If you're compiling a list of films to watch tonight while waiting to celebrate the arrival of the new year, don't forget to add also Jean Negulesco's noir Three Strangers (1946).
The film opens on the night of Chinese New Year when three strangers - Crystal Shackleford (Geraldine Fitzgerald), Johnny West (Peter Lorre) and Jerome K. Arbutny (Sydney Greenstreet) - meet before an idol of Kwan Yin, the Chinese goddess of fortune and destiny, and share a wish revolving around money, the only thing that, according to them, will make their dreams come true.
The three opt to go for a sweepstakes ticket for the Grand National horse race together and agree that they will not sell the ticket if it is chosen, but will hold onto it until the race is run.
Kwan Yin grants their wish, but, as the stories of the three strangers are revealed, it becomes clear that money won't help them getting out of their problems, but it will only make them worse.
The film features a magnificent Peter Lorre as poetic and melancholic never-do-well Johnny, and includes intriguing costumes by Milo Anderson (remember? we closed one of yesterday's posts with him - Anderson was behind Mildred Pierce's iconic costumes).
There are some interesting scenes that feature great examples of menswear, but Crystal Shackleford's wardrobe is absolutely wonderful.
Geraldine Fitzgerald plays a woman obsessed with exotic things who blindly trusts a Chinese idol, so her costumes quite often look like Oriental garments mixed with Haute Couture gowns with some Hollywoodian touches added.
When the film opens we see her running in the streets of London in a long gown with a hood (that makes her look a bit like a vestal especially when she invokes Kwan Yin) matched with a leopard fur jacket.
Fitzgerald often wears draped or pleated numbers with exquisite details around the back or the sleeves. Among her most glamorous costumes there is a skirt suit with a sequinned Oriental dragon motif across the left shoulder.
The accessory that perfectly defines her is a black and white hat that symbolically hints at her duplicitous character (she looks like a glamorous woman, but she is also a vixen).
Icey Crane's (Joan Lorring) wardrobe is definitely less glamorous than Shackleford's since Icey is an ordinary girl, but it could provide good inspirations and ideas. Icey always accessorises her looks with a wide brimmed yet practical hat that adds a noir air to her character.
A final note: the French and Italian versions of the poster for this film looked much better than the original version, with Shackleford in her trademark vestal gown surrounded by the other characters and the idol in the background. Have a lovely noir New Year's Eve!
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