The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

On a roll with adjectives, I thought "Three Strangers" was, in fact, unconvincing as well as unsatisfying, while at the same time mildly entertaining. The story is flawed, a very surprising adjective, as it was written by no less than John Huston, who wrote the screenplay for "Treasure of The Sierra Madre" and "The Maltese Falcon". It starts off well but then tails off into the lives of the three people, who do not meet again until the end of the picture. The bulk of the movie deals with the private lives of the three, which turn out to be disparate if not sensational. The fault is Huston's, as he did not inject their tedious lives with enough flair or spice.Once again, as in 'The Verdict", the heroes are an obese senior citizen and a geeky Hungarian. Once again, it works. Lorre comes out OK, but towards the end Greenstreet, an effective actor if he stays within his range, is asked to extend himself and overacts. Geraldine Fitzgerald is given a thankless role as a calculating shrew, not nearly up to her heartbreaking Oscar nom role in "Wuthering Heights".In my opinion a couple of scenes needed another take and look rushed and half-hearted, but my overriding thought is that when this situation is coupled with the unlikable principals and a pedestrian storyline, it all adds up in my mind to a rating of 6 for a flawed, unconvincing movie.

Geraldine Fitzgerald (Crystal Shackleford) lures two strangers to her apartment in order to test a myth that her idol of Chinese Goddess Kwan Yin will grant a wish to three strangers on the night of the Chinese new year, providing that the wish is the same for each individual. The 3 strangers wish for a financial gain from a sweepstake ticket. They then part ways and the film follows their individual stories until they are re-united at the end of the film as the Grand National horse race begins and they hold the ticket with the favourite runner.Peter Lorre (Johnny West) and Sydney Greenstreet (Jerome K Arbutny) are the two strangers that entertain Fitzgerald's superstition with most screen time being afforded to Lorre and his story. The 3 separate tales include a murder trial (Lorre), a sour relationship (Fitzgerald) and an embezzling lawyer (Greenstreet). All three main characters are flawed but only one is likable - Peter Lorre. Fitzgerald is determined and unrelenting in her pursuits, Greenstreet is socially aspiring and creepy, while Lorre is an alcoholic that is caught up in an unfortunate mess.The cast are good as are the support cast although we are thrown a few dodgy accents in the Peter Lorre story as portrayed by kind girl Joan Lorring (Icey), murderer Robert Shayne (Bertram Fallon) and homosexual (?) muscleman Peter Whitney Gabby. Rosalind Ivan (Lady Rhea) is worth a mention in the Greenstreet story as the audience perception of her changes from a weak loony woman into someone who is not so weak and loony. Another mention must go to Alan Napier (David Shackleford) in the Fitzgerald story who is refused a divorce. We watch him as he changes from nice gentleman to calculating murderer.The stories are linked up well and while it is nice to see Lorre get a girlfriend, overall, there is something lacking in the film. It is interesting to know what happens to the 3 main characters but I didn't really care about them. As for Kwan Yin, may I recommend Wan King as a more satisfying path to wish fulfillment. And I feel I should mention the editing with the shimmering screen. When I first saw this, I thought we were being taken back into a flashback sequence. So heed my warning not to follow the story in this manner or everything will be a confusing mess. The technique is used to differentiate between the different stories that are running concurrently.

A woman entices two strangers to her home to fulfill an unusual Chinese prophecy, granting a wish... in this case, a horse race ticket that they hope to be a winner. With a screenplay by John Huston and appearances by Lorre and Greenstreet, and a figurine as a major plot device, you might expect a MALTESE FALCON retread. But this is a very different story. 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 really more of a triptych character study. The three represent different moral stances: Fitzgerald is conniving and ruthless, Greenstreet does something wrong but at least has enough decency to be conflicted about it, and Lorre is simply a carefree drunk who trusts the wrong people. I didn't count the minutes, but it felt like Lorre got the most screen time, and deservedly so. I don't know if I've ever seen a better performance from him, certainly not a more likable one. He's a charming character with a thoughtful outlook on life. His story also has the benefit of wonderful turns by Peter Whitney and especially Joan Lorring, a very appealing actress I've never seen before, but I'm delighted to see appears in a few more noirs I intended to see. Greenstreet's and Fitzgerald's plot threads are interesting as well, and the way all they come together and resolve at the end is satisfying. It's a quirky film with a very good script, quite fulfilling.

The time is 1938 London before the World War. A woman of mystery, Geraldine Fitzgerald, invites two perfect strangers played by Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet up to her apartment. She's a believer in the ancient Chinese god of Kwan Lin and it's said that if Three Strangers wish on that deity and their's is the same wish it will be granted. In this case the wish is money and it's in the form of a sweepstakes ticket that Peter Lorre has purchased and who gives two thirds away to Fitzgerald and Greenstreet in the hope of fortune coming their way.After this we see a glimpse of the lives of the three people. Lorre is a petty criminal who's gotten himself into a beautiful jackpot being accused of a murder that he didn't commit. Fitzgerald is a shrewish wife who stays married to an unhappy Alan Napier who just wants to be free to marry Marjorie Riordan. This is a harbinger of a role that Fitzgerald really perfected a dozen years later in Ten North Frederick. As for Greenstreet, he's a solicitor, an attorney of no great significance in the legal profession, an English version of a man whose name I was once threatened with named Abe Hecht. It's now become a synonym for cheap shysters with me. Anyway Greenstreet's the trustee of an estate he's been dipping into. He wants to make a financial killing real bad because he thinks that money will buy him respectability which he craves like nothing else.The film is like a 90 minute version of a Twilight Zone episode, but that's not a putdown because some really classic stuff was done on that program. The script was written by Howard Koch and John Huston and directed by Jean Negulesco. I'm surprised Huston did not want to direct this one himself, but Jean Negulesco got some of the best performances that members of the cast ever gave on screen, especially from the three leads.Notice no really big movie names are in this cast, no leading men screen legends. That may have been an asset to the film because it concentrates on the story and the characters created. The ironic fates of all three of the sweepstakes ticket sharers could have come right out of the imaginative mind of Rod Serling. And Peter Lorre is actually allowed a little romance in a movie. That alone makes Three Strangers absolutely priceless.Three Strangers is a B picture gem, one of those low budget sleepers that Hollywood puts out to great critical acclaim that turn a profit because of the low budget. And this review is dedicated to that attorney Abe Hecht whom I never met and to his idiot brother-in-law Morris Stetch who threatened me with him back in 1979. To see if Greenstreet obtains the status of a Clarence Darrow and rises from Abe Hechtdom, don't miss Three Strangers.