10. Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
Dir. Boris Ingster
Stylistically, noir took most of its cues from German Expressionism—an artistic movement born of Germany’s own post-war neuroses following World War One. Rejecting realism in favor of bold objectivism, Expressionism reveled in super-stylized sets full of jagged, asymmetrical corners, high-contrast shadows (in some cases shadows were literally painted onto the sets), and dehumanizing environments. Stranger on the Third Floor, a 64-minute potboiler by RKO Radio Pictures, best demonstrates the direct link between noir and Expressionism, particularly during a surreal nightmare sequence where the protagonist dreams of being accused, tried, convicted, and executed for a crime he didn’t commit. The plot itself sees the first tentative steps towards disillusionment concerning American institutions like the Justice Department—the lead character is a reporter who serves as a key witness in a murder trial which sees a possibly innocent man sentenced to the electric chair. When he later discovers evidence that the real culprit may have killed again, the police arrest him. Some other proto-noir historians like to trot out include Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936) and You Only Live Once (1937). But while both regard white-picket fence Americana with sneering cynicism, neither had the stylistic panache that made Stranger on the Third Floor so extraordinary and atypical for its time.
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