Alternate Best Actor 1945: Laird Cregar in Hangover Square

Laird Cregar did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying George Harvey Bone in Hangover Square.

Hangover Square follows a pianist and composer who slowly gets more demented as he moonlights as a serial killer.

The nature of this brief synopsis makes this sound like a very similar role to Cregar's performance as Jack the Ripper in The Lodger, the fact that George Sanders is pursuing him, and it takes place in foggy gaslit London only adds to this approach. BUT, it ends up being quite a bit different, one as the nature of this character's evil action, at least initially, are due to schizophrenic episodes. The schizophrenic episodes in a way gave the audience the Cregar they were expecting, almost as an appetizer with the way the film opens, although to be fair even as heavies Cregar was always finding new ways to play them. Here is such an example as he plays a man killing in the initial scene of a random murder to his episode with this specific intensity, though that is granting a chilling quality because of the sort of hollowness of Cregar's performance. He's just going about it as he would do almost anything as we see him killing a man in a fire and it is nothing more to him than just that, before wandering off where we see his George regain himself, and suddenly we see a very different performance, and really a very different looking Cregar as we see a far more slender man than we had ever seen him any films. In fact he almost nearly looks dashing all things considered, and even more so Cregar is allowed to play even more into the idea of sympathy, though I'd argue he always covertly provided sympathy to his fiends most of the time to begin with, but what we see here is a man with an affliction. Where Cregar plays wonderfully the genuine befuddlement as he walks the street wondering how he got blood on himself and is carrying a knife that he believes might've been used at some point.

When we see George contemplate this Cregar's reactions that of true thoughtfulness and even a dreaded horror at the idea that he might be an unknowing murderer. Cregar creating a potent kind of empathy for the poor soul in this moment, particularly as George's choice is to immediately finding Police Psychologist Dr. Allan Middleton (Sanders) in this instance, to try to get the man to prove he is a murderer. And it is indeed hard not to feel sorry for poor Cregar as he speaks every line with such sincere honesty as he speaks of all his fears for what he has potentially done and is trying to be found guilty. Only when it turns out the knife hasn't been used for a murder and that the blood was his own, is George saved from his guilt and Cregar presents the same sincerity in the character's powerful relief. Cregar brings an innocence even that is particularly wonderfully realized, even as it is turned on its head as poor George discovers yet another knife that would make him culpable for the crime. Cregar's reaction again is not of the monster by the sympathetic man, as you immediately sense the confusion in his eyes and even more so a genuine sadness to what he finds. Cregar this time not portraying the criminal element of Bone as something that compels him, rather something that haunts him deeply as a curse upon him. Cregar creating a change within his often played role of the evil man, this time the evil is something the man is unable to escape, and Cregar creates that penetrating and horrible sense of the madness just beneath the surface that the seemingly decent George would just love to be able to hold at bay if he could.

The film then progresses into something a bit more unexpected within the overall design as it becomes more so the good man, despite what we already know of George, getting pulled into the wrong world by a femme fatale, in this instance Netta (Linda Darnell) a pub singer, that catches his eye. Cregar's performance is terrific in being sincere, though sincere in a way that you wouldn't have seen in his other performances, in that he's not twistedly romantic, here he's trying to be genuinely romantic with Netta. This as he plays a song for her that he's written with her mind, and Cregar brings this great combination between confidence and vulnerability in these moments. The confidence as the man introduces the song with this ease as though music just is second nature to him, and there's that passion as just part of him as he plays for her. Contrasting that however is the interest he has in her where in his eyes it is of sincerity and he speaks only with this reserved shyness of the man trying to make something of this relationship, despite it becomes pretty clear she just intends to exploit him for his musical ability by writing "pop" songs for her, as opposed to the more extensive orchestral works that he's passionate for. Something that is additionally represented by the woman genuinely interested in George, Barbara who also supports his musical passion. Unfortunately George is caught up with Netta, where Cregar articulates so effectively the growing desperation that I think he is quite effective in that he doesn't immediately turn this into obsession. Rather he brings initially the real glint of hope and candour in his voice that is of a man who believes himself to be in love, even as Netta only will cultivate despair for him.

And this is where the film does get a bit unwieldy, however Cregar is great consistently. As first Barbara questions his actions causes him to fall into a triggered state of trying to murder her which fails, and we get a respite as George apologizes, unaware of trying to murder her, with a genuine sympathetic manner in his performance. But then Netta prods him once again for gain, and Cregar is terrific in showing his earlier passion going to this pent up rage and really the sense of disgust for both her and himself as he tries to return to his actual life of the passions he cared about. Unfortunately for him things go one step beyond as he goes into a state again, where he goes about murdering Netta, with the murder musical sting from Sweeney Todd to boot, before returning to himself one more time. Although this time he doesn't quite return to himself, and here's where the film gets sloppy however there is an anchor in Cregar. Cregar finds some actual logic within his own performance that seems to suggest that George himself is being driven crazy by all that's going on with him, even as he still is innocent of his worst crimes. Cregar portrays a difference as George goes off the deep end now, because before it was about that eerie calm in his murders, it is with genuine mania. A specific mania though that still denotes vulnerability in the man as he becomes no longer attached to any of the women but now his music, his original passion. In this Cregar finds something especially potent because when he describes his need to get to his concert over the accusations of murder, Cregar presents not as the man avoiding his guilt but rather this completely sincere desperate belief in his real love, which is for his music. His actions then give it his all to be part of his music, though as this self-destructive act that Cregar finds this sense of a man who might as well die with his music as his only solace in his burdensome life. And as he goes about playing his final concerto, Cregar is outstanding in the intensity he brings within the performance, that again though speaks to man trying to find this singular focus as the madness is all around him, to the point that singular focus too becomes its own madness. A madness filled with only passion and leading to a memorable climax, and unfortunately final act of Cregar's entire career, as he desperately and fearlessly continues to play even as the entire theatre burns around him. An outstanding performance, where Cregar once again proves his measure by finding a new avenue with a villain, but in this instance suggesting new pathways for himself beyond where he had been pigeonholed. Cregar leaving one final reminder of the tragic loss of his talent, with his all too brief career.