Love from a Stranger

Love From a Stranger was adapted from a play by Frank Vosper--which, in turn, was based on a story by Agatha Christie (though you'd never know it from the print ads for this film, which reproduced Ms. Christie's name in microscopic typeset). Ann Harding plays a lovely but somewhat naive young woman who goes on a European vacation after winning a lottery. Swept off her feet by charming Basil Rathbone, Harding finds herself married before she is fully able to grasp the situation. Slowly but surely, Rathbone's loving veneer crumbles; when he casually asks Harding to sign a document turning her entire fortune over to him, she deduces that her days are numbered. Desperately trying to keep one step ahead of the homicidal Rathbone (without his catching on), Harding foils all of his clever schemes to put her out of the way. The flustered Rathbone finally tips his hand, but by now the tables are turned. Filmed in England, Love From a Stranger would be remade in Hollywood in 1947, with Sylvia Sidney and John Hodiak in the leading roles.