Recently I had the good fortune to attend a screening of Stranger on the Third Floor (1940), arguably the first film noir ever made. Film noir is hard-boiled crime film that incorporates, from German Expressionist film (e.g. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari), visual techniques such as chiaroscuro (the stark contrast of light and darkness). It also uses unusual camera angles from above and below.

Together, these two stylistic elements communicate the moral corruption of the world as depicted by film noir, and also the psychological turmoil of the characters.

Film noir had its heyday in the decade and a half- or so following the Allied victory in  World War II, and it is certainly a bit puzzling that, after such a great victory, there would be a bevy of films emphasizing the darkness of the world and the heart of man. Film noir also surprises those who regard the United States as characterized by optimism, even a certain naivete, and an indomitable can-do spirit.

But this latter cause of surprise is less defensible because it’s rather unbalanced, ignoring as it does the world view of the early Puritan settlers and also the dark vision often present in great American writers such as Hawthorne, Melville, and Poe.

In any case, Stranger on the Third Floor, despite being co-written by the novelist Nathanael West and having Peter Lorre and Elisha Cook Jr. amongst its cast (both of whom shortly went on to roles in The Maltese Falcon (a great film noir or at least a proto-film noir), is a B movie, melodramatic with often overwrought acting. Yet it has superior elements. Its use of chiaroscuro and unusual camera angles is quite effective, more effective than the film’s plot.

The story involves a newspaper reporter, Michael Ward ((John McGuire), who testifies at a trial, sincerely and honestly, that he saw the defendant (Elisha Cook, Jr.), who was known to him, standing over the body of the murdered owner of an all-night diner. Partly as a result of this testimony, the man is convicted and sentenced to death.

Ward’s fiancee, Jane (Margaret Tallichet), is upset at this turn of events. Ward later disintegrates mentally, concerned that he will be similarly accused of a subsequent murder, of which he is innocent, in his rooming house. This accusation is foreshadowed by a notable and effectively surrealistic dream sequence, by far the best thing in the film. The dream scene would be notable in any film, actually, but it adds to the strong artistic elements of Stranger on the Third Floor, a film that is, in other respects, rather banal.

All in all, however, this is an unusual B film and well worth seeing for those with a taste for film noir or an interest in its history.