1946 Directed by Henry Hathaway
Ex-con turned private investigator Bradford Galt suspects someone is following him and maybe even trying to kill him. With the assistance of his spunky secretary, Kathleen Stewart, he dives deep into a mystery in search of answers.
Lucille Ball Clifton Webb William Bendix Mark Stevens Kurt Kreuger Cathy Downs Reed Hadley Constance Collier Eddie Heywood Colleen Alpaugh Charles Cane Ellen Corby Ralph Dunn John Elliott Mary Field John Goldsworthy Vincent Graeff Chuck Hamilton Eloise Hardt John Kelly Colin Kenny Molly Lamont Hope Landin Thomas Louden Donald MacBride Frank Marlowe Thomas Martin Matt McHugh Forbes Murray Show All…
Like a great dame’s curves, “The Dark Corner” has shadows in all the right places.
There should be little surprise the dark figures of “Corner” have such poeticism in their menace. The film’s cinematographer is Joseph MacDonald, also behind the immortal visual language of “My Darling Clementine.” And, “Corner’s” director is Henry Hathaway, best known for his essential Westerns like “Rawhide” and “True Grit.” The two make a dichotomy of light and dark, creating definitive images of stark contrast that are the aesthetic ideal of what every noir ‘should’ look like.
It’s only unfortunate that the film is headlined by one of noir’s dullest ever heroes, played by Mark Stevens. His flat as a blunt nailhead performance is just about…
"Well, what else can I beat you at?"
Private investigator Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) finds himself dragged into the middle of a maelstrom when he catches a man in a white suit (William Bendix) following him and begins to investigate to figure out why. The trail leads him to Anthony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger), a former friend with whom the relationship turned acrimonious, and Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb), a wealthy art dealer. On his own, Galt is overmatched, but he has a secret weapon - his secretary Kathleen (Lucille Ball), who it turns out is better at putting the pieces together than he is.
I keep seeing this referred to as "lesser tier" noir, but I found it to be kind…
Fun noir that owes half of it's existence to Laura and half to a bunch of hard boiled private dick movies that star someone more convincing than Mark Stevens.
There's a lot of good to great dialogue, Lucille Ball sells every line as a secretary who would make a better private eye than her boss, Clifton Webb gets off some genuine zingers albeit while attempting one every line and William Bendix adds another movie to that brief post-war window where he could deliver heavies with depth and genuine menace whenever he showed up. The plot brings it varied strands together well and it doesnt even really matter that much that stevens could be a lot better. It's a load of fun rather than a classic but thats fine.
The unexpected twist in the middle of The Dark Corner and Mark Stevens' rugged voice put me right in The Noir Mood, a state I love to be in.
A pretty and violent Noir, let down by a sluggish story and a dull hero. But any film that has Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, and a lingo-spouting William Bendix can’t be that bad.
I feel all dead inside… I’m backed up in a dark corner… and I don’t know who’s hitting me
Dauntingly atmospheric, smoothly executed through a gripping throughline of looming shadows, weary spirits, surrounded by intrigues and scams being the reason behind doomed existences; Henry Hathaway’s The Dark Corner is as classy Noir a fan would expect to enjoy.
Though not much outside its genre interplay achieved with such poetic maneuvering along dark shadows, eerie morals and a hefty dose of punching-felt brutality, but the very same old-school hardboiled identity that it creates for itself in this underworld of doggy perils and flaming sex appeal, is what makes it so deliciously inducing.
That through its pretty basic scheming intrigue plot, it…
“You keep your heart in a steel safe.”
-“I suppose you’re the blowtorch type.”
One of those puzzle noirs where the pieces actually fit. Obviously a treat to see Lucille Ball in a noir like this, spitting slang rejoinders, dancing to jazz at the High Hat club, a smoking secretary. Clifton Webb a blast as the jealous, erudite art dealer obsessed with his trophy wife. Mark Stevens perfectly captures that image of a man against the ropes, that feeling of something closing in, getting repeatedly jabbed but unsure who is hitting him.
“What do you want me to do? Call the Quiz Kids?”
A highly watchable California noir with a decent mid-way plot turn that keeps things interesting, though the darker, moodier first half was my favorite. Certainly worth checking out if you're like me and arrive here knowing Lucille Ball only from her TV comedies. Less femme fatale than detective-in-training, she's the one who pieces together the critical clue that breaks the case open.
No one is going to mistake Mark Stevens for Humphrey Bogart, but he sells the hard-boiled dialogue with confidence, especially in a tense early scene where he's shaking down a thuggish rival P.I. (William Bendix).
A criminally unsung spin on formula ranging from some seriously formidable shadow play to Henry Hathaway's understanding of the importance of inertia as it applies to murderous, conspiratorial noir convention. Once again centers on two lovebirds inextricably linked in an ongoing effort to extricate Mark Stevens' hard-boiled P.I. type from worry of the electric chair as his haunted past has other ideas, a proper sackful of one-liners in tow. A prime example of how milking said haunted past (In a Lonely Place is the pinnacle) can add an effectual, humanistic tinge of depth that simultaneously complements and muddies up the details surrounding the larger mystery and/or scheme at play for intrigue's sake. Ball and Stevens are good but they were distant second choices behind Ida Lupino and Fred MacMurray. Oh well.
Contains my favorite line of dialogue from the entire Noir City Austin festival this year, spoken by (who else?) Clifton Webb: "He loathed her rather intimately, I'm afraid."
At a glance, The Dark Corner is entirely noir essentials and archetypes assembled in comfortingly familiar fashion, although every gumshoe surely wishes they had a secretary as loyal, smart, charming, and witty as Lucille Ball. Weary jaded attitudes bristling as the classic beats of tough-talking tails, furtive phone calls, barely-evaded assassination attempts, and closely-guarded secrets unfold amid sublime shadows and hardboiled poetry.
And if that’s all The Dark Corner was, I’d still like it. But as the mysterious threads crystallize into city-spanning intrigue, the schemes grow increasingly tangled and deadly for our framed PI until they’re interweaved with another subplot a world away from the penny arcades and grimy alleys. For a film that so closely hews to…
