The Dark Corner (1946)

The lovely comedienne Lucille Ball is endearing in this neatly plotted noir tale and does a fine job of playing it very straight. She's cast as Kathleen Stewart, secretary to a private eye named Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens). It seems that Galts' tragic past is catching up with him, when he thinks that a former associate, lawyer Anthony Jardine (Kurt Krueger) is out to get him. For one thing, Galt is being tailed by a heavy in a white suit (William Bendix). Eventually Galt realizes that there's more to the situation than meets the eye. When Galt is framed for murder, the extremely loyal Kathleen vows to stay right by her boss's side and help him clear his name.The high contrast lighting and interesting angles are present and accounted for in this solid example of the film noir genre. Pacing is fairly deliberate and never rushed. The characters are comfortingly familiar for this sort of thing, and the actors get to utter some absolutely priceless lines. The banter between Ball and Stevens is especially fun. There's an enjoyable chase sequence, a feeling of despair for Galt as he wonders if he'll ever figure out the whole truth, and some entertaining detective work on the part of Kathleen and Galt. He's definitely a tough cookie, but isn't as tough as he makes himself out to be. He does have a soft spot for Kathleen, and she's open in her love for him.It's a treat to watch Lucy in this kind of performance, and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Stevens is very much playing a typical noir character, Clifton Webb is smooth and dapper as an upper crust art collector, and Bendix is fantastic as the brute. Cathy Downs, Reed Hadley, and Constance Collier co-star; Ellen Corby, John Russell, and Douglas Spencer have uncredited bits.Overall, a very respectable effort for director Henry Hathaway, cast, and crew.Eight out of 10.

Lucille Ball's name raises obvious preconceptions, but - apart from displaying her unquestioned skill with a one-line put-down - she plays it admirably straight in this nice film noir. In spite of Lucy's top billing, she's by no means the lead. That honour goes to Mark Stevens, who is little-heard of today but who is good value as the private dick with a past.Clifton Webb and William Bendix are on hand to contribute their expertise. The art direction and lighting are a treat. Director Henry Hathaway was in his heyday, keeping a tight grip on pace, and displaying a surprising interest in sound editing - listen to the way the instruments of a jazz band advance and retreat on the soundtrack as the camera passes them in and out of shot.The last reel hurries the plot a little, as if a producer was keeping a beady eye on the running time. But that apart, there's not much to fault. Strange it's not better known.

This movie is rather clunky in dialog, character and plot. Individual scenes are nice, but nothing really grabs the viewer. The dialog seems more like bad imitation of film noir. The characters lack depth and always seem to be straight off the page of a novel. The plot has many surprises, but some of them are simply stupid. For example, the hero detective overhears that the man trying to frame him left two suitcases in the back of a cab. Instead of figuring out a clever way to get to see the contents of the suitcases, he just steals the cab. Considering that he is wanted for murder by the police when he does this, one finds the action quite incredible.All the actors are fine, with Mary Downs, William Bendix (as usual) and Clifton Webb being stand outs. According to the DVD discussion, Lucille Ball hated making the film and had a nervous breakdown, but this is not evident from what is on screen.The cinematography and fight scenes are quite nicely done. There's a good selection of Big Band music from the period.I think if you're expecting a rather ordinary film noir, you'll enjoy it, but if you expect something on the level of "Double Indemnity," "Out of the Past" or "Murder, My Sweet," you'll be disappointed.

Dark Corner, The (1946) *** (out of 4) Noir about private eye Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) who has a mysterious past, which might be catching up with him after he begins to be followed by a man in white (William Bendix). Soon Galt is attacked in his apartment and when he wakes up another man is dead and he has the murder weapon in hand. Along with the help of his secretary (Lucille Ball) they must try and figure out who was behind the set-up and the reasons for it. Years before finally seeing this film I had been hearing nothing but good things about it and there's no question that the movie has a lot of very good things going for it but I'd probably stop short of calling it a complete classic. More on the issues later but the film contains everything a good noir should have and that's snappy dialogue, a good hero to root for, great use of shadows and of course the twists and turns. I thought the dialogue was the best thing about the film as it seems like each scene was trying to top the one it followed just by having the characters throwing around the witty dialogue, which features every cliché from "behind the 8-ball" to "clean as a peeled egg" and many more. The dialogue is extremely sharp and just bounces from one character to the next and this can be seen right from the start when a detective comes into the office and throws a few rounds with Ball's character. The performances are another plus with Stevens making for a good hero and someone that we can care about as we work our way through the mystery. He isn't really known for noir, which might be one reason this film isn't better known but he handles all the material nicely. It's always fun seeing Ball doing something that is the complete opposite of her Lucy character. Here she gets to play for some sex appeal and does a nice job with it and handles the dialogue extremely well. The real star here is Bendix who is terrific as the mysterious guy. He brings a lot of fun to the role and manages to be very believable in the role as does Clifton Webb who chews up each scene he's in. As expected, the film has some wonderful cinematography and some great lighting. Just check out the sequence where Stevens forces Bendix to give up information in his office. The entire room is lit by a single light and it looks great. The one issue I had with the film was a pretty major one and that's the actually story. It never really grabbed my attention and held it too strongly as I thought there were some weak moments. With that said, there's still plenty to enjoy here and fans of noir will certainly want to check it out.