Hangover Square (1945)

In the early twentieth century London, musician George Harvey Bone, who lives in Hangover Square, is in the process of composing a piano concerto. In his admiration, Sir Henry Chapman hopes George will complete it in time for what will be the latest musical soiree Sir Henry hosts at his home so as to bring greater recognition to George's body of work. Sir Henry is to lead the orchestra and George who will play the piano himself for that inaugural performance. George of late has had periods of lapses of memory i.e. blackouts, the latest, the longest thus far, this one lasting a day, in which he fears, based on circumstantial evidence including a bloody dagger in his possession, that he may have been the perpetrator of a publicized murder in Fulham. Wanting to do the right thing and wanting some help for what plagues him, he voluntarily goes to see Dr. Allan Middleton at Scotland Yard, who, based on that evidence, is able to clear him of that murder, and suggests that the stress of writing the concerto may be the cause of his blackouts. Taking Dr. Middleton's advice to relax, George goes to a bar hall where he meets singer Netta Longdon in she performing there, he abandoning the concerto temporarily to write the music for songs for her in his infatuation, she only stringing him along for those songs to further her career as in reality she finds him and his world of classical music a boor. While George is blind to Netta's end goals, Sir Henry's daughter, Barbara Chapman, an accomplished pianist in her own right, can see what is going on in her own attraction to George. The question becomes what will happen when other stressors lead to more of George's blackouts, especially the ones after he discovers Netta's true nature.