Three Strangers

Intriguing and lots of fun to watch! The characters, and their tangled lives, are all interesting. Geraldine Fitzgerald is intense and determined; Peter Lorre is charming and likable; and Sydney Greenstreet does a great job in his role as a lawyer with a reputation to uphold. I also loved the supporting characters/actors, from the delightful Lady Rhea to the beautiful, loyal Icey, to Gabby, the tough criminal with a good side. All their stories are engrossing.

I hesitate to call it noir, although it does have some of the visual stylization and explores some of man's darker impulses. But it's more of a triptych character study. The three represent different moral stances. I don't know if I've ever seen a better performance from Lorre, certainly not a more likeable one. He's a charming character with a thoughtful outlook on life. Greenstreet's and Fitzgerald's plot threads are interesting as well. A quirky film with a very good script, quite fulfilling.

Just a tremendous time. Lorre and Greenstreet are even better than usual, and Fitzgerald's cool craziness is mesmerizing.

Light fun of the crime film kind where everything works adequately according to the script's potential. Lorre stands out, while the other characters don't disappoint.

Rare sympathetic part for Peter Lorre. He even had a wonderful wife! Sydney Greenstreet was as dubious as ever, and Geraldine Fitzgerald contributed the dangerous elegance to this somewhat convoluted story of morals and karma. Does come together nicely for the ending, and you got to love the play going on between them and the general struggles in their individual lives. Quite satisfying.

A disappointment; especially as it was Huston's next credited screenplay after "Maltese Falcon". This one also contains a statue/idol and themes that would be taken further in "Treasure of Sierra Madre". There are three stories that do intervene, but still feel too detached. Lorre excluded, the characters are quite unpleasant and not interesting. Also the supernatural element didn't really work. It lasts for ~90mins but started to feel too long and Negulesco's routine direction doesn't help.

Mostly owing to the performances and the cynical manipulation of the noir plot, the film resolves as kind of a black comedy. It is an admirable and deftly executed variation on the hopeless and acerbic atmosphere of the film noir. In noir, characters are corrupt fall guys of the universe, brimming with existential distress, just like us all. Why not find a chuckle or two in it?