East of Piccadilly (1941)

Possibly inspired by the 1937 British melodrama They Drive By Night, East of Piccadilly is an austere shocker set in London. Novelist Sebastian Shaw finds himself in a "Nick and Nora" relationship with girl reporter Judy Campbell, as together they seek the whereabouts of a silk-stocking killer. For a while, Shaw is a suspect, but his top billing expunges him of all guilt (we suppose). Perhaps the real murderer lurks within the supporting-cast ranks of Niall McGinniss, Henry Edwards and Martita Hunt (among others), all of whom look guilty as sin. The deceptive whimsical quality of the title East of Piccadilly was lost on the American distributor, who renamed the film The Strangler for US consumption. One of the screenwriters was J. Lee Thompson, later the director of such cinematic blockbusters as The Guns of Navarone. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi