SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Alistair Olson After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Taha Avalos The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

SimonJack Long before her 1951-57 smash hit TV sitcom, "I Love Lucy," that would make her a household name forever, Lucille Ball was an accomplished actress. She will always be known for her comedy, but she had many talents. She could dance up a storm, and sing a tune. She was a very attractive starlet who played nicely in some dramas and romances. Throw in a couple of Westerns and several mystery-suspense-thrillers, and you have a well-rounded, excellent actress. She made more than 100 movies in her lifetime, besides her "I Love Lucy" TV series, followed by "The Lucy Show" in 1962-1968, and finally, "Here's Lucy" that ran from 1968 to 1974. TV Guide called her the greatest TV start of all time. "Lured" is one of the mystery-crime movies that starred Ball, with a wonderful cast of other big names of the time. She does an excellent job as an American, Sandra Carpenter, who is stranded in London when a stage show she was in closed after just three nights' run. George Sanders plays Robert Fleming; Charles Coburn is Inspector Harley Temple of Scotland Yard, Cedric Hardwicke is Fleming's partner, Julian Wilde. All give very good performances. As do a number of other very talented actors – Alan Mowbray as Lyle Maxwell, George Zucco as Officer Barrett, and a host of others in small or cameo roles. One is Boris Karloff, and all I'll say about him is that I don't think I've ever seen Karloff laugh at all, let alone laugh so long and hard and convincingly, as in this film. To give the plot of this film might ruin it for viewers. It's a very clever script. It's in black and white, which lends a nice touch to the scenes of foggy nights in London. All the technical aspects of the film are very good. This is a nicely engaging movie that's sure to entertain. And give people who only know of Lucy Ricardo from her first TV show, a look at a very talented actress who could do almost anything on stage or film.

Spikeopath Lured (AKA: Personal Column) is directed by Douglas Sirk and collectively written by Leo Rosten, Jacques Companéez, Simon Gantillon and Ernst Neubach. It stars Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Joseph Calleia and Boris Karloff. Music is by Michel Michelet and cinematography by William H. Daniels.A serial killer in London is murdering young women whom he meets through the personal columns section of the newspaper. Taunting the police with cryptic poems, the killer is proving most illusive, so much so that when a friend of dancer Sandra Carpenter (Ball) disappears, the police enlist her to act as bait to lure the killer in.There's a lot to like about Lured, on proviso you have your expectation level correctly set as to what sort of film it is. It's a very uneven movie in tone, which when one sees that there were four writing contributors involved in bringing it to the screen, perhaps comes as no surprise. A remake of Robert Siodmak's 1939 film Pièges (set in Paris), it is never sure if it wants to be a comedy mystery or a dark brooding thriller. A shame because in spite of it being a set bound production, Sirk and Daniels create a sinister visual mood when the story lurks around the constructed London sets.The cast are ever watchable, though you can see Ball struggling to rein in her natural comedic bent during the more dramatic sequences, but she leads off from the front and looks positively lovely and radiant. Karloff fans get a fun extended cameo, with the great Uncle Boris playing up to a caricature of unstable characters he could do in his sleep, Sanders is suitably stand-offish, Coburn ebullient, while Hardwicke and Calleia add a touch of class to the support ranks.Michelet's musical score is in keeping with the mixed tonal flow of the picture, in fact sometimes sounding like it should be in a screwball movie from decades previously, but with competent professionalism coming elsewhere from Sirk, Daniels and the lead cast members, it's an enjoyable movie. Even if it's all a bit too jolly and nonchalant for its own good at times. 6.5/10

Robert J. Maxwell It's kind of fun, an example of an early serial killer, just as tricky as all the more modern ones. This madman advertises for pretty girls then murders them because he's too shy to reveal his love. (It's murky, but then the whole plot is a little turbid.) It's more amusing than suspenseful. Lucille Ball, doing a fine job, is swept up in the police effort to nail the murderer. She's used as bait.Of course, the agony columns carry lots of advertisements for pretty girls available for promising jobs, and Ball has to answer the most suspicious-looking adverts. (This is in London.) One of them is Boris Karloff, more menacing than ever, who has her wear a formal gown of his own design and displays her before an audience of dogs and mannequins in his shabby loft. He goes berserk and begins to chase her around with a sabre. He is, however, more of a red herring than a monster.The real killer is strongly hinted at, about two thirds of the way through the movie, as the movie grows less comic and somewhat darker.The cast is exceptionally good. George Sanders is always a splendid cad, and he has a sort of above-it-all character here, minus the sneer but with that built-in superiority. He's also believable as a male romantic lead. Lucille Ball is not nearly as dumb as Lucy and gets to stretch her acting chops a little. She has no esplaineen to do regarding her performance. But then everyone is quite all right. Interesting to see Sir Cedric Hardwicke as a villain. He's certainly convincing. What a marvelous voice. Joseph Calleia is so overcooked as another villain that his eyes pop out like the thermometer button that comes with the Thanksgiving turkey. George Zucco, for a change, is a lower-class cop, on the side of the angels.It's a good example of the kind of films that used to be put out in the 30s and 40s. It's overscored. The music tells us exactly what sensations we should feel, just in case we're confused. Loose ends lie all over the place. It's unpretentious but it includes poems from Baudelaire and Schubert's Eighth Symphony without any apology or judgment.You'll probably like it.

st-shot In spite of some miscasting in key roles this mystery about a London serial killer never flags much in part to the energetic direction of Douglas Sirk. Sirk doesn't allow the viewer to rest a moment as he fills his scenes with sumptuous compositions of detail and action that give hint or distract from the murder trail. It is a work of superb craftsmanship and a very entertaining one at that.Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) is a streetwise taxi dancer at a club in London whose co- worker and friend disappears raising suspicion she may be the latest victim of a well read serial killer partial to Baudelaire who enjoys taunting the police. She brings her concerns to police inspector Temple (Charles Coburn) who hires her on the spot to work undercover to trap the killer. She then gets involved with well known cad about town and prime suspect Robert Fleming (George Sanders) which totally confuses her handlers. Fleming is eventually charged with murder but Sandra remains torn.Lured is one suspenseful fun ride of a whodunnit with Sirk and top tier cinematographer William Daniels filling each scene with fluid, pertinent detail and camera movement that doesn't waste an inch of the frame. It does get convoluted in moments but even that can be rewarding as in the scene with Sandra believing she's luring the killer (a wonderful cameo by Boris Karloff) who instead turns out to be a demented eccentric into psycho drama. George Sanders as the rake is perfectly cast. Being one of the few actors capable of playing heel or hero convincingly he extends the guessing game. Cedric Hardwicke does exactly the opposite however with a tell tale staginess. It may be unfair to single out Lucille Ball as being miscast given the fact that their is no more famous a fictional character and actual person melding in entertainment history. What Daniels did for Garbo he does for Lucy (see) and she starts strong but then goes in and out with a wide eyed naive the rest of the way that doesn't fit a noir fatlale. Then again it may well have been Sirk's intention to give the film a lighthearted spirit while still making biting observations and giving a master class in mise en scene.