Lured

When most people think of Douglas Sirk, they think of his 1950s melodrama, replete with mannerist cum ironic performances and garish coloration. One important addendum to these overtly stylized works -- such as Written on the Wind (1957) and the Buddhist Magnificent Obsession (1954) -- is that they derive their visual panache and melodramatic excess from the art of John M. Stahl. Likewise, Lured (1947) is a profoundly derivative work, though in this case Alfred Hitchcock is the model. Here, Sirk borrows many of the master's narrative tropes, including the wrong man and the effeminate killer. Indeed, Sirk's is a very literate imitation of Hitchcock, mining with psychological acuteness the implications of the convergence of sex and death: the killer kills because he cannot make love to his victims. Like the master, Sirk is follower of Georges Bataille.

Beyond the rhetorical strength and historical curiosity of Lured, there is also the simple fact that it stars George Stevens, Boris Karloff, and Lucille Ball as bait for a serial killer. If this alone doesn't impel you to search out Lured, then nothing I could say would.