Three Strangers

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Three Strangers
theatrical poster
Directed by	Jean Negulesco
Produced by	Wolfgang Reinhardt
Written by	John Huston Howard Koch
Starring	Sydney Greenstreet Geraldine Fitzgerald Peter Lorre
Music by	Adolph Deutsch
Cinematography	Arthur Edeson
Editing by	George Amy
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Three Strangers (1946) is a Warner Bros. crime drama, starring Peter Lorre, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Sydney Greenstreet, featuring Joan Lorring and Alan Napier. It was directed by Jean Negulesco from a script by John Huston and Howard Koch.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 Notes
6 External links

[edit] Plot

Crystal Shackelford (Geraldine Fitzgerald) lures two strangers, barrister Jerome K. Abutney (Sydney Greenstreet) and charming and erudite ne'er-do-well Johnny West (Peter Lorre) to her London flat on Chinese New Year in 1938 in order to fulfill a prophecy: if three stangers make the same wish to an idol of Kwan Yin, Chinese goddess of fortune and destiny, the wish will be granted. Since money will make other wishes come true, the three go in on a sweepstakes ticket together and agree that they will not sell the ticket if it is chosen, but will hold onto it until the race is run. Shackelford will use the money to get her husband back, Arbutny to insure his selection for the Barrister's Club, and Johnny will buy a bar and stay drunk.

The film then moves between the separate stories of these three strangers. Shackelford's husband (Alan Napier) has fallen in love with another woman, Janet Elliot (Marjorie Riordan), and wants a divorce, but she refuses to accept the idea of losing him and does every underhanded thing she can to force him back, including telling the other women that she is pregnant by her husband, which drives the woman away.

In the meantime, Johnny has been hiding out after his drunken participation in a robbery that ended in murder. Icey Crane (Joan Lorring) looks after him, and is to be an alibi witness for the muderer, Bertram Fallon (Robert Shayne), but things go wrong at the trial, and Fallon winds up confessing to the robbery but blaming the murder on West and the third man involved, Gabby (Peter Whitney). Johnny is arrested and goes to jail, but Gabby finds and stabs Fallon, who on his deathbed clears Johnny.

The third stranger, Arbutny the barrister, has been stock speculating with money taken from the trust fund of Lady Rhea Beladon (Rosalind Ivan), an eccentric widow who believe she can talk with her dead husband. When the stock falls, and his margin is called, Arbutny realizes that the only way out of his dilemma is to marry Lady Beladon. After consulting with her dead husband, she refuses his proposal, and instead wants to have the books checked. Arbutny is about to commit suicide by shooting himself when he sees in a newspaper that the sweepstakes ticket has been selected.

The three strangers again converge on Crystal Shackelford's flat. Arbutny, who needs money right away, doesn't want to wait for the race to be run, he wants to sell his share of the ticket immediately to raise funds. Johnny is willing, but Shackelford is adamant that they stick to their original agreement. Arbutny is enraged and kills Shackelford with the statue of Kwan Yin while trying to take the ticket by force. Johnny realizes that the ticket has to be destroyed because their signatures on it are tantamount to a confession of murder. They leave, with Arbutny having been driven mad by the events, confessing on the street to passersby that he has met the devil, who is a woman.

West returns to the bar to get drunk, and Icey joins him there. Ironically, the horse the three strangers held the ticket for wins the race, but the ticket he holds for it is now worthless, and he sets it afire.^[1]^[2]

[edit] Cast

Peter Lorre and Joan Lorring in a scene from Three Strangers

Sydney Greenstreet as Jerome K. Arbutny
Geraldine Fitzgerald as Crystal Shackleford
Peter Lorre as Johnny West
Joan Lorring as Icey Crane
Robert Shayne as Bertram Fallon
Marjorie Riordan as Janet Elliot
Arthur Shields as Prosecutor
Rosalind Ivanas Lady Rhea Beladon
John Alvin as Junior Clerk
Peter Whitney as Gabby
Alan Napier as David Shackleford
Clifford Brooke as Senior Clerk
Doris Lloyd as Mrs. Proctor
John Burton as Narrator (uncredited)
Stanley Logan as "Major" Beach (uncredited)
Ian Wolfe as Gillkie the Barrister (uncredited)

[edit] Production

Three Strangers was in production from early January to mid-February 1945. Its original title was "Three Men and a Girl,"^[3] and Bette Davis and George Brent were originally to be the leads. At one point, the story was seen as a sequel of sorts to The Maltese Falcon, and Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet and Mary Astor were to star. Other actors who were considered for the role of "Jerome K. Arbutny", played in the film by Sydney Greenstreet, were Lionel Atwill, Donald Crisp, Ian Hunter and Claude Rains, while Miriam Hopkins and Kay Francis were considered to play "Crystal Shackelford", the role played by Geraldine Fitzgerald. For the third starring role, that of "Johnny West," Errol Flynn, David Niven, Leslie Howard, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and Robert Montgomery were considered,^[4] which makes the eventual casting of Peter Lorre in the part all the more interesting, since he was cast totally against type as the romantic lead. Director Jean Negulesco was a fan of Lorre's work and fought hard to give him the role.^[5]

John Huston was inspired to write the story by a wooden figure he bought in an antique shop while working in London. Later, events at a party in his flat suggested to Huston the story of three strangers sharing a sweepstakes ticket. Alfred Hitchcock was at the gathering, and liked the story when Huston told it to him, but nothing came of it. Huston returned to Hollywood, and Warners bought the treatment in 1937. Huston went on to write the script with his friend Howard Koch. When the film finally went into production, Huston was not available to direct it, because he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army Signal Corps.^[4]^[6]

Two American release dates for Three Strangers can be found: 28 January 1946^[7] and 16 February 1946^[3]. It's possible that the first date is the premiere, and the later one the actual date of general release.

[edit] Reception

In its 1946 review, Variety said:

Greenstreet overplays to some extent as the attorney who has raided a trust fund, but he still does a good job. Lorre is tops as a drunk who gets involved in a murder of which he's innocent, while Fitzgerald rates as the victim.^[8]

Bosley Crowther in the New York Times wrote that same year:

[T]he action [...] is full-bodied melodrama of a shrewd and sophisticated sort. Never so far away from reason that it is wholly incredible but obviously manufactured fiction, it makes a tolerably tantalizing show, reaching some points of fascination in a few of its critical scenes.^[9]