Lured (1947)

Sick Product of a Sick System

Absolutely Brilliant!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In a way, "Lured" is actually George Zucco's film. Why? Because of his counter-casting, even though there has never been any doubt that this great mostly-unknown English actor (except to horror & comedy-mystery fans) would have pulled it off with his usual style & class, and here, humor (remember, he was a hoot in "After the Thin Man" & "Topper Returns").It's a fun whodunit with a really solid cast from top to bottom, including favorites Alan Mobray, Gerald Hamer, Joseph Calleia, Charles Coburn,and Alan Napier (Alfred the butler on "Batman")."Lured" is about a lady killer on the loose in London, and includes a cast with such leading stars as Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Sir Cedric Hardwicke and George Sanders - but it's Zucco who always demands that the viewer watch.Horror legend Boris Karloff shows up in as a crazed dress designer. His moment is priceless.Hopefully, one or two of the terrific new retro networks will add this to their rotations.

Believe me, Lured is one truly preposterous "serial killer" movie (even for the 1940s). And nothing makes me cringe more than to read someone referring to this dumb-ass "Chick Flick" as being "Film Noir" - 'Cause if that's the category they place this film into, then they really don't know what the heck they're talking about.And, besides that - I'd say that Boris Karloff's over-the-top portrayal of the eccentric fashion designer, Charles van Druten, has got to be one of the absolute, most embarrassing moments ever recorded in the history of a big-budget, big-name Hollywood production.Here are a couple of things that, in my books, lost Lured some significant points - (1) Scotland Yard's laughable procedure for recruiting the gold-digging, dance-hall girl, Sandra Carpenter, as a "lure" to trap the infamous "Poet Killer" (and, yes, they even went so far as to equip her with her very own pistol).(2) The "real" identity of the killer was shamelessly given away about two-thirds of the way into the story, and yet this tale was dragged out for another 35 minutes, putting this annoyed viewer through pure hell as I foolishly stuck it out to the very end.And, finally - Speaking about Lucille Ball - Not only did I think that she was totally unconvincing and ill-suited for her part - But I sure got sick & tired of seeing this tiresome clothes-horse strut out, in scene after scene, in yet another smart and/or elegant outfit.*Trivia Note* - Even though Lured was set in London, England, it was actually filmed entirely on an indoor set in Hollywood, California.

Long before her 1951-57 smash hit TV sitcom, "I Love Lucy," that would make her a household name forever, Lucille Ball was an accomplished actress. She will always be known for her comedy, but she had many talents. She could dance up a storm, and sing a tune. She was a very attractive starlet who played nicely in some dramas and romances. Throw in a couple of Westerns and several mystery-suspense-thrillers, and you have a well-rounded, excellent actress. She made more than 100 movies in her lifetime, besides her "I Love Lucy" TV series, followed by "The Lucy Show" in 1962-1968, and finally, "Here's Lucy" that ran from 1968 to 1974. TV Guide called her the greatest TV start of all time. "Lured" is one of the mystery-crime movies that starred Ball, with a wonderful cast of other big names of the time. She does an excellent job as an American, Sandra Carpenter, who is stranded in London when a stage show she was in closed after just three nights' run. George Sanders plays Robert Fleming; Charles Coburn is Inspector Harley Temple of Scotland Yard, Cedric Hardwicke is Fleming's partner, Julian Wilde. All give very good performances. As do a number of other very talented actors – Alan Mowbray as Lyle Maxwell, George Zucco as Officer Barrett, and a host of others in small or cameo roles. One is Boris Karloff, and all I'll say about him is that I don't think I've ever seen Karloff laugh at all, let alone laugh so long and hard and convincingly, as in this film. To give the plot of this film might ruin it for viewers. It's a very clever script. It's in black and white, which lends a nice touch to the scenes of foggy nights in London. All the technical aspects of the film are very good. This is a nicely engaging movie that's sure to entertain. And give people who only know of Lucy Ricardo from her first TV show, a look at a very talented actress who could do almost anything on stage or film.

Lured (AKA: Personal Column) is directed by Douglas Sirk and collectively written by Leo Rosten, Jacques Companéez, Simon Gantillon and Ernst Neubach. It stars Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Calleia and Boris Karloff. Music is by Michel Michelet and cinematography by William H. Daniels.A serial killer in London is murdering young women whom he meets through the personal columns section of the newspaper. Taunting the police with cryptic poems, the killer is proving most illusive, so much so that when a friend of dancer Sandra Carpenter (Ball) disappears, the police enlist her to act as bait to lure the killer in.There's a lot to like about Lured, on proviso you have your expectation level correctly set as to what sort of film it is. It's a very uneven movie in tone, which when one sees that there were four writing contributors involved in bringing it to the screen, perhaps comes as no surprise. A remake of Robert Siodmak's 1939 film Pièges (set in Paris), it is never sure if it wants to be a comedy mystery or a dark brooding thriller. A shame because in spite of it being a set bound production, Sirk and Daniels create a sinister visual mood when the story lurks around the constructed London sets.The cast are ever watchable, though you can see Ball struggling to rein in her natural comedic bent during the more dramatic sequences, but she leads off from the front and looks positively lovely and radiant. Karloff fans get a fun extended cameo, with the great Uncle Boris playing up to a caricature of unstable characters he could do in his sleep, Sanders is suitably stand-offish, Coburn ebullient, while Hardwicke and Calleia add a touch of class to the support ranks.Michelet's musical score is in keeping with the mixed tonal flow of the picture, in fact sometimes sounding like it should be in a screwball movie from decades previously, but with competent professionalism coming elsewhere from Sirk, Daniels and the lead cast members, it's an enjoyable movie. Even if it's all a bit too jolly and nonchalant for its own good at times. 6.5/10