Brahm, who characteristically directs mysteries of the mind rather than whodunnits, here adds music to an array of psychological clues to the murderer's character; Bernard Hermann's score is cleverly worked into a plot about a pianist-composer who suffers schizophrenic homicidal periods. "Hangover Square is less well scripted (than The Lodger)...but even more fantastically mounted. A murder of a pawnbroker in the first reel, a lamp smashed, a window broken through, flames leaping down a flight of stairs, is electifyingly shot and recorded. And so, too, the climax with...each swooping crane shot cut to the precise dictates of the score" (Higham and Greenberg). Laird Cregar, in his last film, plays the Jekyll-and-Hyde role with disturbing conviction. His loss of some 100 pounds before his death is evident as the film progresses.