Do you want to see ‘Stranger on the Third Floor’?

$14.99 to Buy

Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)

tomatometer

All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 6
Fresh: 5 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

No Reviews Yet...

Release Date: Aug 16, 1940 Wide

audience

liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 749

My Rating

Added to your Facebook Timeline. — undo

Movie Info

Though he doesn't speak his first line of dialogue until the film's final ten minutes, Peter Lorre spiritually dominates the fascinating RKO melodrama Stranger on the Third Floor. The plotline is carried by John McGuire, playing Ward, a newspaper reporter whose courtroom testimony sends the hapless Briggs (Elisha Cook Jr). to the death house. Ward is certain that he saw Briggs leaving the scene of a murder, but as the days pass, he is tortured by guilt and doubt -- especially during the film's

Unrated, 1 hr. 4 min.

Mystery & Suspense, Drama

Directed By: Boris Ingster

Written By: Frank Partos

In Theaters: Aug 16, 1940 Wide

On DVD: Oct 16, 1991

RKO Radio Pictures

Cast

Peter Lorre
Stranger
John McGuire
Mike Ward
Margaret Tallichet
Jane
Charles Waldron
District Attorney
Elisha Cook Jr.
Joe Briggs
Charles Halton
Meng
Ethel Griffies
Mrs. Kane
Cliff Clark
Martin
Oscar O'Shea
Judge
Alec Craig
Defense attorney
Otto Hoffman
Police surgeon
Bobby Barber
Italian grocer
Lee Bonnell
Harry C. Bradley
Court Clerk
Lynton Brent
Cabdriver
Jack Cheatham
Detective
Ray Cooke
Drug Store Attendant
Robert Dudley
Postman
William Edmunds
Gardener
James Farley
Policeman
Greta Granstedt
Housekeeper
Frank Hammond
Dell Henderson
Detective
Max Hoffman Jr.
Gladden James
Reporter
Charles Judels
Nick
Jane Keckley
Landlady
Don Kelly
Policeman
Donald Kerr
Paul McVey
Lt. Jones
Broderick O'Farrell
Minister
Bud Osborne
Bartender
Emory Parnell
Detective
Lee Phelps
Cabdriver
Henry Roquemore
Mr. McLean
Ralph Sanford
Truck driver
Herb Vigran
Reporter
Frank Yaconelli
Jack
Frank O'Connor
Policeman
Robert Weldon
Reporter
Betty Farrington
Stout Woman
Bessie Wade
Charwoman

Critic Reviews for Stranger on the Third Floor

All Critics (9) | Top Critics (2) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (1) | DVD (2)

... a paranoid murder thriller that, for all of its budgetary constraints, took viewers on a spiral of justified paranoia.

February 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Parallax View

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Parallax View

This low-budget B film is thought by many to be the first true film noir.

February 12, 2005 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Pretty creepy suspenser with unsettling Lorre performance.

July 8, 2004 Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Stranger on the Third Floor

View All

an early noirish thriller with cool paranoid dream sequence and a nice creepy performance by lorre as an escaped psycho.

August 13, 2008

Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

A good little B-movie about a journalist whose eyewitness testimony convicts a potentially innocent man of murder. The journalist himself then becomes a victim of circumstantial evidence after his despised neighbour is murdered. The plot is contrived and overuses both flashback and voice-over, but there's an excellent

January 8, 2008

Stephen M

Super Reviewer

Stranger on the Third Floor Quotes

View All

No quotes approved yet for Stranger on the Third Floor. Logged in users can submit quotes.

Submit a Quote from 'Stranger on the Third Floor'

A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.

Example:

Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try.
Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.