Lured (1947)

Director: Douglas Sirk                                     Writer: Leo Rosten
Film Score: Michel Michelet                            Cinematography: William H. Daniels
Starring: Lucille Ball, George Sanders, Charles Coburn and Cedric Hardwicke

The tale of Jack the Ripper has been fodder for more films and television shows than possibly any other. Lured is a modern rendering of the story told by Douglas Sirk, most famous for his exposés of modern life in the fifties. A United Artists production, what the film lacks in substance it more than makes up for in style. For one thing, the caliber of talent is wonderful to watch. In addition to the stars receiving top billing are George Zucco, Alan Napier, Boris Karloff and a host of British character actors. For another, the script is both realistic and unique. It’s a complicated mystery story that is equally engaging.

The title comes from the fact that this Ripper meets young women through ads in the personals column in London newspapers. Once he has them believing that he wants to marry them and take them away from their lower-class existence, he kills them. But before all that he sends a poem to Scotland Yard that gives all kinds of obscure clues about the victim. Thus far, seven have died and The Yard is no closer to finding a suspect than when they started. But this is not really a suspense film, per se. Lucille Ball brings her exquisite comedic touch to the proceedings and transforms the film into something much more light hearted.

Lucille Ball plays a taxi dancer whose friend has gone missing. When she goes to the police and discovers that her friend has become a victim of the poet murderer. Charles Coburn takes a chance on her and enlists her as one of the police to track down the killer. But in doing this she has missed an audition as a dancer for a posh nightclub owned by George Sanders. Sanders happens to meet her a couple of times while she is working on the case and they fall for each other. But before the wedding bells ring, evidence linking the murder of the girls is found in Sanders’ study and, when he finds out Ball has been working for the police, believes she was only trying to set him up.

One of the nice things about his film is the realism. In sending out Ball on the case, the police have her answer every single ad in the personals column and so, quite naturally, she manages to uncover all sorts of untoward activities. One of these is a brilliant cameo appearance by Boris Karloff as a crazed fashion designer. Sirk does a solid job of directing this sort of hybrid story. The film has a nice, deliberate pacing that really works for the content. Michel Michelet score is a tad obvious, though he was never one of the great composers for the screen, but with the light touch of the acting, especially by Ball and George Zucco, it works. Lured is not a great movie, and would never be mistaken as a “classic” but it is a wonderful piece of entertainment that reminds us of a time when even lesser works could be equally rewarding.