Stranger on the Third Floor is a 1940 American film noir directed by Boris Ingster in his directorial debut and starring Peter Lorre, John McGuire, Margaret Tallichet, and Charles Waldron, and featuring Elisha Cook Jr. It was written by Frank Partos. Modern research has shown that Nathanael West wrote the final version of the screenplay, but was uncredited. and continued to make films, including Stranger on the Third Floor in 1940. She made two more films, then retired from acting.
Production
Stranger on the Third Floor was Boris Ingster's directorial debut. Jeremy Arnold writes that the film's "extraordinary look and tone are the product of stylized sets, bizarre angles and lighting, and a powerful blurring of dream and reality – qualities strongly influenced by German expressionist films of the 1920s." Robert Portfino called it "a distinct break in style and substance with the preceding mystery, crime, detection and horror films of the 1930s."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 75%, based on 28 professional reviews with the consensus summarizing: "While it suffers from the occasional stilted performance, Stranger on the Third Floor turns its gripping premise into a visually persuasive noir nightmare through bold production design and Boris Ingster's striking direction."
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Bibliography
- Lyons, Arthur (2000). Death on the Cheap: The Lost B Movies of Film Noir. New York: Da Capo.
- Server, Lee (1998). "The Black List: Essential Film Noir" in The Big Book of Noir, ed. Ed Gorman, Lee Server, and Martin H. Greenberg. New York: Carroll & Graf.