Emboscada

Another noir film starring of all people Lucille Ball. A serial killer is on the loose in England who uses the personals column to lure his victims. Ball, who is an ex-pat in Blighty working as a dancehall companion, has a friend who goes missing so while giving her account to the local constabulary, the chief investigator strikes upon an idea to have Ball go undercover to see if the killer can be caught. Directed by the future king of the 50's melodramas Douglas Sirk, he manages to make a light noir feel fun & engaging w/o the prerequisite baggage which usually comes w/this sort of material. Aiding Ball admirably are the supporting cast of actors which includes George Sanders, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke & a scene stealer from Frankenstein himself, Boris Karloff.

An interesting curio for Lucille Ball fans as well as those who enjoy old horror and mystery films. This one is worth seeing for its cast alone, featuring (in addition to Ms. Ball): Boris Karloff, Sir Cecric Hardwicke, Alan Napier, George Zucco and George Sanders! This solid mystery/thriller stars Lucille Ball in a dramatic part before she became Lucy Ricardo. She plays a feisty American gal in England who is hired by Scotland Yard to go undercover to trap a serial killer who claimed one of her friends. Boris Karloff's role is a small one but it's absolutely wonderful, and it's an essential watch for the actors' legion of fans. George Zucco is a cop who keeps an eye out for Ball to make sure she doesn't get into too much trouble. *** out of ****

As an user has pointed out,"lured" is the remake of Robert Siodmak's movie "Pièges" (1939) starring Marie Dea (Lucille Ball's part),Maurice Chevalier (Sanders' part) ,Erich Von Stroheim (Karloff's) and Pierre Renoir (Cedric Hardwicke's) Both versions are good.If ,like me,you've seen Siodmak's version first ,you'll probably find Sirk's work less interesting and vice versa . The differences between the treatments are minimal.

-George Sanders is a better choice than Maurice Chevalier ,cause we do believe he might be a serial killer,which is difficult with the French chanteur.

-On the other hand the scene featuring Boris Karloff is weaker than its French equivalent where Stroheim was more disturbing.

-In both movies,the weakest link is the part of the story where the heroine is a servant in a shady house.

I was 'lured' into this one by its cast - Lucille Ball in a dramatic role, opposite George Sanders, and with Charles Coburn and Boris Karloff in supporting roles. I wasn't disappointed. It's a nice mystery/drama where a serial killer in London finds his victims through personal ads, and then boasts about it to the police with poetry reminiscent of Charles Baudelaire. Ball plays an American working in a dancehall who begins working undercover for the police when one of her friends becomes a victim. That bit is a little contrived, but I liked her pluckiness and how she stands up to a variety of creepy male behavior (in the dancehall, various ogling, and with some of the men she meets via the personal ads). There are some standard tropes - Ball's extraordinary powers of observation, Coburn being the distinguished sleuth who engages in a cat and mouse game with the criminal, etc - but the script is intelligent and has some interesting turns. Just don't go into it with the expectation that it's film noir, and enjoy the performances.

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