Lured

Lured
by Douglas Sirk

Lured
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Boris Karloff, Cedric Hardwicke, Charles Coburn, George Sanders, Lucille Ball
Director: Douglas Sirk
Producer: Henry S. Kesler
Producer: Hunt Stromberg
Producer: James Nasser
Writer: Ernest Neuville
Writer: Jacques Compan?ez
Writer: Leo Rosten
Writer: Simon Gantillon
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-05-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kino Video

Movie Reviews of Lured

Movie Review: They had voices then....
Summary: 4 Stars

This is an entertaining film from 1947. It was originally released through United Artists but it has the look of a quintessential product from the Universal lot.

Visually, about half the film has the appearance of film noir, full of dandy shadows and wet-looking streets (every frame shot in sound stages, of course.) The plot of "Lured," however, is not noirish but a confection of plucky girl detective, woman in perial and outright romance. With Lucille Ball as the star, you can count on both competent dramatics and a nice comic edge--one far more refined than you might expect if you know Ball only from her Lucy Ricardo persona.

"Lured" was an independent production, but certainly not one from poverty row. It is more than a B-picture, with its elaborate crowd scenes and often sumptuous-looking sets, but less than an A-picture as defined by MGM or Paramount. Call it an A-.

Where the acting chops of the cast is concerned, though, this is very much an A-picture. Think of it, in addition to the sui generis Ball, we are presented with George Sanders, Cedric Hardwick, Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff (admittedly in a short cameo that probably took no more than one or two days to shoot), George Zucco, Alan Mowbray and Joseph Calleia. With the possible exception of Calleia, just think of the sheer resonance! Actors had voices then, not the flattened sounds and comparative squeeks that we accept today.

This particular print is not bad, a little spotty, but pretty good as far as the visuals are concerned. The soundtrack is a mess, though, forcing the viewer to make numerous adjustments in volume throughout the length of the film. When you acquire this DVD, you get "Lured," and that's all you get; there are no commentaries, trailers or extras of any sort. And that's a pity, because I, for one, we be happy to know more about the circumstances of this film.

This is not a great picture and there are some fairly obvious faults, among them an excess of red herrings and diversions, a softening of Ball's character into what seems now to be a little too PG-acceptable, and the almost painfully obvious identity of the guy whodunit. Nevertheless, "Lured" is an enjoyable piece of entertainment worth four solid stars.

LEC/Am/5-09

Summary of Lured

A serial killer terrorizes london trapping his prey through personal ads in the newspapers and taunting the police with gruesome poems. Scotland yard is brought in to solve the case. Studio: Kino International Release Date: 05/23/2000 Starring: Lucille Ball George Sanders Run time: 103 minutes Director: Douglas Sirk
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

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