Love from a Stranger

Darker and more noir-infused than A Night of Terror (1937), Rowland Lee’s earlier adaptation of Agatha Christie’s play, Love from a Stranger miscasts 37-year-old Sylvia Sidney as a naive, young bride who marries a serial wife murderer. Released during the height of Gothic noir when a generous portion of romantic suspense masterpieces had already made their mark, and directed by the relatively unknown Richard Whorf, the film still manages to be undeniably entertaining, perhaps even more so than Lee’s earlier version which some might say waited far too long before entering suspense mode. John Hodiak is quite good as mysterious, soft-spoken Bluebeard figure Manuel Cortez (when he freaks out during the film’s climax, his face explodes with psychosis Lon Chaney-style), some kind of scientist who bars his new wife, Cecily Harrington (Sidney), from ever entering his laboratory in the cellar of the country cottage he purchased for them with Cecily’s recently acquired lottery winnings; he pretends to be handling dangerous chemicals down there but we see him spending most of his time digging a grave. Ann Richards and John Howard play Cecily’s loving friends who disdain her new husband and worry about her well-being, while familiar face Anita Sharp-Bolster plays a cognitively disabled “domestic.” Cinematographer Tony Gaudio and composer Hans Salter seem to have each other’s backs, creating an audiovisual tone of horror in key sequences, like when Cortez drags his trunk downstairs for the first time, his pale face shining in the pitch black while the score hums like belabored breathing.