police are after a serial killer who lures his female victims through newspaper personal ads and sends cryptic poem clues to the cops.

Date: 1947

Genre: American film noir 

Running time: 1 hour 42 minutes 

Cast: 

George Sanders (Fleming)

Lucille Ball (Sandra)

Charles Coburn (Temple)

Boris Karloff (Druten)

Sir Cedric Hardwicke (Julian)

Joseph Calleia (Moryani)

Alan Mowbray (Maxwell)

George Zucco (Barrett)

Robert Coote (Detective)

Alan Napier (Gordon)

Tanis Chandler (Lucy)

Ethelreda Leopold (nightclub singer; voice dubbed by Annette Warren)

Director: Douglas Sirk

Production company: Hunt Stromberg Productions

Based on: Pièges, a.k.a. Personal Column, 1939 French film

Wikipedia page

Watch on Archive

(watched on Tubi)

Setting/Aesthetic/Feel: 4/5

This is one of the best 1940 thrillers I’ve seen. The atmosphere is excellent. It’s humorous, romantic, suspenseful, and complex. I’m not a fan of the taxi-dancing and nightclub setting, but I love the 1940s aesthetic and feel, and the opera & rich homes as well. 

Characters: 4/5

Sandra is really a very fun female lead. She’s a very realistic girl, clever, strong, feminine, sassy—and very American. ;) I’m not a fan of her profession and some of her choices, but as a character she’s very well done. Fleming isn’t the best of male leads I’ve ever come across—he’s a playboy for sure—but he does thoroughly love Sandra (and came to her defence!) and I really enjoy his acting, so much so I’ve hunted up other George Sanders films. Julian did his job splendidly… I love Temple, he’s so grandfatherly and one of the best police inspectors I’ve seen in films… Maxwell and Moryani were  c r e e p y… so was Druten… My favourite person was hands down Barrett—he’s such a fatherly chap! I’m gonna watch many more films with George Zucco. 

Plot: 4.5/5

While the film does have some content and stuff I am not a fan of (see below), I really really enjoy it. I love how the mystery was handled here. Things weren’t explained too fast, and they made sense and were actually quite detective-y, and I wasn’t at all sure who the bad guy was until the very end, the first time I watched. I remembered who this time, but I still had plenty of suspenseful moments!! I love the bits of humour and the running joke about Barrett’s crosswords. I also loved seeing Sandra as an undercover policewoman. I love films that are mysterious and suspenseful without being freaky or gruesome, and Lured hits all the right boxes. 

Romance: 4/5

Okay, so Sandra & Robert are just romantic. Sue me. 

Content: 3/5 (medium)

Smoking, drinking, one euphemism, long kissing (between Fleming & his first girlfriend), low-necked dresses and shorts, a shot of a model in her undergarments, a couple shots of a showgirl in a skimpier outfit, belittling comments by Sandra’s boss and Fleming about/to women. Sandra & Lucy work at a taxi-dance place (aka, men come and pay so much to dance a dance with them). The inspector asks Lucy to show him her knees when he recruits her (to make sure she’s attractive enough for the spot). Sandra tells Barrett Maxwell is interested in her but “not that way, he hasn’t even held my hand yet.” 

Violence: 3.5/5 (low to medium)

Off-screen murders; scene where the killer tries to strangle Sandra.

Overall: 4.5/5

Again, one of my favourite classic mystery/thriller films!