Lured

Starring:George Sanders, Lucille Ball, Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Calleia, Alan Mowbray, George Zucco, Robert Coote, Alan Napier, Tanis Chandler, Brooks Benedict, Alex Frazer, Ethelreda Leopold, Eric Wilton, Harold Miller, Sayre Dearing, Herbert Evans, Colin Campbell, Jimmy Aubrey
Director: Douglas Sirk
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Average customer rating:

Excellent British noir thriller
An amusing romantic mystery about a serial killer, really, with some fine character actors
Very Good Film Despite Deceptive Packaging
"Scotland Yard's most delectable decoy!"
"I was on guard against everyone except myself."

Lured
Starring: George Sanders , Lucille Ball , Charles Coburn , Boris Karloff , and Cedric Hardwicke
Director: Douglas Sirk
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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Film Noir | Mystery & Suspense | Genres | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

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ASIN: 6305848769
Release Date: 2000-05-23

Amazon.com

Lucille Ball is in fine pre-TV form--still more the glamorous redhead than the slapstick comedienne--in Lured, Douglas Sirk's elegantly handled low-budget whodunit. Ball plays an American nightclub dancer in London, recruited by the police as a decoy for a serial killer--a maniac who finds his victims through the newspaper personal ads. The guilty party isn't difficult to guess, but the script by Leo Rosten is more literate than most such endeavors, and it's fun to watch our out-of-place heroine brazen it out in the London fog. George Sanders is the most cultivated of her suitors, and there's a weird sequence featuring Boris Karloff as a dress designer with crackpot designs on Lucy. Maybe best of all, the film has a crowd of good character actors: Charles Coburn (as a Scotland Yard inspector who becomes protective of his amateur agent), Cedric Hardwicke, Alan Mowbray, Joseph Calleia, and especially George Zucco, a frequent movie villain in a sympathetic role as an avuncular cop. Sirk brings his Germanic precision to the details, and cameraman William Daniels (Greta Garbo's favorite) no doubt had a hand in making Ball look good. Lured was subsequently re-titled Personal Column, much to Sirk's annoyance. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Excellent British noir thriller.......2007-01-09

German born director Douglas Sirk better known for melodrama crafted a slick, multi faceted thriller in the 1947 film, "Lured". A demented serial killer has been lurking in the streets of London using personal ads to attract young women into fatal rendezvous. The brash murderer had been sending Scotland Yard poems which both glorify death and announce his latest victim to the authorities.

A glamorous Lucille Ball playing American Sandra Carpenter is working as a dance hall girl. When one of her friends goes missing, she fears that she's become the poet-killer's latest victim. After going to the police she's recruited by Inspector Temple played by Charles Coburn to work for him and act as bait for the murderer. While answering personal ads she meets George Sanders a London night club entrepreneur and playboy known as Robert Fleming. They soon fall in love and she wins approval from his business partner and house mate mawkish Julian Wilde played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

On the eve of the wedding between Ball and Sanders she discovers evidence in his desk drawer tying him to the murders. In her heart Ball can't believe that Sanders is the killer despite being taken into custody by the protective and trustworthy Inspector Temple. The story turns into a cat and mouse pursuit as Coburn tries to trap the players in the film revealing the identity of the killer.

Boris Karloff has a bizarre cameo as deranged fashion designer Charles van Druten who placed a personal ad that Ball answered. "Lured" contains all the trademarks of the film noir drama and the acting performances on the whole are quite good and tinged with the hint of melodrama, courtesy of Sirk's direction.

An amusing romantic mystery about a serial killer, really, with some fine character actors.......2006-06-28

Says Scotland Yard Inspector Harley Temple, "There's a homicidal maniac loose somewhere in the vast honeycomb of London, a maniac with a weakness for young, pretty girls -- and not one thing we've done has brought us one inch nearer his apprehension."

That is about to change. When a friend of the last victim goes to Scotland Yard to ask if the police have learned anything, Inspector Temple (Charles Coburn) seizes his chance. Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) may be American, but she is young, pretty and feisty. Temple knows the killer has sought his victims through notices in the personal columns of the newspapers. So he recruits Sandra to answer the most promising ads and assigns H. R. Barrett (George Zucco) to keep an eye on her. Sandra Carpenter will be the bait to lure a deranged killer who likes to warn the police what is going to happen by quoting Baudelaire on the beauty of death.

"Are you young, chic, shapely and no prude?"
"Bird lover wants long walks in country with pretty, unmarried young lady as soul mate."
"Famous artist seeks beautiful model."
"Aristocratic home offers unusual opportunity for attractive woman."

Sandra answers all of these and quickly finds herself involved with an addled dress designer, a 12-year-old boy, a "modeling" agency and a white slave ring. While all this is underway she also meets Robert Fleming (George Sanders), a cheerful bon vivant, who, with his partner, Julian Wilde (Cedric Hardwicke), owns several posh London supperclubs. Fleming has the charm and loves the ladies, Wilde reads the contracts and keeps an eye on the pounds and pence. After one major misadventure, it seems clear that the evidence is pointing to Fleming as the killer. But is he? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

Lured may not be an A movie, but it is much more than a B programmer. It's a well-mounted serial murder mystery with a nice psycho twist, with plenty of wet, dark London streets, fine homes and white tie and tails. It also is a romantic comedy of sorts, with good lines, droll humor and strong characters. The first half of the movie, while Sandra answers the ads and meets some eccentric characters, is amusing. Boris Karloff shows up in a cameo as an out-of-sync designer who presents his work to a room of empty chairs, a bull dog, two manikins and a sharp sword. Alan Mobray turns in a nice job as a butler in a fine home who dabbles in shipping young women off to South America. Fine performances are turned in by the other noted character actors, including Coburn, Zucco and Joseph Calleia. Especially noteworthy is Cedric Hardwicke, playing a somewhat prissy, cultured man with perfect manners. As for the leads, George Sanders has a role where his usual condescending amusement is tempered by real charm and the emergence of love for Miss Carpenter. This is Lucille Ball's movie, however, and she makes a great heroine, funny, sincere and at times unsure of herself. Those quizzical eyebrows and her good-natured skepticism, not to mention her first-rate looks, make her a person to root for.

Lured has lots of red herrings, humor and chills, as well as a tense cat-and-mouse game at the end. If you like older movies and appreciate what experienced character actors can bring to a movie, this would be worth buying. The DVD is in fine shape. There are no extras.

Douglas Sirk went on to direct those mammoth tear-jerkers of the Fifties, Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Leo Rosten, who wrote the screenplay, wrote two classic books still worth reading, The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n and The Joys of Yiddish. And the year before Lured, in 1946, Sirk and Sanders again paired in A Scandal in Paris, a witty and amusing story of a thief who becomes the police chief of Paris. Sirk once again was able to tease a performance from Sanders that minimized the boredom and emphasized the charm. It's a movie worth buying, too.

Very Good Film Despite Deceptive Packaging.......2006-04-07

The packaging of this delightful noirish thriller would have you believe it's a Boris Karloff film, but it's not by any means. On the back cover of the DVD box there are two photos and a poster reproduction, and George Zucco is in every one of them along with Lucille Ball, the actual star. Boris is prominently displayed on the front cover, though, thus leading to the misconception that he's one of the stars. He gets fourth billing, and that's generous. Lucy and George Sanders are the stars, with Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwick and George Zucco getting far more screen time. A better title for the movie would be PARADE OF THE RED HERRINGS, one of which is old Boris, who has one scene as a somewhat demented dress designer who may or may not be a killer, but in any case is not the killer our heroes are searching for. Regardless, it's a stylish thriller and quite enjoyable.

Lucille Ball is known generally as wacky Lucy from TV, but prior to that she was a very glamourous, very beautiful actress in B pictures, mostly. This is one of her best roles, and it makes you wish someone had smacked her upside the head and convinced her to do more, especially as she aged beyond wacky Lucy. Had she allowed herself to mature, she could have had a whole different career. (Of course, she died a multimillionaire, so maybe I'm wrong!)

Anyway, this DVD is highly recommended. The picture quality is far superior to many 30s and 40s films making their way to DVD. I do wish, though, there were some bonus features. How about a retrospective of Lucy's pre-TV career? Or a trailer? Or...anything!

"Scotland Yard's most delectable decoy!".......2005-06-25

This "rediscovered" classic from 1947 has one of Lucille Ball's best dramatic roles of her career. She stars as Sandra Carpenter, a feisty American dancer struggling to earn a living in London. However, a Jack-the-Ripper-like serial killer is looking for and murdering beautiful young women, and Sandra's friend is the killer's latest victim. Wanting desperately to help the police find the brutal murderer, she is hired by Scotland Yard to become a decoy for the killer, who lures his victims through newspaper advertisements. Thus, Sandra is compelled to check on every single advertisement requesting young beautiful women, and goes from one weirdo to another in search of the serial killer.

She is closely watched and followed by Officer H. R. Barrett (George Zucco) who is ordered to protect her from danger, and she periodically reports to Inspector Harley Temple (Charles Coburn) at Scotland Yard headquarters. In her search for the killer she meets a mentally unstable painter, Charles van Drute(Boris Karloff), as well as a charming playboy, Robert Fleming(George Sanders), who admits to being a cad. For a long time Robert tries in vain to earn Sandra's trust. Over time, however, Robert wins both Sandra's trust and love and they make plans to leave the country and marry. Eventually, the evidence is found that points to the killer, but nothing is at it seems in this well-crafted noirish mystery.

Like a previous reviewer I am puzzled by the photo of Boris Karloff on the dvd cover, as he is in the film for just a few minutes. George Sanders and Lucille Ball are simply fantastic together, and even when I figured out who the killer was (relatively early in the film) I still enjoyed wayching it very much. The KINO dvd seems way overpriced to me, however. There are no bonus features at all (unless you count scene selection). The picture quality is great, but the sound (at least on my dvd player) was horrible. I had to turn the tv volume up very high and I still couldn't hear all the dialogue. So although the film is a great classic, you should skip the dvd (maybe the vhs version has better sound) until a better quality version is available.

"I was on guard against everyone except myself.".......2004-04-04

In the Douglas Sirk film "Lured" a series of young girls disappear after responding to personal ads. The killer taunts Scotland Yard by sending poems describing the girl and announcing the upcoming murder. The police are left with a handful of clues--the personal ads, the flaws of the typewriter used for the poems, and the fact that the killer has a penchant for Baudelaire.

Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) plays an unflappable dance-hall girl whose friend is the latest victim of the killer. Inspector Temple (Charles Coburn) recruits Sandra to operate undercover through the personal ads. Sandra meets a lot of peculiar men through the ads, and soon she's juggling dates with bizarre dress designer Charles van Druten (Boris Karloff) and smooth playboy Robert Fleming (George Sanders).

Amazon.com

Five different Hollywood queens are represented in Glamour Girls, a fun Kino compendium of Golden Age titles. The entertainment value of this batch almost makes you overlook the fact that the movies have nothing to do with each other. The oldest film is The Blue Angel, the legendary 1930 classic (filmed in Germany by American director Josef von Sternberg) that made Marlene Dietrich an instant star. The story of an eminent professor (Emil Jannings) brought to his knees by seductive showgirl Lola Lola (that's Marlene) never loses its power, and von Sternberg's eye for voluptuous chiaroscuro and exquisite sado-masochism is fully expressed (he and Dietrich would make six more films at Paramount in the following half-decade). One important note: this is the English-language version of the picture (not dubbed, but shot concurrently with the superior German-language version).

Love Me Tonight is the best movie musical you've never heard of, a deliciously clever 1932 romp with Maurice Chevalier as a poor Paris tailor and Jeannette MacDonald as a wealthy aristocrat. Rouben Mamoulian's direction is a landmark of early-sound ingenuity, and the Rodgers and Hart score includes such goodies as "Isn't It Romantic?" (given an epic treatment here), "Lover," and "Mimi." The Good Fairy, from 1935, showcases the wonderful Margaret Sullavan, the throaty-voiced actress whose quicksilver reactions look as fresh and delightful today as they were 70 years ago. Sullavan begins the comedy as an orphan, becomes a theater usherette, and eventually becomes involved with meatpacking magnate Frank Morgan and bewhiskered lawyer Herbert Marshall. The matching of director William Wyler and screenwriter Preston Sturges is not a natural one, to be sure, and Wyler's direction tends to weigh the film down (he was, however, enchanted by Sullavan, whom he married--briefly). The great Sturges patter shines through, and you'll adore Sullavan.

1947's Lured puts pre-TV Lucille Ball in London, where a murderer is killing women he meets through the personal ads. The whodunit isn't difficult to guess, but director Douglas Sirk brings his elegant German precision to the proceedings, and George Sanders and Boris Karloff head a nifty cast of supporting folk. Finally, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) matches Ava Gardner and James Mason in a daft blend of mythology and Hemingwayesque Lost Generation stuff. Ava is surrounded by dashing suitors, but Mason's mystery man lures her into the realm of myth. The movie's got giggle-worthy plot twists and great Technicolor, to say nothing of glamour. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Beware! No German Blue Angel.......2006-12-07

This set only contains the English version of the film. You still need to shell out $31.00 for the earlier KINO release of the film that has both the German and English versions. If the superior German version had been included, this set would have received a 5 star rating.

Average customer rating:

So-so movie
one of the best

Lured Innocence
Starring: Dennis Hopper , Marley Shelton , Devon Gummersall , Talia Shire , and Michael Cudlitz
Director: Kikuo Kawasaki
Manufacturer: Live / Artisan
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003IXDI
Release Date: 2000-02-15

Customer Reviews:

So-so movie.......2005-04-19

Five stars for Marley Shelton, minus two stars for a somewhat predictable and boring plot.

one of the best.......2000-05-19

if you wish your high school sweetheart had taken the initiative or you had an affair later in life, you will be able to identify with both male characters...and what a treat....marley shelton is so beautiful....the slow southern dialogue, mississippi heat, murder and deception combine for a most poignant film...and you won't be able to get marley out of your mind.

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