The Dark Corner (1946)

• Year: 1946
• Released: 08 May 1946
• Country: United States
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• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038453/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_dark_corner
• Metacritics:
• Available in: 480p,
• Language: English, Italian
• MPA Rating: Passed
• Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
• Runtime: 99 min
• Writer: Jay Dratler, Bernard C. Schoenfeld, Leo Rosten
• Director: Henry Hathaway
• Cast: Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix
• Keywords: film noir, private investigator, conspiracy, art gallery, extramarital affair, jealous husband,

7.1/10

The Dark Corner Storyline

New York City based private investigator Bradford Galt believes that he’s being followed by a man in a white suit. Brad learns directly from the white suited figure that the person who hired him to follow Brad is Tony Jardine, Brad’s old business partner from San Francisco. Tony, too, has relocated to New York City, and works for and is a social acquaintance of Hardy Cathcart, a wealthy art gallery owner and art collector. Brad and Tony’s business partnership ended because Tony was blackmailing clients, and other actions on Tony’s part resulted in Brad being charged with vehicular manslaughter. Brad has no idea why Tony has had him followed, but he believes that Tony wants him dead. But as Brad tries to figure out exactly what Tony wants, Brad becomes implicated in a murder. Following the murder, he begins to realize that there was something not quite right about how he found out that the man in the white suit was following him. The tables are turned when Brad tries to find the man in the white suit to uncover what’s going on. Through this entire ordeal, Kathleen Stewart, Brad’s secretary, is by his side, the two who have a mutual attraction to each other. Despite words from Brad for her to leave to protect herself, Kathleen stands steadfastly by her man.—Huggo

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The Dark Corner Movie Reviews

Backed Up In a Dark Corner

The private investigator Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) has just moved from San Francisco, where he was framed by his former partner Anthony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger) and unfairly spent two years in jail, to a well located office of his own in New York, where he works with his efficient, witty and very beautiful secretary Kathleen (Lucille Ball). When he invites Kathleen to date and have dinner with him, they see a man wearing a white suit (William Bendix) in their tail. Brad holds the man that tells that he is also a private investigator called Fred Foss and hired by Jardine to follow him. When a car almost hit Brad on the street, he visits and argues with Jardine, who is also a seducer of married women, and they fight. Later, when Jardine is murdered in his apartment, Brad realizes that he was framed. His only lead is the man of white suit, and with the support of Kathleen, they try to find the unknown man to discover who is behind the murder of Jardine.

In the atmosphere of New York in the 40’s, “The Dark Corner” has a perfect direction, with the development of the characters in a great screenplay with some magnificent lines (I love Brad telling Cathcart’s assistant that he would take the Donatello and asking her to wrap it up.) and a wonderful cinematography. The use of shadows is impressive, highlighting the faces and spaces, like for example when Hardy Cathcart sees his young wife kissing Jardine in the safe. Mark Stevens and Lucille Ball show a perfect chemistry and the villains are very realist in this unknown but first-rate film-noir. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): “Envolto Nas Sombras” (“Enveloped in the Shadows”)

Ball, Webb, Bendix and Stevens in satisfying – and smashing looking – noir

It’s a loss to the noir cycle that Lucille Ball never got to exercise her widely underestimated acting (as opposed to comedic) skills as a femme fatale; she might have gained entry to the Bad Girls’ Club. She did, however, lend her welcome presence to three film noir: Two Smart People, Lured, and, the first and best of them, The Dark Corner.

She plays the new, spunky receptionist to private eye Mark Stevens (and gets top billing; logically the star, Stevens comes only fourth in the titles). Once framed into a manslaughter charge in San Francisco, Stevens has come east to start over with a clean slate. But he’s being measured for an even bigger frame. White-suited William Bendix is the cat’s-paw in a plot to goad Stevens into murdering the old partner who set him up (Kurt Kreuger).

Kreuger, however, isn’t even aware that Stevens is out of prison and in New York; he’s too busy romancing the young wife (Cathy Downs) of rich art-gallery owner Clifton Webb (she sits around bored, listening to `his paintings crack with age’). Webb is the puppet-master behind the elaborate scheme to eliminate his younger, more virile rival. When Stevens comes to on the floor of his apartment with a poker in his hand and Kreuger bludgeoned to death next to him, he, with Ball’s help, must race against his inevitable arrest to find the real killer.

The story flits between two Manhattans: The shabby cityscape of penny arcades under the El and flats that open up onto fire escapes, populated by Stevens, Ball and Bendix, and the haut monde of ritzy galleries and high-ceilinged, richly upholstered apartments inhabited by Clift, Downs and Kreuger. Spanning the gap is the unholy alliance between the coarse Bendix and the p***-elegant Webb, reprising his Bitter Old Queen number from Laura and The Razor’s Edge (though again, as in Laura, we’re asked to swallow his obsession with a beautiful…woman half his age).

While maintaining a deft balance, the plot weighs in as quite a brutal one (Webb’s quick dispatch of Bendix proves quite startling). Despite this role and The Street With No Name, Stevens never quite became the noir icon – like Ladd or Bogart or Mitchum (or even like Powell or Ford or Ryan) he seemed destined for, but he’s persuasive enough as a man strained to the limit by forces he can’t fathom.

Henry Hathaway directed, but the black magic comes courtesy of cinematographer Joe MacDonald. He ably lighted a number of estimable noirs (Street With No Name, Call Northside 777, Pickup on South Street), but here his work surpasses itself. When Ball and Stevens embrace, he turns a two-shot into a four-shot by placing them in front of a fireplace mirror; we see her face in the foreground, his in reflection. In plot, writing and direction, The Dark Corner falls just short of the finest entries in the cycle. But in its strikingly composed photography, finely filigreed with shadow, it could be shown at a gala opening in Webb’s high-priced gallery.

I’ll take the Donatello. Wrap it up!

“The Dark Corner” turned up the other night on cable. This is a film that should be seen more often. For one, we get great views of the New York of 40s. Most of the action was photographed, brilliantly, one must add, by Joe MacDonald with the old 3rd. Avenue El as a background. Henry Hathaway’s direction was inspired.

Brad Galt, the gumshoe at the center of the story, has come to New York to get away from an unsavory past in San Francisco. He was on the right track in establishing the detective agency he runs, helped by his attractive gal Friday, Kathleen. Trouble seems to find Brad, no matter where he goes. When the apish Fred Foss appears, dressed in a white suit, we know we’re in for a rough ride.

Brad is being framed, but he has no clue, except to think, Jardine, the suave lawyer, is responsible for it. Little does he know there are higher ups that want to pin a murder on Galt. With the help of his kind secretary, Kathleen, this pair embark in a voyage of discovery where a few surprises await them.

“The Dark Corner” is a fine example of a film noir, enhanced by the background shots of Manhattan. Mark Stevens, as Brad, makes a good attempt to portray Brad Galt, the man who wants to play it straight after his run in with the law. The biggest surprise of the film was the wonderful Lucille Ball playing the secretary. Ms. Ball was an accomplished actress who was basically seen in comedy, but as this film shows, she could play anything.

Clifton Webb turns up as Cathcart, the art gallery owner. There is a great scene at the vault where some art pieces are kept, after taking a few clients to see the new Raffael (that looks it could have been painted on velvet), Cathcart sees the shadows of his wife, and his partner in crime, Jardine, in a passionate embrace as both kiss. The other great moment in the film also involves the art gallery. When Brad, who has finally arrived at the gallery late, asks the assistant how much would the Donatello statue would cost, and she answers “Forty Thousand”. After that, he asks her how much would the pedestal would cost! Obviously, he couldn’t afford either the work of art, or where it rested! In minor roles, William Bendix makes an impression in playing the evil Fred Foss. Kurt Kreuger is seen as Jardine and Cathy Downs plays the deceiving wife, Mari.

“The Dark Corner” is a film that will not disappoint the viewer, thanks to Henry Hathaway’s direction and the work of this cast, but especially watch out for Ms. Ball, she does amazing work!