1945 film
Hangover Square (1945) is a film noir directed by John Brahm, based on the novel Hangover Square (1941) by Patrick Hamilton. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon who made a number of changes to the novel, including the transformation of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the story as a turn-of-the-century period piece.[1]
The movie was released in New York City on February 7, 1945, two months after its star, Laird Cregar, suffered a fatal heart attack.
Plot
In fin-de-siecle London Victorian London (date 1899 shown in the opening scene), the police suspect that a composer who suffers from periods of amnesia may be a murderer.
The period setting creates a dark mood, especially in the key scene when Bone (portrayed by Laird Cregar), having strangled Netta (Linda Darnell) on Guy Fawkes Night, carries her wrapped body through streets filled with revelers and deposits it on top of the biggest bonfire.
The final scene shows Cregar as Bone, playing his piano concerto (composed by Bernard Herrmann), unmindful of the conflagration around him, as flames consume all.
Production
American composer Stephen Sondheim has cited Herrmann's score for Hangover Square as a major influence on his musical Sweeney Todd.[2]
Critical reception
The staff at Variety magazine liked the film and wrote, "Hangover Square is eerie murder melodrama of the London gaslight era - typical of Patrick Hamilton yarns, of which this is another. And it doesn't make any pretense at mystery. The madman-murderer is known from the first reel...Production is grade A, and so is the direction by John Brahm, with particular bows to the music score by Bernard Herrmann."[3]
CD Release of Herrmann's Music
In 2010, the British label Chandos, released a CD that includes a 17 minute concert suite from Hangover Square, put together by Stephen Hogger, plus a Concerto Macabre for piano and orchestra which was pieced together in 1992 by Norma Shepherd and based on manuscript sources for Hangover Square. The disc also includes Stephen Hogger's extended suite based on Herrmann's manuscript for the soundtrack to the Orson Welles classic, Citizen Kane (1941).
