Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

So much average

Boring

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

In some ways rating this film an 8 out 10 is generous. It's a B film and throughout it feels like a B film. Outside of Peter Lorre who gets top billing even though he is only in the film for a short time the rest of the cast are unknowns who largely stayed that way. Okay Elisha Cook Jr. has a key supporting role as well and he went on to a long film career often appearing in noir films. The film was made apparently for around $175,000. The film has all the elements of noir. The wrongly accused man, voice over, paranoia, lots of heavy shadows, those low camera angles up the stairs, the Brooklyn setting but the pièce de résistance was the dream sequence that has to be seen to be believed.If any complaints the couple played by John McGuire and Margaret Tallichet were a bit cutesy and the happy ending was a bit schmaltzy. But it doesn't take away from the overall effects of the film. Peter Lorre is downright creepy as the stranger and Elisha Cook Jr. is his usual wide eyed self as a wrongly accused. McGuire did his best to channel that later B actor Tom Neal of Detour (1945). Well since McGuire came first maybe it was Tom Neal channelling McGuire. As to Tallichet who had a brief film career and went on to marry the director William Wyler (Ben Hur amongst others) well she was that lovely girl next door you always fall in love with. The rest of the cast is peppered with fine character actors especially the landlady and the pain in the neck neighbour of McGuire. The film is compact and tidy coming in at a swift 64 minutes giving it a TV film feel. Overall a nifty if jagged little film. So remember 'They put you in a shirt with long sleeves, and they pour ice water on you'

The testimony of reporter John McGuire (Mike) is key to the conviction of Elisha Cook Jr (Joe) for murder and his subsequent death penalty sentence. McGuire's girlfriend Margaret Tallichet (Jane) is uneasy with the circumstantial evidence and gets McGuire to doubt his testimony. McGuire's conscience comes into play and he also suspects that his nosey neighbour Charles Halton (Meng) could also have been murdered that night. He has stopped snoring and McGuire had previously spotted a stranger creeping around the apartment. The paranoia gets to him and he goes to check…………what do you think?.....The film has an interesting story and zips along at a good pace. Peter Lorre is suitably creepy as the elusive stranger, but I'm afraid the film is plagued by bad acting. When McGuire first appears at a café, he is really annoying and I found myself looking to other characters for someone to identify with. Well, after witnessing the always awful Elisha Cook Jr demonstrating some unconvincing histrionics in an early courtroom scene, and Margaret Tallichet just generally being so laughably bad on every occasion that she appears, I had nowhere to go. McGuire became the best in the cast. Shocking.Anyway, the film is OK – let down by the cast, so it loses points. There are some interesting shots involving Lorre and McGuire on a staircase – it's a good scene with some tension. There are also predictable moments – eg, when Tallichet goes looking for Lorre, you can tell what is going to happen. Well, I could. It's still a good sequence, though. Unfortunately, things are wrapped up quite conveniently and we get a cringeworthy happy final shot with a pipsqueak.

I title my review "Pass/Fail", because in some ways the film passes some tests of what makes a good film, and in other ways it fails some tests of what makes a good film.Let's begin with the biggest "fail" -- the acting. Now that might surprise you when you consider the fame of the two lead actors -- John McGuire and Margaret Tallichet. Okay, I'm being sarcastic. McGuire went from being a lead in "B" pictures to bit parts...and in this film you can see why. Tallichet's biggest successes in Hollywood were being screen-tested for the role of Scarlett O'Hara and becoming the wife of director William Wyler. Neither McGuire or Tallichet have significant Hollywood resumes, and here their acting is -- at best -- awkward, and certainly amateurish. That's not to say they are totally unpleasant on screen; at least they try hard.And then we come to Peter Lorre. I have come to appreciate Lorre's early screen appearances. There was something very unique about him. But here, he has almost no actual dialog until the end of the film. He is pretty much relegated to being seen, in order to become the leading suspect. Lorre was not exactly new to Hollywood at this point, but his most famous roles were yet to come. I wondered if his teeth were that bad, or if they were doctored up here to make him look more menacing.Probably the best acting here is from Elisha Cook Jr. -- the little creep -- who is probably wrongly convicted of murder...thus the basis of the plot. Cook wasn't a very diverse actor, but he was damned good at what he did. This was his sixth film, and like Lorre, his best work was coming up, not long after this film. BTW, at the very end of the film you get to see him with a huge smile on his face! A rarity! So, what's the "pass" part. Films that are somewhat unique get bonus points from me. And, this film is pretty unique. First, it may have been the first American noir film made (though not released first). But there is plenty of interesting imagery here that you rarely see in old films, and are well worth noting.I must admit wondering if this was a throw-away pic for RKO Pictures. After all, they assigned directorial responsibilities to that finest of directors -- Boris Ingster. Okay, my sarcasm is showing through, again.All things considered, I'm glad to have watched this film, but will never do so again. Pass.Fail, but mostly fail...yet still somewhat intriguing.

Stranger on the Third Floor is directed by Boris Ingster and co-written by Frank Partos and Nathanael West. It stars Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet and Elisha Cook Jr. Music is by Roy Webb and cinematography by Nicholas Musuraca. Michael Ward is a news reporter who is the key witness in a murder trial. His evidence, circumstantial at best, is instrumental in getting a guilty verdict delivered on suspect Joe Briggs (Cook Jr.). When his girlfriend Jane (Tallichet) casts doubt over Briggs' guilt, and his part in the evidence, Michael becomes haunted by the fact he may have sent an innocent man to death row. Things further compound his troubled mind as a sinister stranger is lurking around his rooming house building……Often referred to as the first true film noir picture, Stranger on the Third Floor hardly set the cinematic world alight upon its release. With Lorre the draw card barely in it and its production value no more than that of a B movie programmer, it's not hard to envisage some of those 1940's critics stroking their beards and pondering how to write about such a film. Aesthetically the film caused some consternation, too, while the snarky aside to the legal system, and the people involved in such, adds some intrigue into the narrative mix. For a film running at just over an hour, it was doing well to make a mark: favourably or otherwise!The truth is is that at its core, Ingster's film is no more than a capably acted crime thriller, but what cloaks that core are hugely impressive visuals that paint a skew whiff world of a paranoid mind at work. The script, while light as spoken, does indeed carry cynicism, but this aspect only impacts because of the expressionistic visuals and baroque like imagery. Characters, and the actors playing them, ultimately are playing second fiddle to style over substance, but in this instance it's OK. With Musuraca weaving his photographic magic around heavy shadows, stilted angles and high contrast framing, film contains one of the greatest dream/nightmare sequences to have ever graced/dominated film noir. This alone makes the film essential viewing for noir enthusiasts. The ending is all too swift and contrived, distastefully accompanied by the jolly old music that opened up the piece. But again this is forgiven in light of what has gone before it, for now, nothing can be seen in quite the same way. A most interesting and sneaky little picture this one. 7.5/10