Paid Post: Film Review--"Lured"
One of director Douglas Sirk's few noirs is a surprisingly enjoyable film featuring an electric performance and just a faint whiff of queer desire.
Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!
I’m also going to begin releasing special paid subscriber only posts at least three (3) times a week. All of the regular daily posts are still free but, if you sign up for the paid option, you’ll get to hear even more from me!
Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
As longtime readers of this newsletter know, I’m a huge fan of classic Hollywood, and I’ve recently begun watching a lot more of the Criterion Channel, since my partner continues to pay for a subscription. During a recent perusal of its collection, I happened to notice that they had a trio of noirs directed by none other than Douglas Sirk. Douglas Sirk and film noir? I thought. That’s a combination that you don’t see very often, since the director was far better known for his melodramas, many of which offered pointed (and deeply overwrought) commentary on the fictions and self-delusions of postwar American society and its bourgeois mores.
After some thought, I finally settled on Lured, primarily because it stars Lucille Ball and George Sanders, two of my favorite performers from classical Hollywood. Obviously Ball is best-known for her later TV work, but I’m always game for seeing one of her films, most of which remain criminally underappreciated. I’ve of course been a fan of Sanders for years, ever since I heard his suave but sinister voice as Shere Khan in Disney’s The Jungle Book. My love of him has only grown over the years.
The film focuses on Ball’s Sandra Carpenter, a taxi dancer who ends up becoming part of a police investigation of a serial killer. Along the way, she crosses paths with George Sanders’ Rober Fleming, and the two eventually become engaged. Suspecting that her husband-to-be is indeed the serial killer, she seemingly discovers memorabilia from his kills. It soon becomes clear, though, that someone else has been behind all of the disappearances and killings. In fact, the perpetrator is none other than Julian Wilde (Sir Cedric Hardwicke), Fleming’s best friend. He is ultimately arrested in the process of making Sandra yet another of his unfortunate victims.