Film Noir #30

Noir: Cloak and Dagger, Cornered, Coroner Creek, and Count the Hours

CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946) --- Gary Cooper as secret agent for the Allies was ideal Cooper casting at 1946 or any time, no learning curve for his nuclear scientist drafted into espionage work, seemingly seasoned from a start and equal to Axis tricks coped with on enemy soil because he is after all Gary Cooper. Cloak and Dagger was for producer Milton Sperling, a Warner son-in-law who hung independent shingle that was “United States Pictures” using WB money and talent, negatives reverting to him after general release. For this reason, Cloak and Dagger was difficult to track in latter years, accessible now on Blu-Ray. Revealed was workings of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) and measures taken to keep Germans from harnessing the atom before we’d utilize same for weaponry. Cooper is nobody’s fool and fights dirty, adroit also with women for and against our side. Minus mannerisms by forties ingrained, it’s refreshing to see him tough under direction of Fritz Lang, who I hope had leeway with content he was well suited for. We’re warned of how close Germany was to nuke supremacy, plus there’s alert as to others laying in possible wait to develop deadliest weapons for postwar aggression. Mere secrets in a briefcase, or what an inventor carries in his head, won’t add up to fraction of threats vaster and for real, but movies deal on simple terms, “McGuffins” a usual shorthand, that is threat a single hero can credibly overcome. Too much science thins soup and could cause confusion. Let Gary Cooper or like representative of capable manhood spare us full annihilation and leave detail of how he did it to imagining. Enough mainstream magazines would explain implications of the bomb now that at least parts of info were declassified. All that need be understood was Gary Cooper as spy for our side and he had better win (and by release date obviously did) or we’d be obliterated. Mere thought of such possibility made Cloak and Dagger an urgent sit for 1946, and source for watching joy since.

CORNERED (1946) --- Early instance of an ex-G.I. tracking those responsible for atrocity overseas, Cornered a follow-up to Dick Powell’s image modification with Murder, My Sweet. Choice was to stay a tough guy, be a detective and what all, or a la Bogart/Cagney, join wrong sides of the law ... Powell adjusted their act by being embittered instead, at least for this noteworthy occasion, his a most damaged soldier vet to serve films so far. Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and Harold Russell would come home to renew normalcy, Powell staying on hostile ground to even scores. The war never ended for many who served, but Hollywood stayed mostly clear of them, the idea of revenge upon former enemies too negative a concept to fit with a world being rebuilt. Did real-life P.O.W.’s use occupation opportunity to track down guards and commandants who had tortured them? Wouldn’t anyone, given the determination and physical wherewithal? Powell tracks his wife’s killer finally to South America hideout and beats the man to death with his fists, a shocking finale I’m surprised got by the Code. Cornered was like a last venting of spleen upon fascism (released 11/45). Someone had to work out some rage, and Powell was it. He’d not give a performance so intense again. Device of wartime fugitives repairing to Latin corners was fresh and ahead of Hitchcock doing the same for Notorious, combine of exotic background with sinister forces finding refuge within. To evidence here, it appeared tropical paradise was paradise also for those who committed worst crimes against humanity back in Europe. Powell traverses a mine field of changed names and concealed identities. If only real-life could unmask miscreants with such luck and pluck as he does. Mengele ducked authority for whole of life that remained to him, hiding if barely in Brazil and lasting to 1979 (he could even have gone to the movies to see Gregory Peck play him). Powell builds his case with shards of burnt paper and addresses he steals, not relying on military authority he doesn’t trust anyway. Cornered is bitter tea then, noir as true as could be applied to get-even themes. Warner has a DVD on one of its noir box sets.

CORONER CREEK (1947) --- Randolph Scott entered into partnership with producer Harry Joe Brown to do his westerns at least a little better than everyone else’s. Coroner Creek deals as frank a get-even theme as was possible under the Code, doing so on noir terms clearly an outcome of modern-set dark dwellings at a peak of exposure if not popularity by 1947. Some rules are steadfast however, which means Scott may track his quarry but not be the instrument of death per mission … that, as is explicitly explained, belongs to a higher judge. “Vengeance is mine,” sayeth Marguerite Chapman to which so-far unenlightened Randy replies “an eye for an eye,” a debate heard in movies, or set forth in titles where silent, since images first flickered upon screens. Let the Deity even scores where deserved, as He’ll do it better and often bloodier than mortals with a grudge. Characters are layered, their problems contemporary. A dark-dyed villain has an alcoholic wife who gives him worse problems than stagecoach raids he conducts. Confrontations are lit like noir at RKO, and certainly Scott’s mission is borrowed off lone avenger Dick Powell in Cornered, a same in all ways save a near-century later backdrop. Action is brutal in accordance with license granted by a real war and understanding that fights need never be “fair” again. Hired hood Forrest Tucker knocks Scott unconscious then stomps his gun hand to disable it. Upon waking, Scott bests Tucker and stomps his hand to square accounts, both so crippled for the rest of the picture. This was something new to the west, a knowing that death or mutilation were things that might happen quick and rendered by means pitiless. Even Roy Rogers got beat up by heavies akin to Axis opposition we had fought and by Grace of G overcome. Coroner Creek was noticed by some who sorted westerns in search of unique ones (too few critics did). Fans taking them however they could were pleased, but little more so than with whatever Randy did before or after. Still, Coroner Creek earned above what was typical for the genre at its level … $1.5 million in domestic rentals. So there was reward for added effort, which Scott-Brown would remember when time came for their 50’s “Renown” group, a best brace of westerns any team ever did. Saw Coroner Creek on Starz via Amazon in HD, its Cinecolor enhanced from limits imposed in 1947, but who’s to carp, because it sure looks good. 

COUNT THE HOURS (1953) --- Director Don Siegel remembered this in terms of rush and cheapness, a case with most of what he was hired to helm during the 50's, but with TV biting an industry's rear, how could one spend beyond absolute minimum without stars or a proven property? Count The Hours had neither, being cast with lesser or faded names (MacDonald Carey, Teresa Wright) in an off-the-rack yarn cut from bolt that was Carey's previous The Lawless, which had lost money. He is again the impossibly noble crusader for justice, a lawyer waiving not only his fee, but all of personal funds, to defend a migrant worker accused of double murders. That happens in real life about like Martians landing, but pic-makers had fool ideas of charity among Bar members, thus this and just-as-silly Anatomy of a Murder, in which Jim Stewart went similarly outlandish length on behalf of a client. Count The Hours was independent-produced by Benedict Bogeaus, a jolly-roger sort who didn't mind stiffing partners to save his own slice of cake. Siegel watched him close for fast shuffles and counted hours in terms of a mere nine days it took to complete the pic. Outcome was actually pretty good for one done so quickly, Siegel helped lots by moody lensing by noir master John Alton. Count The Hours needs to be remastered by owning Warners so we can better enjoy it. The RKO-released show had L.A. distinction of supporting sex-changed Christine Jorgensen's stage act at the Orpheum, but still disappointed ticket-wise, according to Variety. It plays occasional on TCM.