USA Today - 06/02/2000
"...[The movie has] built-in appeal....[Sanders is] smooth, urbane and with a martini soldered to his hand."

Entertainment Weekly - 12/04/1998
"...[Ball is] an absolute delight....[It] becomes, in Sirk's hands, an atmospheric, sensuous pleasure..."

Before he revolutionized the women's film with such gleefully melodramatic works as Written on the Wind and Magnificent Obsession, director Douglas Sirk made a series of glossy thrillers flavored by European settings (shortly after his emigration to the U.S. from Germany).

Like the films for which he would become famous, Lured revels in the glamour and romance that Hollywood had honed to perfection, and plays every scene - every coy glance, every deadly encounter - to the melodramatic hilt.

In Lured, a serial killer terrorizes London, trapping his prey through personal ads in the newspaper and taunting the police with gruesome poems. A Scotland Yard detective (Charles Coburn) enlists the aid of a feisty American redhead (a truly captivating Lucille Ball) to draw the murderer into the dragnet, and leads her across the paths of a variety of peculiar suspects - including a demented clothing designer (Boris Karloff) and an international playboy (George Sanders) - all of whom seem to have designs on the Yard's most delectable decoy.

Before being forever associated with melodrama, acclaimed director Douglas Sirk dabbled in other genres. LURED, a good example of this, is a witty and stylish thriller about a serial killer terrorizing the streets of London. Lucille Ball stars as Sandra, a sassy and beautiful taxi dancer, who decides to assist the police after her best friend becomes the latest victim of the Poet Killer, a mysterious murderer who lures women through classified ads. Sandra launches on an endless quest, answering every suspicious ad in the paper in search of the elusive killer, whose only clues are enigmatic poems based on the poetry of Beaudelaire. En route to the real killer, Sandra encounters a ridiculous cast of ominous characters, from an insane dressmaker (played by an arch and hilarious Boris Karloff) and a shady character who traffics in white slavery. The killer still eludes Sandra and the Scotland Yard, and her growing affection for the stylish nightclub owner Robert Flemming proves to bring more complications than she imagines, leading to a surprising and ingenious climax. Ball is sharp and glamorous as the unwitting detective and Sirk's swift and fast-paced direction melds humor with suspense to created a highly entertaining thriller.

Melodrama | Theatrical Release | Thriller

Genre:

• Mystery & Thriller Movies

Movie Categories:

• Dramas