Saturday, September 3, 2011

HANGOVER SQUARE - Hermann/Newman/Henderson - "Have You Seen Joe?" (1945)

Great title, great film! I don't think Laird Cregar could make a bad movie if he tried, so his films are real easy to watch, so just sit back and enjoy the madness that is "Hangover Square!"

Speaking of madness, somehow they kind of left out that part of this historical statement! George would probably have had better luck if he had lived in number 13!

There's been a murder, and the viewer is left without a doubt who the killer is! It's not whodunnit story, but more of a why he does it story. The ending is inevitable! Laird Cregar is George Harvey Bone, a classical musician whose fine tuned ear cannot stand the sound of any cacophonous disturbance. Noise just makes him go off the deep end! I have the same reaction to disco music!

I had to get drunk last night just to put me in the right frame of mind to write this. Oh, my head!!

Here he is again, a guy we've been seeing a lot of lately, the amazing Alan Napier as Sir Henry Chapman. Yet another excellent film that featured Alan Napier will be showing up here in the future, "The Strange Door!"

It's no mystery, and George Harvey Bone has these spells where he blacks out, and he's not even sure what he is capable of doing. Rightfully so, Mr. Bone questions his own sanity!

The story could have been much shorter, because right about here George Harvey Bone turns to Dungeon stalwart George Sanders as Scotland Yard's Dr. Allan Middleton for help, but Dr. Middleton assures George that he's all right and although he has problems, he is not a murderer! Wrong!

George decides to go to Bailey's Brewery for the Smoking Concert! The music for "Hangover Square" was composed by the more than amazing Bernard Herrmann! It's kind of difficult to fathom that Bernard Herrmann's first movie was arguably one of THE best movies ever made, Orson Welles's "Citizen Kane, and yet, that was probably not his greatest achievement! Mr. Herrmann worked together with Alfred Hitchcock on some of Alfred's best films that included "Psycho," North By Northwest," and "Vertigo." He also wrote the music for 17 episodes of Alfred's TV show, "Thriller." He also wrote the music for seven episodes of "The Twilight Zone," not to mention the classic films, "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, "Journey To The Center Of The Earth," "Jason And The Argonauts," and the list goes on and on.

The Smoking Concert is smoking hot!!

And all the guys are digging it a lot!! Yeehah!!!!!

The local favourite is Netta Longdon as portrayed by Linda Darnell! She sings, she dances, she does everything but roll on her belly like a reptile!

The music is light and fun, and is a nice break for George Harvey Bone, who I could not find a real reference to in The British Catalogue of Music. You're more than welcome to download and read it yourself at the Internet Archive!!

The rousing singalong song that Netta performs is called "Have You Seen Joe" with music by Lionel Newman, and lyrics by Charles Henderson! These two cats were no slouches either, Lionel won an Oscar for his work in "Hello Dolly," and Charles has diverse musical credits that run the gambit from "The Ghoul" to "Bambi!"

Classic and classical make contact!

Laird tries to explain to the cat that you're not supposed to look at the camera, but it's all to no avail!! Give the cat some credit, at least it doesn't wave at the camera!!

Linda Darnell is amazingly drop dead gorgeous, and is as beautiful as any woman to ever grace the silver screen, and she also has the ability to play a horrendous two-faced bitch! Linda Darnell was born Monetta Eloyse Darnell in Dallas, Texas and sadly died at the age of 41 in a house fire. Between the two of them Laird Cregar and Linda Darnell only lived a combined 72 years! How's that for wrong?

George writes Netta a couple of songs that are helping out her career a lot, and she keeps playing him for the fool, and he keeps falling for it!

Some workers drop a load of metal pipes that makes so much noise it literally drives George insane again!

With the help of George's beautiful compositions, Netta has worked her way up the talent pole quite nicely! My how terminology has changed!

The truth finally rears it's ugly little head, and George loses it when he finds out that Glenn Langan as suave Eddie Carstairs, is really Netta's true love and lover!! Yes indeed, that is the same Glenn Langan who 12 years later would be "The Amazing Colossal Man!"

Fairly morbid in retrospect, but lucky for George, the locals are having their annual Fawkes Day Celebration and Bon Fire, and everybody is encouraged to bring a dummy to burn. George's donation just happens to be the broken body of Netta!

Most of the time I don't get around to opening the mail until the weekend, and this is pretty much what my desk looks like!

Just like Caesar fiddlin', George plays on while the joint burns down to the end!

As is normal, I guess my timing is a little off. From what I read, "Hangover Street" just played on TCM last Saturday, too bad I didn't know, or I would have given you a head's up. Hopefully, they'll be running it again real soon! It can also be found on Netflix!

5 comments:

Greg Goodsell said...

GREAT FLICK! Laird Cregar's plight in this film is akin to many film noir heroes who go off the deep end and commit murder!

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

This is the kind of film, that we'll always be, without a doubt, in agreement on!

Christopher said...

Linda getting chucked onto the fire is rather ironic..I always preferred this movie over The Lodger..

Prof. Grewbeard said...

wow, Laird looks a little like Raymond Burr without his mustache. and this film looks like some fun!

three favorite Bernard Herrmann scores- The Day The Earth Stood Still, Psycho & Farhenheit 451.

Christopher said...

Vertigo may be my fave Herrmann score,simply because I love Debussy and Ravel which it resembles..altho its the scores for his fantasy films like Jason and The Argonauts and Mysterious Island that got me to notice him.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??