Wanted For Murder (1946)

The grandson (Eric Portman) of a notorious hangman follows in the footsteps of his grandfather. He's a serial killer who's strangled some six women and he's not done yet! Meanwhile, a Scotland Yard inspector (Roland Culver)  desperately tries to solve the case before the strangler strikes again! Based on the play by Terence De Marney and Percy Robinson (the screenplay was co-written by Emeric Pressburger) and directed by Lawrence Huntington (CONTRABAND SPAIN). A neat little thriller that deserves to be called Hitchcockian. Portman's serial strangler is a cousin to Robert Walker's Bruno of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. They even have doting mothers who may or may not have contributed to their sons' psychosis. It's not a whodunit since we know from the beginning who the murderer is so the movie's plot is just a matter of how and when he'll be caught. I did have a problem with the film's suggestion that it's "bad blood" inherited from his grandfather that is at the root of his killing spree, a theory since disproven. Other than that, it's a first rate thriller. With Dulcie Gray, Derek Farr, Barbara Everest, Stanley Holloway, Kathleen Harrison and Wilfrid Hyde White.