[Spoilers re: Hangover Square ahead]
As the title of the blogathon suggests, October 16th, 2023 would have been Linda Darnell’s 100th birthday. Linda isn’t an actress that is well known today, except in circles of more devoted fans of Classic Hollywood. While she appeared in many big projects at the time (The Mask of Zorro, My Darling Clementine, A Letter to Three Wives, to name a few), she never had a Casablanca or The Wizard of Oz or Gone With the Wind-type film that would make her a household name. In film noir circles, what Linda is known for is being a sultry, smoldering femme fatale in 1940s noir such as Fallen Angel and Hangover Square, both released in 1945. The latter film is what I will be discussing in this article.
Today, Hangover Square doesn’t typically rank on many “top film noir of all time” lists; it doesn’t seem to be well known. Despite having seen dozens of film noir, I’d never heard of it until I saw it included in one of Kino Lorber’s quarterly sales. I purchased it as a blind buy and absolutely loved it. It was so different than other noir that I’d seen prior. Linda Darnell is the femme fatale of the story and despite leaving the film about 2/3 the way through, her presence and effect on the protagonist are felt through to the film’s fiery conclusion.
In Hangover Square, Laird Cregar plays George Harvey Bone, a composer working in a home on Hangover Square in Edwardian London in 1903. George has been working so intensely and hard on his concerto that he is overworked and stressed. Because of the stress, George is prone to blacking out and bouts of amnesia. George’s blackouts are triggered whenever he hears discordant sounds, such as the crash of metal piping falling off a wagon. At the beginning of the film, George is in the middle of one of his amnesiac episodes, where he stabs a shop owner to death.
From the get go, the audience knows that George is a murderer. He confides in his literal girl next door girlfriend, Barbara (Faye Marlowe), that he cannot remember his actions the night prior. She refers George to the doctor at Scotland Yard, Dr. Allan Middleton (George Sanders). While talking to Dr. Middleton, George tells him about how unpleasant sounds triggers these blackouts where he cannot remember his whereabouts and actions for a period of time. From this point in the film, Dr. Middleton’s character somewhat disappears from the story; but he will be back. It’s time for Linda Darnell to enter the fray.
Linda plays singer Netta Longdon. Netta is not very talented. Her act consists of a bad song, which doesn’t matter because she flashes her legs a lot at the male audience. One night, George goes to see her sing at a “smoking concert” in a local saloon. I researched “smoking concerts” and learned that they were live performances put on for a male-only crowd. While listening to the live entertainment, the men would engage in “manly pursuits” like smoking and discussing politics. Obviously an environment too sensitive for women, but not too sensitive for women to entertain the men with raunchy (for Victorian era) dancing. Anyway, George is captivated by Netta and wants to meet her.
Upon meeting George, it’s obvious that Netta is uninterested in him. However, she perks up when she learns that he’s a composer and seems to have an ear for writing catchy music. With help of a mutual acquaintance, Mickey, Netta learns that there’s a song with lyrics that would be more suited for her “talents,” but she needs an arrangement, which she decides George should compose. Because he’s enamored with the beautiful, sultry Netta, George sets his major composition aside to work on her arrangements.
Netta continues to string George along, letting him wine and dine her and perform other favors. He’s basically become her sugar daddy, with nothing in return. Despite supposedly dating Barbara, George is smitten with Netta. Linda Darnell’s portrayal makes it easy to see why. She plays Netta to be sultry, with a bit of an aloofness–much like her “Stella” character in Fallen Angel. However, the aloofness all but disappears when she learns of George’s composer background. Netta is the perfect femme fatale here, as she all but disrupts George’s life, because he has mistaken her coy behavior and flirting for interest. This is never more telling than in the scene when she and George kiss, and Netta opens her eye that faces the camera. This is not a woman who is in love. This is a woman who knows that she’s just sealed the deal on getting this man to punch her ticket out of Hangover Square.
Eventually, as one can suspect, George catches onto Netta’s deception when he spots her leaving her apartment. She had just feigned a headache and ended their evening prematurely, due to having received a more appealing offer. He is incensed about her betrayal and ends up strangling her to death during the annual Guy Fawkes Night. At the centerpiece of the evening’s festivities is an enormous bon fire. In a rather gruesome scene for 1945, George puts a Guy Fawkes mask on Netta’s face, to hide that she’s a real dead body, not a dummy, and places her corpse on the top of the bonfire.
This serves as the final piece of inspiration that George needed to finish his composition. The composition is unveiled at a performance to be attended by the elite. By this point, Scotland Yard is onto George. The walls are closing in. As George starts his performance, the events of the previous 60 minutes flash by, accompanied by George’s concerto. Barbara’s scenes are more relaxing, except for the scene when George almost strangles her during one of his blackouts. The music swells and gets more intense. However, when he gets to the Netta section of the composition, the notes become more dramatic, more angry. There is a lot of hurt in this section. The pain is evident on George’s face and he really goes off the rails during this section. He goes so far off the rails in fact, that he has to stop and has Barbara take over and finish the performance.
The film ends in really the only way it can. George starts a fire with a gas lamp. The entire building goes up in flames. The audience and orchestra rush out before the room is consumed in flames. All of this happens as George stands in the middle of the room begging people to stay so that they can hear the end of his concerto. His masterpiece. The people rightfully look at him like he’s nuts. George resumes his place on the piano bench and plays his heart out, finishing the concerto while he is consumed by fire and smoke.
While Hangover Square is Laird Cregar’s film, there is no denying that Linda Darnell plays a pivotal role. Her character’s betrayal is what finally causes George to lose his remaining grasp on reality. He is a shell of the shell of a man he was before. However, it is easy to see that George’s murder of Netta gave him the inspiration for the final portion of his concerto. Their relationship and her murder is the most dramatic portion of the concerto. This woman affected him deeply during life and even more so after death.
Whimsically Classic 