Careless play with fate “Thou shalt not make thyself an idol...” is one of the Ten Commandments. That’s just the main characters, apparently, forgot it, deciding willy-nilly to experience their fate. Oh! And how it all began mystically and romantically. A beautiful stranger walks through the night streets of foggy London. She's all in some strange thoughts, worried. Then, as if by a magnet, a large master was tied up. The lady took him to her own apartment. And there's another man. Small, cunning and with running eyes. Not only did they not know each other’s names, they met for the first time. What's this weird story? What games? What is all this for?
It turns out that everything is so simple in words ... but in fact it is more difficult. A woman tells a story about the magical power of a statue of a Chinese goddess that can make a person happy. But there are three conditions – the audience must be three, they must not come up with one common desire during the spell, they can reveal the names to each other only after a mysterious procedure. What kind of thought can arise in the minds of three homo sapiens? Of course, money! Yes, greed, the desire to change their own destinies without consequence - that's what these three strangers talked about, rejoicing and savoring whiskey, and also thinking that they will divide the money, bet the whole amount on horse racing. And after this glorious night, the same commandment, opposing the magic of the statuette, begins to mockingly work for the fate of each of these three. Fortune itself begins to denounce each hero, and those who are in his environment.
A beautiful lady named Crystal. She has a diplomat husband, position and money. But no love. She wants full independence, freedom. She doesn't love him anymore. He responds with the same blow - he gets a young mistress. But it is unlikely that Crystal will leave him alone (or rather, his position in government society and state). She's gonna throw him around. Especially good scene of meeting wife and mistress. And then the actress Geraldine Fitzgerald in her Crystal showed herself at all 100. Before the audience there is a lioness, ready to eat an inexperienced cat. Crystal tells the emerging rival about her husband’s throwing among two fires, invents a story with a child. But these things are femininely standard. Only this is how a lioness does it. Her big, beautiful eyes are even bigger, her sporadic smiles, her calm speech. And the ending of this scene is really great. Crystal friendly (not affectionately, not in a woman's way) rattles the girl's hand, like - "everything you will still have O. K., but with another ...". How much joy and hatred are embedded in this gesture.
And yet, Crystal thinks a Chinese statuette will make her happiest.
But Johnny (that cunning little stranger played by Peter Lorre) was unlucky. He went to jail. However, with some clarification of the circumstances of the dark case (in which his girlfriend and companion were involved), Johnny West was released.
A similar situation turned out in Mr. Arbatney (tall fat man played by Sidney Greenstreet). He is mired in financial shortfalls. He almost shot himself in the head, knowing he wouldn't make a lot of money. Only a newspaper with a note about horse racing caught his eye in time. Yes, yes! About the very races on which she bet all her fortune from the ticket Crystal (and she is actually cunning that she made a decision for everyone).
But as they say, “The ways of the Lord are inscrutable.”
Everyone's here, Crystal, John, old Arbatney. The Show Must Go On! Isn't it? No, not like that. The show ended up being a sad story. With an end that the Chinese statuette didn't come up with. He turned out that way. You shouldn't have put yourself on a cart with imaginary circumstances. We are all slaves to our thoughts. Someone more and someone less. If Crystal became a fan of the statuette, brought from China by her husband, then the men just fell for the bait, wanting to catch a tempting jackpot.
For those familiar with the classics of world cinema, it may seem that “Three Strangers” is very similar to “The Maltese Falcon”, released five-year-old earlier. There is a confused femme fatale, there is the opposite sex drawn into the story (by the way, Greenstreet and Lorre starred in both films), there is a magical statuette that controls the fates of the heroes, there are deaths that pay off this mysterious and dangerous circus (only in this film-noir, the display of death is more moist and “blood” ... so to speak, by today’s standards). It is. The plot for both films was written by John Huston, a talented screenwriter (and filmmaker in general). Only now, if "The Maltese Falcon" he himself directed, this film was directed by Jean Negulesco.
Exciting mysticism, coupled with ordinary life situations (divorce, love, revelations, regrets), long-standing human desires and problems are hidden under the invisible veil of a dead statue, contrived and real, truth and lies, inevitable revenge and later insight (especially well and comically turned out by Arbatney) – this is the special double taste of this film.
Watch a good movie!
P.S. For those who love everything new and extraordinary in cinema, check out the colored version of the picture. But I kind of like the original, classic version.
10 out of 10