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#Hangover Square
normajeanebaker · 1 year
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Hangover Square (1945) dir. John Brahm
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boydswan · 2 years
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HANGOVER SQUARE (1945) dir. John Brahm
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Linda Darnell as the beautiful but devious showgirl Netta Longdon in Hangover Square (1945)
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forthegothicheroine · 6 months
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(Horror) movies seen in 2023: Hangover Square (1945)
This September and October, I will attempt to see and review as many new-to-me horror movies as I can!
In his annotated lyrics, Stephen Sondheim cited Hangover Square as a primary influence on Sweeney Todd- specifically, the way the score enhanced the gothic melodrama. As soon as a whistle screeches when Laird Crager clutches his head in his hands, you’ll see why.
The ominously named composer George Bone (Crager) is haunted by lost time. Why does his memory seem to vanish when he becomes absorbed in his work, and what does he do during those missing hours? He isn’t at all comforted by his unfaithful lover or his dour doctor (the latter played by the always sinister George Sanders.) His only supportive friend, Barbara, tries to assure him that he needs to focus more on his music, not less, but he continues to be haunted by what we would today called fugue states. Fugue, you may recall, is also a musical term. Perhaps you’ll recognize it from Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, a classical piece so sinister it has become a horror film cliche.
In the Snarkout Boys children’s books by Daniel Pinkwater, Rat, a scary punk girl obsessed with Old Hollywood movie stars, is noted as a particular Laird Crager fan. I bet this was her favorite movie.
The black and white era often saw classical music being played in-universe to disturbing effect. Consider the pianist staring at his own hands in horror in The Hands of Orlock and its remake Mad Love, or the conductor at his stand fantasizing about murder and suicide in Unfaithfully Yours, or the church organist dissociating while playing in Carnival of Souls. Perhaps we see less of this now because classical concerts have become the domain of hardcore music fans rather than general gatherings of the upper class. Still, the close-up face of an artist sweating and closing their eyes as they physically hammer away at the notes remains haunting.
The line between thriller and horror is tenuous at best, and Hangover Square, I would argue, crosses it. (It’s certainly not much of a mystery- I would have liked one more twist, at least.) Poor George isn’t haunted by any physical ghost, but by himself. If he can’t remember what that bundle was that he tossed into the bonfire on Guy Fawkes Night, does it matter whether demonic possession, mental illness or a mundane crime of passion caused it? If he finds himself lost, with no understanding of how he came to wake up where he is, the streets of London might as well be those of hell. Did Dr. Jekyll need his famous potion, or can our minds play the very same tricks on us?
For all that 1940s psychiatry was still a developing science, they understood what it felt like when someone’s own brain tries to destroy them. Poor Laird Crager, one of many actors martyred by the cruelties of Old Hollywood, gives a performance that captures such a feeling perfectly. The details of the plot may at times be routine melodrama, but the screeching whistle of the score as he closes his eyes and tries to steady himself is a beautiful depiction of torment. Hangover Square’s very title recalls the famous state, usually played for comedy, in which a character’s head pounds as they try and fail to recall the events of a previous debauched night. How much more frightening is that state when no drink was needed to provoke it?
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sukiaoki · 1 year
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𝘏𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘦 (1945) 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘣𝘺: 𝘑𝘰𝘩𝘯 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘩𝘮
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crucifiedlovers · 1 year
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She was violets and primroses in an April rain, and her cheek and lips, the breath of violets and primroses, lingered on his mouth, stupefying him with pleasure and longing.
Patrick Hamilton, Hangover Square
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lyssahumana · 10 months
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boxcarwild · 2 years
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Hangover Square is a 1945 American film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the 1941 novel Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton.
The American composer Stephen Sondheim has cited Bernard Herrmann's score for Hangover Square as a major influence on his musical Sweeney Todd.
The movie was released on February 7th 1945, two months after its star, Laird Cregar, suffered a fatal heart attack.
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harrison-abbott · 10 months
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I finished this yesterday. It has a real frenzied, crazed narrative. Set in London just before World War Two. Captures the madness of that city and a kind of personal desperation, too. Well worth a read.
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Hangover Square (1945)
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squirrelfm · 1 year
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"I can make a few steps go an awful long way." ~ Dr. Middleton.
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a-life-in-books · 2 years
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Patrick Hamilton
"London, the crouching monster, like every other monster has to breathe, and breathe it does in its own obscure, malignant way. Its vital oxygen is composed of suburban working men and women of all kinds, who every morning are sucked up through an infinitely complicated respiratory apparatus of trains and termini into the mighty congested lungs, held there for a number of hours, and then, in the evening, exhaled violently through the same channels."
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The Midnight Bell
The Siege of Pleasure
The Plains of Cement
Hangover Square
The Slaves of Solitude
The West Pier
Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse
Unknown Assailant
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schlock-luster-video · 2 months
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On February 7, 1945, Hangover Square premiered in New York City.
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Linda Darnell in Hangover Square (1945)
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forthegothicheroine · 6 months
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I'm watching Hangover Square because Stephen Sondheim said the soundtrack enhancing the spooky melodrama was the inspiration for Sweeney Todd, and there it is! A screeching whistle when something scary happens! There it is!
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pacingmusings · 4 months
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Seen in 2023:
Hangover Square (John Brahm), 1945
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