Stranger on the Third Floor

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This classic but sometimes overlooked film is generally considered the first film noir, with its extraordinary, radically new look and tone, the product of stylized sets, bizarre a ngles and lighting, and a powerful blurring of dream and reality--qualities strongly influenced by German expressionist films of the 1920s. A reporter (John McGuire) discovers a murder but via his well-meaning testimony in the corrupt legal system ends up condemning an innocent ex-con (Elisha Cook, Jr.). While guiltily investigating the crime further on his own, the journalist eventually finds himself suspected in a second killing. Although he doesn't speak his first line of dialogue until the film's final ten minutes, Peter Lorre spiritually dominates the fascinating melodrama. Show more