The Brighton Strangler

“Don’t shoot. Applaud.” Sharing a story premise with George Cukor’s superior A Double Life (1947), Max Nosseck’s The Brighton Strangler impressively packs what feels like a full-length, 90-minute film into barely over an hour. The perennially underused John Loder plays London actor Reginald Parker who loses his memory when the Nazis bomb his theater during the blitz; this would be bad enough, but in Parker’s case, he takes on the identity of the titular serial killer he had been playing on stage. (Even if the scenario requires suspension of disbelief, Loder performs well, and the blitz scenes are compelling.) Parker hazily travels to Brighton where he dispatches his first few victims against snowy Christmas backgrounds and cozy fireplaces. June Duprez plays a young Brighton woman who befriends Parker and welcomes him into her family’s home, while Rose Hobart plays Parker’s original fiancé who believes she’s lost her future husband to the war.