Hangover Square

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Hangover Square is a 1941 novel by English playwright and novelist Patrick Hamilton (1904–1962). It is set in Earls Court, London in 1939.

The main character is George Harvey Bone, a lonely borderline alcoholic who suffers from a split personality. He is obsessed with gaining the affections of Netta, a failed actress and one of George's circle of "friends" with whom he drinks. George suffers from 'dead moods' in which he is convinced he must kill Netta. Upon recovering from these interludes, he cannot remember them. The novel captures the mood of prewar London, and is considered by a number of literary experts Hamilton's most perfected work—exemplifying the author's concerns over social inequalities, the rise of Fascism and the hovering doom of World War II.

20th Century Fox bought the movie rights to the book. The screenplay was written by Barré Lyndon and made a number of changes, including the transformation of George Harvey Bone into a classical composer-pianist and filming the story as a turn-of-the-century period piece. The locale appears to be late Victorian London, with the date 1899 shown in the opening scene. However, a theatre programme seen in the middle of the film is imprinted with the year 1903. That uncertainty aside, the period setting works well to create a dark mood, especially in the key scene when Bone (portrayed by Laird Cregar), having strangled Netta (Linda Darnell) on Guy Fawkes Night, carries her wrapped body through streets filled with revelers and deposits it on top of the biggest bonfire. The movie was released in New York on February 7, 1945, two months after its star, Laird Cregar, suffered a fatal heart attack. The final scene shows Cregar as Bone, mesmerizingly playing his great piano concerto (composed by Bernard Herrmann), unmindful of the conflagration around him, as flames consume all.