Well Made Film Noir
What a pleasure to watch this movie filled with great character actors and great sets. Ms Ball gives a very good performance as a dance hall hostess helping Scotland Yard track down her friend's killer.

fascinating, forgotten little film noir
Admittedly, the quality of this Kino DVD leaves much to be desired (to put it mildly): the soundtrack is in terrible shape, it even shifts at different points, getting softer and louder right in the middle of scenes, and the visual quality is only passable (if that).

Still, this is one of the independent, low-budget films Douglas Sirk directed in the 1940s, before landing his contract with Universal, and elements of his style are readily apparent: the emphasis on decor and art direction to help create narrative continuity, the careful lighting, the emphasis on sets, costumes and props to augment the acting, the usage of mirrors. Here, Lucille Ball plays an American dance-hall girl stranded in London, who becomes a decoy for Scotland Yard. There are many genuinely creepy moments, as each person Ball encounters poses a potential threat, and the plot is enjoyably convoluted. Among the people she encounters are Charles Coburn, Boris Karloff (exceptionally sinister), George Sanders (very suave yet ambiguous; Sirk himself considered Sanders his quintessential actor), and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. The film is so entertaining that it's recommended because of the delightful story and the excellent treatment, but the DVD makes one yearn for a better edition one day.

Neat Victorian crime tale
This is the last of 3 stylish period movies directed by Douglas Sirk and starring George Sanders -the others ,for the record,being Summer Storm from 1944 and Scandal in Paris ,dated 1946.
It is based on a 1939m French movie ,directed by Robert Siodmak,entitled "Pieges" with the setting shifted from Paris to London in the Victorian era .
8 personable and attractive young women have vanished from London after answering a newspapaper advertisement .Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) an American showgirl in London is persuaded by Inspector Temple of Scotland Yard (Charles Coburn)to act as bait -to answer the advert and lure the killer into the trap .

The suspects are plentiful and they are very well played by an accomplished cast of actors-including George Sanders ,with whom Sandra falls in love ,George Zucco ,Boris Karloff, Sir Cedric Hardwicke,Joseph Calleia and Alan Mowbray
Ball is slightly miscast but still gives a strong performance and the movie is a neat slice of period melodrama ,complete with fog enshrouded streets ,rattling hansom cabs and flickering gaslight -all the requisite accotrements of the genre

Recommended as a good whodeunnit mixed with the thriller -but be careful and do not be misled by the cover which features Karloff .It is NOT a horror movie and he does not get a great deal of screen time

Excellent British noir thriller
German born director Douglas Sirk better known for melodrama crafted a slick, multi faceted thriller in the 1947 film, "Lured". A demented serial killer has been lurking in the streets of London using personal ads to attract young women into fatal rendezvous. The brash murderer had been sending Scotland Yard poems which both glorify death and announce his latest victim to the authorities.

A glamorous Lucille Ball playing American Sandra Carpenter is working as a dance hall girl. When one of her friends goes missing, she fears that she's become the poet-killer's latest victim. After going to the police she's recruited by Inspector Temple played by Charles Coburn to work for him and act as bait for the murderer. While answering personal ads she meets George Sanders a London night club entrepreneur and playboy known as Robert Fleming. They soon fall in love and she wins approval from his business partner and house mate mawkish Julian Wilde played by Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

On the eve of the wedding between Ball and Sanders she discovers evidence in his desk drawer tying him to the murders. In her heart Ball can't believe that Sanders is the killer despite being taken into custody by the protective and trustworthy Inspector Temple. The story turns into a cat and mouse pursuit as Coburn tries to trap the players in the film revealing the identity of the killer.

Boris Karloff has a bizarre cameo as deranged fashion designer Charles van Druten who placed a personal ad that Ball answered. "Lured" contains all the trademarks of the film noir drama and the acting performances on the whole are quite good and tinged with the hint of melodrama, courtesy of Sirk's direction.

An amusing romantic mystery about a serial killer, really, with some fine character actors
Says Scotland Yard Inspector Harley Temple, "There's a homicidal maniac loose somewhere in the vast honeycomb of London, a maniac with a weakness for young, pretty girls -- and not one thing we've done has brought us one inch nearer his apprehension."

That is about to change. When a friend of the last victim goes to Scotland Yard to ask if the police have learned anything, Inspector Temple (Charles Coburn) seizes his chance. Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) may be American, but she is young, pretty and feisty. Temple knows the killer has sought his victims through notices in the personal columns of the newspapers. So he recruits Sandra to answer the most promising ads and assigns H. R. Barrett (George Zucco) to keep an eye on her. Sandra Carpenter will be the bait to lure a deranged killer who likes to warn the police what is going to happen by quoting Baudelaire on the beauty of death.

"Are you young, chic, shapely and no prude?"
"Bird lover wants long walks in country with pretty, unmarried young lady as soul mate."
"Famous artist seeks beautiful model."
"Aristocratic home offers unusual opportunity for attractive woman."

Sandra answers all of these and quickly finds herself involved with an addled dress designer, a 12-year-old boy, a "modeling" agency and a white slave ring. While all this is underway she also meets Robert Fleming (George Sanders), a cheerful bon vivant, who, with his partner, Julian Wilde (Cedric Hardwicke), owns several posh London supperclubs. Fleming has the charm and loves the ladies, Wilde reads the contracts and keeps an eye on the pounds and pence. After one major misadventure, it seems clear that the evidence is pointing to Fleming as the killer. But is he? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

Lured may not be an A movie, but it is much more than a B programmer. It's a well-mounted serial murder mystery with a nice psycho twist, with plenty of wet, dark London streets, fine homes and white tie and tails. It also is a romantic comedy of sorts, with good lines, droll humor and strong characters. The first half of the movie, while Sandra answers the ads and meets some eccentric characters, is amusing. Boris Karloff shows up in a cameo as an out-of-sync designer who presents his work to a room of empty chairs, a bull dog, two manikins and a sharp sword. Alan Mobray turns in a nice job as a butler in a fine home who dabbles in shipping young women off to South America. Fine performances are turned in by the other noted character actors, including Coburn, Zucco and Joseph Calleia. Especially noteworthy is Cedric Hardwicke, playing a somewhat prissy, cultured man with perfect manners. As for the leads, George Sanders has a role where his usual condescending amusement is tempered by real charm and the emergence of love for Miss Carpenter. This is Lucille Ball's movie, however, and she makes a great heroine, funny, sincere and at times unsure of herself. Those quizzical eyebrows and her good-natured skepticism, not to mention her first-rate looks, make her a person to root for.

Lured has lots of red herrings, humor and chills, as well as a tense cat-and-mouse game at the end. If you like older movies and appreciate what experienced character actors can bring to a movie, this would be worth buying. The DVD is in fine shape. There are no extras.

Douglas Sirk went on to direct those mammoth tear-jerkers of the Fifties, Magnificent Obsession and All That Heaven Allows. Leo Rosten, who wrote the screenplay, wrote two classic books still worth reading, The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n and The Joys of Yiddish. And the year before Lured, in 1946, Sirk and Sanders again paired in A Scandal in Paris, a witty and amusing story of a thief who becomes the police chief of Paris. Sirk once again was able to tease a performance from Sanders that minimized the boredom and emphasized the charm. It's a movie worth buying, too.