The Passing of the Third Floor Back

The film is set in an old boarding house in London. The tenants of the house spend their time in petty quarrels. Sniping at each other is their daily occupation. One day a mysterious stranger comes to the door. The stranger takes the back room on the third floor. The house is in the Bloomsbury district. The stranger’s arrival slowly changes how the tenants behave. He becomes a support against the landlord and against the darkness inside them. The landlord is a scheming property man. He notices the stranger’s effect and says it will fail. The film was adapted from a 1908 play by Jerome K. Jerome. Michael Hogan and Alma Reville wrote the script. Conrad Veidt, Rène Ray and Frank Cellier take the parts in Berthold Viertel’s British film of 1935, which runs ninety minutes.