Three Strangers is a 1946 American Film Noir directed by Jean Negulesco and starring Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and Geraldine Fitzgerald.
It centers around two men named Jerome Arbutny (Greenstreet) and Johnny West (Lorre) who are approached by Crystal Shackleford (Fitzgerald), a woman who believes in a superstition that anytime three strangers agree to a common wish on Chinese New Year's, it will come true. She proposes that they all wish for a Sweepstakes ticket to win the Grand National horse race and gain them a fortune to solve their worldly problems and grant their dreams and desires. Bemused, Arbutny and West agree and the trio part ways.
Over the next several months, West finds himself an accused murder and fugitive, Shackleford becomes increasingly vindictive after failing to win back her estranged husband, and Arbutny grows increasingly desperate after Stealing from the Till and losing money on bad investments. At the Grand National, their destinies converge once again and they all learn the truth of the saying that money can't buy happiness.
Tropes in Three Strangers:
- The Alcoholic: Johnny West is a blackout drunk who can never turn away from a bar, something which helps the police track him down (ironically the first time he ever stopped at a bar for reasons other than drinking) after he is on the run for joining a fatal robbery scheme while too drunk to realize what was going on.
- Amoral Attorney: Arbutny is a lawyer who runs his clerks hard and steals from clients.
- Asshole Victim:
- Bertram Fallon is a thief and murder who is willing to get his friends hanged over a murder he committed to save his own neck and gets knifed for this, although he does make a deathbed confession saving Johnny from the hangman.
- Crystal is the most cruel and selfish of the three main characters and Arbutny bludgeons her for coldly refusing to let him sell their Sweepstakes ticket for enough money to save him from being arrested just because she's too bitter at the whole world to care about him. Even if he hadn't killed her, her husband would have for calculatingly ruining his life when he wanted a divorce, as he shows up at the flat with a weapon and is surprised to find her body.
- Bruiser with a Soft Center: Gabby is a hardened Cockney thug but is fiercely loyal to his friends and cares more about keeping Fallon (prior to his betrayal) and Johnny from being hanged than saving his own life.
- Crying Wolf: Icey's pleas to the police that her lover Johnny was Wrongfully Accused of murder are treated skeptically because she perjured herself claiming that Johnny's accuser/accomplice was completely innocent prior to the guy confessing and scapegoating Johnny. She points out that she did turn herself in and risk a perjury arrest, but that still isn't enough to convince anyone until more evidence turns up.
- Fake Pregnancy: Crystal falsely claims to be pregnant to her estranged husband's new girlfriend, Janet Elliot, to drive them apart and either make her husband come back to her or punish him for his refusal.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- Lady Belladon conversing with her dead husband seems like Scatter Brained Senior or Cloudcuckoolander behavior, but she is right not to trust Arbutny after one such conversation, so it might have been real.
- The three strangers' wish may have come true because of the ritual of how they made it, or could be a lucky coincidence.
- My God, What Have I Done?: After accidentally striking Crystal dead in a fit of rage over her refusal to sell a horse race ticket that would have won and made them a fortune anyway Arbutny begins babbling in shaken horror about the situation before denouncing himself as a sinner in the streets and turning himself in to the police.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: The Sweepstakes ticket driving so much of the story ends up burned after Crystal's death because Johnny trying to cash it would make him look like a murderer.
- Social Climber: Arbutny seeks greater wealth to get into a fancy Barristers Club.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: Aside from the first and last scenes, the three strangers have no interactions and are unaware of each other's plotlines except while Johnny being sentenced to hang is in the newspapers.
- Woman Scorned: When Crystal's husband refuses to come back to her, she uses Malicious Slander to ruin his career and new romance.