#72: The Dark Corner (Henry Hathaway, 1946)

Released: April 9, 1946

Director: Henry Hathaway; Screenplay: Jay Dratler and Bernard C. Schoenfeld based on a story by Leo Rosten; Cinematography: Joseph MacDonald; Music: Cyril J. Mockridge; Producer: Fred Kohlmar; Studio: 20th Century Fox

Cast: Lucille Ball (Kathleen Stewart), Clifton Webb (Hardy Cathcart), William Bendix (Stauffer, alias Fred Foss), Mark Stevens (Bradford Galt), Kurt Krueger (Anthony Jardine), Cathy Downs (Mari Cathcart), Reed Hadley (Lt. Frank Reeves), Constance Collier (Mrs. Kingsley), Eddie Heywood (Himself)

- “I can be framed easier than ‘Whistler’s Mother’…”

There are some actors or actresses that are so inextricably linked to their most famous roles that it is almost impossible to separate them. Regardless of a viewer's generation or age, some actors are instantly identified by their most famous role. Not many reach this level, but a few instantly come to mind, and for whatever reason the majority of them come from TV. For instance, Jerry Seinfeld will never be anyone other than Jerry Seinfeld, the midlevel comedian of the famed sitcom. From here on out, James Gandolfini is going to have trouble being viewed as someone other than Tony Soprano. Possibly the greatest example of this phenomenon in the history of entertainment is Lucille Ball. It’s impossible to even say the name and not get images of her wacky routines of mashing grapes or stuffing candy into her mouth on a speeding assembly line. She will always be viewed as one of the great comediennes of all time. One of the marks of a truly great actor, I believe, is the ability to break away from past iconic performances and become completely believable in any new role. While her role here certainly won’t make you forget the classic run on I Love Lucy, The Dark Corner is at least validation that Lucy was versatile enough to pull off a traditional wise-cracking, sultry performance.


Lucy plays Kathleen Stewart, a secretary for the recently-paroled private investigator Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens). As Kathleen soon learns, Galt did two years in prison after being set up for a manslaughter charge by his ex-partner Anthony Jardine (Kurt Krueger). After being released from jail, Galt moved from San Francisco to Manhattan with the hopes of getting a completely fresh start. But when he takes the lovely Kathleen out for a night on the town, the discovery of a conspicuous tail in the form of a white suit-wearing private eye (William Bendix) proves to Galt that his past is still following him. After roughing up the PI, Galt is led to believe that Jardine is once again scheming to set him up. Still steaming from his earlier prison stint, Galt worries what he might do if he catches up with his old pal. This is why he tells Kathleen that she would be smart to forget about him and go on with her life. It doesn’t work, as Kathleen is a resolute woman who repeatedly tells Brad that she is “playing for keeps.” As the two search into the supposed plot by Jardine, and bodies start to fall, it slowly emerges that someone other than Jardine may be the one truly pulling the strings.

As has been pointed out in many noir surveys and overviews, The Dark Corner displays a similar postwar malaise to that of the more-celebrated The Best Years of Our Lives. In this case, rather than returning war veterans, though, Galt is an ex-con who has aspirations of resuming his life and work as a private eye. He hopes that a simple cross-country move will be enough to allow his life to go back to normal. But as Al Stephenson, Fred Derry and Homer find out in William Wyler’s classic, it’s never that easy to go back to the way things were. Right from the start of the movie Galt is reminded of his history – a detective comes to keep tabs on him and then he sees a man following him that night. So while his quick use of violence is still jarring in a “hero,” it seems at least understandable as more is revealed about his past. Mark Stevens plays Galt well, never making him an over-the-top manic, but maintaining a seething anger about the course his life has taken. The entire cast turns in admirable performances, and it is enjoyable to see the often affable William Bendix playing a tough guy role.


No introduction is needed for director Henry Hathaway and director of photography Joseph MacDonald – this is Hathaway’s third appearance in the countdown, while MacDonald’s work has been included four previous times! In terms of visual artistry, my favorite work from either man probably remains the beautiful Technicolor of Niagara. They still turn in impressive work here, making great use of lights and darks according to specific characters and settings. When Galt is involved, particularly in his office or when he is interacting with equally shady characters like Bendix’s Fred Foss, shadows obscure faces. The lighting of Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb) in his art gallery is considerably lighter, until his role in the plotting begins to be revealed and things grow dimmer around him as well. They also combine for some wonderfully simple, memorable touches, like photographing a hugging Galt and Kathleen via the mirror they are standing in front, giving a shot from the rear and the reflection of the faces.

The screenplay from Jay Dratler and Bernard Schoenfeld is also very good, with some wonderfully dry one-liners and repartee between Galt and Kathleen. My personal favorite is the discussion between the two about the man following them. Kathleen tells says she has never been followed before. Bradford quickly responds: "That's a terrible reflection on American manhood." Lines like this are sprinkled throughout.

1951: A Place in the Sun (George Stevens)

Released: August 14, 1951

Director: George Stevens; Screenplay: Michael Wilson and Harry Brown, based on the play An American Tragedy by Patrick Kearney, which in turn is based on Theodore Dreiser’s novel of the same title; Cinematography: William C. Mellor; Studio: Paramount Pictures; Producer: George Stevens

Cast: Montgomery Clift (George Eastman), Elizabeth Taylor (Angela Vickers), Shelley Winters (Alice Tripp), Herbert Heyes (Charles Eastman), Anne Revere (Hannah Eastman), Keefe Brasselle (Earl Eastman), Shepperd Strudwick (Tony Vickers), Frieda Inescourt (Mrs. Ann Vickers), Raymond Burr (District Attorney R. Frank Marlowe)

If the uninitiated ever wonders why Montgomery Clift is considered so great an actor they need only watch this 1951 film from director George Stevens. He was great in a number of other classic films – From Here to Eternity, Red River, Judgment at Nuremberg – but I do not even hesitate in declaring that this is the finest performance Monty ever made. Clift is perfect as the well-intentioned working class George Eastman. He is unable to keep himself from being drawn into the high society circles of his relatives and eventual love interest Angela Vickers (Elizabeth Taylor). The closer George gets to Angela, the further he is pulled from his factory-working girlfriend Alice (Shelley Winters). When Alice becomes pregnant, George finds himself in the middle of a love triangle from which he sees only one escape -- he must find a way to disengage from Alice, while not allowing Angela to find out about it.


I had seen Clift in movies before. I saw him for the first time in 1953’s From Here to Eternity and thought that he was genuine as the detached Prewitt. With the inclusion of Red River in this countdown, I have already made clear that I was shocked to discover how successful Monty was playing a cowboy. But it was upon seeing this acclaimed George Stevens film that I became a full-blown Clift convert. Clift is far from forgotten as a screen legend, but he is oftentimes overshadowed by the large legacies of two of his legendary contemporaries, Marlon Brando and James Dean. I in no way want to diminish the talent of either of those great actors, but I think that Clift is the equal of both of them. According to Hollywood legend, Dean actually cited Monty as one of his idols. Hopefully I’m preaching to the choir in regards to Clift’s greatness as an actor, but I still had to get in my feelings of just how terrific he was.

The central question that comes to haunt George Eastman is how far is he willing to go in order to be with Angela? He clearly still has some feelings for Alice, wanting to end the relationship with her, but he sees that she is not at all interested in being an unmarried mother caring for a small child. It is a plot that most moviegoers are going to be familiar with. The film is based the novel An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, and it is interesting to note that this is not the first film adapted from it. Renowned director Josef von Sternberg directed his own version of the story in 1931. While I have not seen this version, Dreiser himself was evidently not a fan of the film. Regardless, the storyline is one that has been imitated and riffed by a myriad of novels and movies since its publication. While not a direct copy of the story, you can see the plot influence in movies like Woody Allen’s Match Point or even his earlier Crimes and Misdemeanors. Dreiser’s story has truly become a standard, and with so many different movies following variations of the tale, it takes a strong effort to stand out from the pack. All three of the movies mentioned in this paragraph do just that, but as much as I love both of the Allen films, I definitely feel that this is the best adaptation/variation/version of Dreiser’s novel.

It is through Clift's virtuoso performance that the film transcends this traditional plot and that the audience is made to truly feel the doomed outlook that George begins to adopt. The obstacles accumulating in George’s path to happiness are magnified by the fact that he has to somehow secretly end the relationship with Alice. Not only does he have to disengage from her, but he has to do so in a way that will keep her from making their relationship known publicly. The reason is that when George was hired to work at his uncle’s Eastman Company, it was made very clear to him that associating with co-workers, particularly female employees, was unacceptable. Thus, if his relationship with Alice were ever to become common knowledge, his burgeoning career at the company would be ruined. And Alice makes it abundantly clear to George that if he does not do right by her, that she is going to blow the whistle to everyone. George quickly begins to move toward the conclusion that the only solution to his problems is to silence Alice – permanently. The issue becomes, can he really go through with such a job?


While most certainly not a film noir, the movie has a distinctly noir feeling and atmosphere. The audience quickly begins to understand that things are not likely to work out for George Eastman. How hard he is going to fall is the true suspense. I knew very early in my first viewing that things were going to crumble for George, but I had no idea just how drastic the consequences of his fall would be. Would he lose his career? His girlfriend? Maybe even his life? It’s the same sense of doom that I felt toward Steve Thompson in Criss Cross or Jeff Bailey in Out of the Past. Certain key sequences are filmed in the dark style commonly associated with noir – for example when George and Alice are alone together in a canoe and George is internally debating whether to go through with his plan. It is due to how well Clift plays the character that no matter how far George goes in his machinations, there is a heartbreaking quality to the character. I always felt some measure of sympathy for him. This was a man who initially wanted nothing more than to find work and better his life. Instead, he found himself drawn into an exotic lifestyle and was quickly in over his head.


Both Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters are excellent as the two love interests. I don’t want to make it seem as if Taylor turns in an earth-shattering performance, but she is effective in the role because she possesses the most necessary attribute for the character – sex appeal. Taylor is stunningly beautiful, and Angela Vickers needs to be. Without this irresistible charm, the way that she quickly wins over George would seem completely unbelievable. In the end though, as I’ve reiterated time and again, this always remains Clift's film. This is a movie that received much praise upon its initial release, but one that in recent years has been more and more regarded as an overly-dramatic George Stevens production. I suppose I can understand where those that have no stomach for melodrama could see it in this light, but for me it is gripping drama. I'll be very interested to see where everyone else comes down on this film.

Rating: 9/10

Other Contenders for 1951: The runners-up in this year are essentially a roll call of notable Hollywood directors. The closest contender is actually a film that I only recently saw for the first time. I have always found the films of Samuel Fuller to be very hit or miss, really liking movies such as Pickup on South Street yet finding efforts like The Naked Kiss to be terribly overrated. Seeing The Steel Helmet was a revelation. I can understand why it created such uproar upon its release. It is a great war film because it focuses more on the men involved in the journey than being swept up in large-scale battles and strategy. Although I only saw it for the first time last weekend, it has stuck with me and was strongly considered for this year. It has quickly become my favorite from Fuller. The other film nearly taking the honors for this year comes from the Master of Suspense Alfred Hitchcock. Strangers on a Train is a wonderful film and I still take delight in the way that he shot the murder sequence, using the victims eyeglasses.

Some other films from Hollywood heavyweights are also favorites from this year. Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole contains a great Kirk Douglas performance and feels unlike any other film dealing with the power of the press. Being a huge Bogart fan also means that I have a soft spot for John Huston’s The African Queen. While not Bogart or Huston’s best, it’s a fun film.

I am guessing that A Streetcar Named Desire will receive support, but this is one that has never clicked for me. I like both director Elia Kazan and Marlon Brando, but think that the two of them would move on to make better films, both together and separately.