Hangover Square (1945)

Published: November 5th 2025 (week 45 of 2025)

Hangover Square is an old horror film. It is also an incredibly boring one. There are old films that aged like fine wine. For example, The Big Sleep, released roughly a year later, is much better.

Hangover Square follows a predictable plot. The main character sometimes blacks out and comes to his senses hours later with no recollection of what he did, and, of course he is up to no good during those times: he goes on murderous sprees, but is lucky enough that the police are unable to connect the crimes to him.

Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? "Never heard of them." I assume this is what both Barré Lyndon, the screenwriter, and John Brahm, the director of the Hangover Square, would say. Despite being published more than half a century before the premiere of the film the story of Jekyll and Hyde must have been unknown to Messrs Lyndon and Brahm; I can't fathom any other reason why either of them would have thought that they had a story worth telling.

Another thing that annoyed me about the film is the apparent imbecility of the main character. He can't keep his focus, is gullible, gives in to anger easily. It is difficult to watch a movie when every other scene you just can't help but ask "dude, seriously?" It was not supposed to be a B-movie type horror. Actually, scratch that. The self-aware B-movies at least tend to be amusing.

The ending scene delivers a kind of a saving grace. In an elegant echo, the main character dies in a fire, after having used fire to conceal his crimes. I quite liked that.

There is just not much else to like, and one well thought out scene does not a good film make.

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