Cornered (1945) User Reviews

An early noir, prototypical in many ways and strong, if confusing, overall

[secondtake · 7/10 · 28 May 2011]

Cornered (1945)

"You can't be serious," the cheerful man said to Dick Powell, playing an ex-soldier in post-war Argentina. "I'm always serious," Powell replies. And he is. This defines the actor, and the character, and the doggedness of this character's pursuit of some mystery in the movie. It's impressive and wearing--a little humor might make him more human, yes, and it would also make the move more watchable. The cheerful man is a mystery, too, played with usual irony and crossed agendas by Walter Slezak (seen in a similar role in "Born to Kill").

Director Edward Dmytryk is as usual just short of superb. I don't think he has a bad film, but he often worked with compromised material (the story here is an example) or he worked too quickly (my guess) to pull together something extraordinary. But putting it this way is meant to say this movie has lots of aspects that are great.

One strength is the section of shots of what looks like genuine war torn France made months after the end of fighting. Another highlight is the film noir style throughout--the lighting, the clipped dialog, the lone man against the world, the brooding depression. Powell is his own kind of attraction. As offputting as his anger can get after awhile, it's exactly what makes him good, bullheaded and bulldozing his way through a complex network of enemies (who would really just kill him in short order if this was a realistic film, which no noir is).

The plot is unusually hard to follow (though other noirs come close, like "The Big Heat"). And the antagonists are largely only talked about--Powell is searching for someone, and that person and his collaborators are either unseen or so duplicitous you don't know where he stands, and so the ominousness gets vague, but also beautifully diffuse and omnipresent. It is this oppressiveness that is part of the success here, even as you get lost with the details of the plot. There are some nice night shots (one briefly in the park is ominous) and many facial close ups. There is a terrific conversation on a subway platform with the noise of the cars drowning out the talk now and then, great audio effect. And so the filming is worth the ride alone at times. The music is intense and dramatic, the bit actors really powerful even if they sometimes do foolish things (the valet getting shot, or half of the things Powell does).

In the film noir "cycle" this is early--the core films come after WWII, so this, along with "Double Indemnity," is cutting edge in that sense. It's also definitive in its mood. It's not a crime film, not a gangster story (which is where the hard film style has its American roots). It's a plot about how a person tries to rearrange his life after having it messed up, internally and externally, by the war. Powell is a perfect early noir leading male (the other famous one in the 1940s is Bogart). So this is a critically important film, maybe more important than truly enjoyable, but if you like noir it'll be terrific enough to hold you. If you aren't predisposed to like this kind of story, you'll find it meandering and dull and confusing. Me? I'm predisposed to like it, and I did, and I'll even watch it again, probably figuring it out a little more and enjoying it better.

Dick Powell in anti-Fascist intrigue in Buenos Aires

[bmacv · 8/10 · 4 February 2002]

Buenos Aires enjoyed a vogue (so far as the movies were concerned) in the mid-1940s, providing the locale for Notorious, Gilda and Edward Dmytryk's Cornered. In all three, it serves as a sort of terminal moraine for Nazi refugees from the shambles of the Axis powers.

Dick Powell continues his transformation from lip-glossed song-and-dance man for Busby Berkeley into a five-o'clock-shadowed tough guy, a makeover he had begun the previous year as Philip Marlowe in Murder, My Sweet (also by Dmytryk). Here he's a Canadian Royal Air Force veteran who ends up in Argentina, via France and Switzerland, on a mission to avenge the murder of his war-bride wife. He enters a whirl of black-tie affairs in cavernous mansions (those Nazis knew how to party) and a nest of duplicity surrounding the mysterious, and presumably dead, war-criminal-in-chief, known as Jarnac -- the object of his deadly hunt. An at-first bewildering cast of sinister operatives gradually sorts itself out into villains (Walter Slezak the most memorable of them) and members of an anti-Fascist group; Powell, the while, skulks along the moonlit streets of the city in pursuit of Jarnac's "widow."

Dmytryk displays his pioneering flair for noir devices, keeping the atmospherics and tension high. He's let down a bit by the murkiness of the plotting, where the political theme emerges and disappears, leaving abstract stretches of suspense that might as easily have taken place in Boston or Bombay. And it's hard to buy into the convention that, in rooms blazing with gunfire, the red-blooded American will always prevail by means of a manly sock to the jaw. Somewhat dated by its wartime politics and its roots in the international-intrigue genre, Cornered remains a solid piece of work by both Dmytryk and Powell.

"Men who pack suitcases make me nervous"

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 11 January 2009]

If it was post-war disillusionment that fuelled the booming film noir movement of the 1940s, then 'Cornered (1945)' might just be the most bitter, disillusioned noir of them all. Though I can't claim to be Edward Dmytryk's greatest fan, I enjoyed 'Murder, my Sweet (1944)' because of its evocative atmosphere and Dick Powell's cocky, swaggering Philip Marlowe. This film gets the atmosphere angle right, but is so utterly devoid of humour that there's little entertainment to be found through watching it. Powell, in his second and final film for the director, seems to be taking the role so seriously that he's almost bored with the material. His exceedingly grim performance has shades of the sleepy-eyed austerity that Robert Mitchum did so well – unfortunately, only Mitchum could ever pull it off correctly. Nevertheless, the shadowy photography of Harry J. Wild {who has many noirs to his credit, including 'The Woman on the Beach (1947),' 'They Won't Believe Me (1947)' and 'Macao (1952)} is predictably gorgeous and enigmatic, re-enforcing the murky themes at the film's heart.

When Canadian pilot Laurence Gerard (Powell) is released from captivity at the end of WWII, he is understandably grief-stricken to learn that his wife has been executed by Nazi conspirators. Though the man responsible, Marcel Jarnac, is presumed dead by authorities, Gerard suspects deception, and travels down to Beunos Aires to uncover the truth. What Gerard encounters is a party of dubious Frenchmen, whose continued loyalty to greed and corruption are keeping the Nazi spirit well-and-truly alive. Our hero's approach is not the most subtle of tactics – he never bothers to hide his true intentions, and so deliberately places his own life in constant jeopardy, rushing determinedly into danger without ever considering the possibility that he's walking straight into a trap. Is Jarnac's beautiful wife (Micheline Cheirel) really as innocent as she claims to be? Is the city's leading "tour guide" (Walter Slezak, in another terrific role) an impartial operator who can be trusted with secret information? Is the German collaborator Jarnac right before Gerard's very nose?

I've always found Dmytryk to be a very workman-like filmmaker, though there's little doubt that his 1940s noirs constitute the creative peak of his career. Clever stylistic touches, like the climactic bashing that slides out of focus in an adrenalin-charged delirium, complement the narrative nicely, and Wild's cinematography can do nothing but enhance the film's merits. However, the story itself dwells too long in gloomy territory, such that there's little of the usual entertainment or invigoration to be derived even from the richly-crafted atmosphere. Only in the blood-soaked climax is Dmytryk able to build up some degree of momentum, and Luther Adler's enigmatic cameo role is certainly memorable; he has a strong, deep voice that occasionally suggests that it is Satan himself speaking diabolically from the shadows. 'Cornered' is a worthwhile film noir, with solid craftsmanship throughout, but the unrepentantly dark tone makes for somewhat empty, unsatisfying viewing. Just like the story it depicts, I suppose. Once the adrenaline of war has worn off, there's nothing left but sadness, regret… and shadows where our loved ones once stood.

Dick Powell stops at nothing to corner the rat that killed his wife...

[RJBurke1942 · 15 February 2007]

Dick Powell was one of those classic Hollywood actors who was so laid back, so cool, so quick with the one-liner that he made most other actors seem positively dull. Even in the tightest of corners, he could always manage a suitable quip – and in this outing (as Laurence Gerard), he has his fair share...

He's ably supported by Walter Slezak (as Melcior Incza – what a name!) who once again plays a double-dealing con artist always looking for the main chance – in this case, trying to make a few more dishonest bucks helping – or is he hindering? -- Gerard track down the dirty traitor Marcel Jarnac (a short but fine performance from Luther Adler) who is responsible for Gerard's wife's death in France towards the end of World War II.

So, the quest in on. Along the way, Gerard travels from London, to France, to Switzerland and finally to Argentina where he finally begins his search in earnest. From that point until the end, the twists and turns in the plot remind me of the confusion that permeated The Big Sleep (1946). Cornered, however, does arrive at a satisfactory conclusion, unlike the Bogart classic which still puzzles viewers today (I've read that even Bogart remained unclear about the plot of The Big Sleep also).

However, back to this one...

Overall, I liked this film for its great use of darkness, shadows, excellent mise-en-scene, as befitting film-noir, and the sharp dialog; I thought, however, the pacing of the story was a bit slow at times and that some of the cuts were often very jerky, thus resulting in uneven narrative transitions. And the really big omission is the absence of an effective femme fatale. The rest of the production was okay and, for 1945, was equal to other B-movies of the genre.

Dick Powell went on to do more film noir (Johnny O'Clock, Pitfall, Rogues' Regiment and others) until 1954 when he opted for the emerging TV juggernaut. So, if you've missed this one up till now, it's worth the 102 minutes out of your life just to listen to Dick Powell and watch him grimace while he cracks sardonic jokes...

Corner flick...

[Lejink · 7/10 · 29 November 2011]

I really enjoyed this war-set film noir with avenging angel Dick Powell continent-hopping to track down the shadowy Nazi commander who ordered the killing of his young wife.

The plot is a bit labyrinthine and probably peopled with too many characters but director Dymytrk keeps up the tension throughout and genuflects regularly in the direction of film noir with shadowy shots a-plenty, a mysterious woman who may or not be on Powell's side as well as Powell's turn himself as a sort of amateur private eye, getting deeper and deeper out of his depth as he closes in, he thinks, on his prey.

Powell doesn't do hangdog like Bogart or style like Grant, but he's deadpan and feisty by turns and does a reasonable job carrying the film from chapter to chapter. I also liked Walter Slezak as a sort of younger version of Sydney Greenstreet, trying to play both ends against each other but coming a cropper by the end as two quite grisly murders are enacted for us.

I liked the early location shots in war torn Europe and was otherwise satisfied too, with director Dymytrk doing a good job keeping the plates all spinning and who intelligently treats this terse thriller with a bit more attention to detail than other more slapdash filmmakers.

I'll watch almost every noir film I can as it's probably my favourite movie type and consider this effort, if occasionally a touch on the dry side, nevertheless a fine example of this particular genre.

classic entertainment

[gergtj · 7/10 · 2 January 2002]

I really enjoyed this film, but i thought that it could've been edited tighter. The run time was a little too long, and a tighter edit would've helped the film greatly. It also would've been nice to have a bigger female star for the main female character. Hedy Lamarr would've been my first choice. But overall, i was very impressed with the film and thought that Dick Powell's performance was strong. He showed a greater range of emotions than i've seen in other Powell films.

Bleak, Bitter & Brutal

[seymourblack-1 · 7/10 · 10 January 2013]

"Cornered" is a bleak, bitter and brutal revenge thriller about a surly Canadian pilot who, at the end of World War 11, embarks on a manhunt which takes him from England to France Switzerland and eventually Buenos Aires. The plot is very convoluted, many of the relatively large number of characters look suspicious and the villain of the piece is difficult to trace (especially as no-one seems to know what he looks like). All of these elements together had the potential to make this a very confusing movie, but the fact that it isn't, is due to the skillful direction of Edward Dmytryk who brings crispness and clarity to the action as well as a good deal of suspense.

After completing his military service at the end of World War 11, Lieutenant Laurence Gerard (Dick Powell) discovers that his French wife, Celeste (who he'd only been married to for 20 days), had been executed on the orders of a Nazi collaborator called Marcel Jarnac (Luther Adler). Jarnac, as an official of the Vichy government, had been responsible for the executions of numerous French patriots but had been declared dead. On learning how his wife had died, Gerard swears to hunt down and kill Jarnac. He doesn't buy the story about his death, especially as Jarnac's a man who nobody anywhere seems to be able to identify.

Following reports that Jarnac had been trapped in a house somewhere near Marseilles; Gerard visits the site and discovers documents that enable him to pursue his investigations further and he finds that Madame Madeleine Jarnac (Micheline Cheirel) has a residence in Buenos Aires. When he arrives at Buenos Aires airport, he's met by an obese man called Melchior Incza (Walter Slezak) who claims to be a tour guide and surprisingly seems to know who Gerard is. Despite Gerard's initial hostility, Incza proves to be useful as he is able to introduce him to Madame Jarnac and her circle of friends.

Gerard's investigations become increasingly difficult as he finds it impossible to know who to trust, Madame Jarnac's unpredictable nature and the circumstances of her marriage limit severely the amount of help that she can provide and the presence of Nazi supporters and a group of characters, who are allegedly trying to bring them to justice, only complicate matters further. Despite this, Gerard perseveres until he eventually tracks down his quarry.

Dick Powell's performance is significant in the context of his career because, after initially being known as a song-and-dance man who appeared in light comedies, it reaffirmed his ability to be convincing in hardboiled roles. As Gerard, he's consistently grim, angry and abrasive and the type of guy who's so driven that he habitually takes rash actions without thinking too deeply about what he's doing. The supporting cast provide rather uneven contributions but Walter Slezak does stand out as the larger-than-life Incza who's extremely crooked and untrustworthy but also adds some much appreciated colour to the proceedings.

"Cornered" is strong on intrigue and atmosphere and the cinematography is wonderful. It's also very intense and contains a couple of particularly brutal episodes which are surprising to see in a film which was made in the 1940s.

good noir starring Dick Powell

[blanche-2 · 7/10 · 12 September 2010]

It seems as if Dick Powell is almost forgotten today, which is a shame. A wonderful actor, singer, and incredible producer, he gave Sam Peckinpah and Aaron Spelling their starts, and his "Dick Powell Theatre" on TV was marvelously entertaining. Unfortunately, cancer would take him at the age of 59. But he packed a lot into those years.

Transitioning out of the Warner Brothers singing juvenile, Powell made "Murder, My Sweet" with the same director responsible for "Cornered," Edward Dmytryk, who would find himself blacklisted later on. Here, Powell plays a Canadian flyer, Laurence Gerard, who goes to France after the war to find out who is responsible for his wife's death. He learns it is a Vichy collaborator, Marcel Jarnac, now dead himself. Gerard doubts that Jarnac is dead, and his search for Jarnac takes Gerard to Argentina, where many Nazis have settled. Before long, Gerard realizes that he is unable to trust anyone, even those who claim to want to help him.

This is a very good movie, which also stars Walter Slezak as a man who sells information, as well as two Broadway stars, Luther Adler and Morris Carnovsky. Carnovsky was named as a communist by Elia Kazan but enjoyed a great stage career, dying at the age of 94.

Well worth seeing for the good performances, direction, and story.

A Noir Masterpiece

[abooboo-2 · 10/10 · 26 May 2001]

If "The Maltese Falcon" represents the birth of what came to be known as Film Noir, and the war years were its childhood, then certainly this is its first bittersweet kiss. The writer, John Paxton, and the director Edward Dmytryk, seem charged up, electrified by the aftershocks of the just ended war. Characters are sharply drawn and unusually articulate, possessing a clarity of thought and emotional precision that's rare. "I'd rather have it quick than carefully" Dick Powell's Canadian flyer turned vengeful sleuth says at one point.

The Swiss watch plot is intricate and exhausting. When it's finally over you have the elated feeling that you've just completed a marathon and come in first. No one can be trusted. Everyone has a card up their sleeve and a gun in the top drawer. Just in case. Shadows, prying eyes, lonely dimly lit streets, whispered mistruths partially overheard but only half understood; that's what this film is about. Some have done it as well but none have done it better. The sense of claustrophobia, of walls closing in is overwhelming, particularly during one gripping scene set in an underground railway. Dmytryk whips you from one locale to the next, globe-hopping from London to Paris to Argentina, until you're dizzy. It's almost as if a world ravaged by war has become Powell's own personal trash heap, at the bottom of which may or may not be what he is looking for.

Powell is terse, tight-lipped and intractable, a quintessential Noir "hero", as the man desperately searching for the enigmatic Nazi collaborator responsible for his French wife's death. He shrugs off an onslaught of manipulative rhetoric and deception, trusting no one, cold-blooded revenge his only goal. But the real acting honors have to go to Walter Slezak, who is every bit as venal, calculating and cosmopolitan (not to mention plump) as Sidney Greenstreet was in "Falcon". A terrific performance. I also liked the way Luther Adler, on screen for less than five minutes but in a pivotal role, gets so much mileage out of a single raised eyebrow.

Post war disillusionment at its most raw and immediate. Virtually flawless.

The Wartime Paranoia Hangover

[JoeB131 · 7/10 · 24 May 2011]

This film was released within months of the end of World War II, and one suspects that it just showed a world that couldn't quite live without the paranoia it had lived on for a half a decade.

The plot is that a Canadian pilot is looking for the Vichy collaborator who ordered the death of his French wife ("A bit too skinny, having been squeezed in between two wars" he describes her.) He is caught up in a web of collaborators and self-serving people trying to wiggle their way past world war II and into the Cold War, I guess.

Powell is pretty good in this, showing the effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome before we gave it a fancy name. The notion that Fascism and Nazism had gone to ground was a bit silly. Anyone who got there was just trying to escape a bad decision, not try again.

Still, a fun movie to watch, it keeps your interest.

A talky disappointment.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 21 March 2010]

In 1944, Dick Powell made MURDER MY SWEET. It was perhaps his greatest performance and a welcome change from his pretty-boy crooner image earlier in his career. Playing Phillip Marlow, he was tough, sarcastic and mesmerizing. So, not surprisingly, when I learned that a year later he made another gritty noir-like film (CORNERED), I had to see it. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a very talky disappointment.

Powell plays a Canadian pilot was had been shot down in Occupied France during the war. There, he met a woman and married . Ultimately, however, he was caught and imprisoned by the Germans and she was killed by some French informer. When the film begins, the war is over and Powell is determined to find the informer and make him pay with his life.

The trail, however, is quite cold in France. But, on a lark, he learns that the man MIGHT be in Argentina and simply blunders into a pack of ex-Nazis and Nazi sympathize s like a drunk goat in an antique shop! Again and again, Powell's character comes off as just plain stupid--showing no grace or style--just punching and blindly walking into one dangerous mess after another. And, as a Hollywood film, he's able to miraculously avoid death again and again! In addition to Powell's very poorly written character, the film fails ultimately and is completely mediocre due to its very, very talky script. While there is some action, there isn't nearly enough and most of the time the film just consists of Powell talking to people and the people, naturally, lying. The script simply didn't rise to the occasion and this dark film is flat.

Intrigue in Peronist Argentina

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 5 September 2005]

Another commentator remarked that there were a few films set in Buenos Aires, Argentina about former Nazis operating there. Well it was the Argentina at that time of Juan and Evita Peron.

Peron's Argentina never declared war on Germany until 1945 when the issue was no longer in doubt. He had a delicate diplomatic problem on his hands. He wanted to make it hospitable for his former friends, but he also didn't want Argentina isolated from the rest of the hemisphere.

So Peron's problems really became the basis for films like Cornered where Dick Powell as a former Canadian Air Force flier goes there seeking the French Vichy collaborator who was responsible for many deaths in his town including Powell's wife. Powell ain't about diplomacy and could care less about the diplomatic niceties. He's there almost in a Kirk Douglas like rage to find his wife's killer.

The producer/director team of Adrian Scott and Edward Dmytryk who had previously filmed Powell's noir debut in Murder My Sweet also guided Powell and a good cast through Cornered. One element retained from Murder My Sweet is the fact that through most of the film Powell is encountering some shady characters who he's not sure about at all in relation to his deadly quest.

Walter Slezak has a role of an information peddler which he does very well by. It's almost a reprise of what George Coulouris did in Watch on the Rhine and we all know what happened to Coulouris. Slezak is always good.

Luther Adler plays with appropriate menace the object of Powell's quest and when they do meet what happens to Adler will chill you to the marrow of your bones.

Cornered is a great piece of film making, but not one for the squeamish.

Men who pack suitcases make me nervous

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 29 October 2008]

**MAJOR SPOILERS** Following up his success the year before as the hard boiled private eye Philip Marlow in "Murder my Sweet" Dick Powell is now an avenging angle type ex Canadian air force POW Larry Gerard. Larry is out to get the man responsible for the execution style murder of his young 20 year old wife and some 50 members of the French Resistance.

The film "Cornered" has Larry Gerard track down former Vichy French Nazi collaborator Marcel Jarnac, Luther Adler,to Buenos Aires Argentina via Bern Switzerland. It's in Buenos Aires that Garard gets caught up with a cryptic Fascist gang, mostly Vichy French, of wannabe Nazis. As it turns out these bozos are actually planning to take over the world by starting another world war within the next five years. It's no surprise to anyone watching that the person who heads this despicable gang of warmongering Fascists is non other then the man Gerard is trying to find and rub out Marcel Jarnac!

The movie never quite makes it clear what exactly this Jarnac is really all about in making him out to be far more then what he really is; an on the run war criminal wanted by the allies to stand trial for his crimes. The fact that Jarnac isn't really a Nazi or even German supporter of the Hitler Regime makes you wonder why he's so interested in bringing the Third Reich back into business after it, as he says, was plastered off the face of the earth by the victorious allies? All Jarnac should have been interested in is in saving his rotten neck from the noose, or guillotine, that was being prepared for him by the French Government.

As for Gerard he gets involved with a number of unsavory characters in Argentina including this two timing fat guy Meichior Incza, Walter Slezak, who tries to play both ends against the middle in manipulating Gerard as well as Jarnac. In the end the grossly overweight and sweaty Incza not only loses face but his entire head in doing that.

Gerard also has a number of international Nazi hunters get sidetracked in finding arresting and bringing to justice Jarnac and his motley crew by not only blowing their cover, by being so out in the open in finding Jarnac, but having one of their undercover men hotel valet waiter and busboy Diago,Jack La Rue, get blown away by the panicky Incza!

Jarnac himself, after he steps out of the shadows, is anything but the great criminal mastermind that he's made out to be in the movie. Obnoxious and arrogant beyond belief Jarnac ends up getting the hell, and life, beat out of him by a battered and barley conscious Gerard! This after Jarnac just about alienated or murdered whatever few numbskull's who were still willing or stupid enough to help him.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 3/10 · 7 July 2005]

A relatively intriguing bit of film noir, done in a smart, even if quite familiar, fashion - the way in which lightness and darkness are used, and some good camera angles, definitely enhance the experience. It is a bit on the dreary side though, and the plot is at times difficult to follow. The protagonist's motivations are never fully developed either, because inasmuch as he must have loved his wife, would he really go to all the trouble that he does in the film? Still, it is quite interesting stuff, even when it drags, and Jack La Rue has a great little menacing role, although sadly insufficient time on screen.

Pardon Me, But is That a Nazi in your Burrito?

[dougdoepke · 9 November 2008]

Just count the number of daylight scenes in this unusually dense and dark slice of international intrigue. No doubt about it, noir has come to South America. And by golly, revenge-obsessed Laurence Gerard (Dick Powell) is going to track down his wife's killer, a Nazi collaborator, even if he has to turn Argentina upside down. And what's more, he's about as humorlessly driven as any grim character from that grim decade.

As good as Powell is, it's Walter Slezak as the slippery operative Melchior Incza who steals the show. I've seen the movie several times and I still can't figure out what side he's on. But never mind, he's all either oily politeness or hulking menace, to the point that for once I enjoyed watching a bloody beating. In fact, the 90 minutes is full of sinister foreign types, all polished gentlemen sporting high-class suits and slinky ladies modeling 40's high fashion. Nonetheless, you may need a scorecard to keep track of who's winning.

There are a number of nice touches, but maybe the most inventive is the subway scene. Gerard is trying to get important information from the untrustworthy Mme. Jarnac. Okay, she seems ready to cooperate and he's warily hanging on every word. But before she can complete a sentence, a noisy train rumbles by. They wait. She tries again. Same thing. Could it be that the Nazis are running the Buenos Aires subway? Of course, by this time the frustration has spread to the audience who may never ride a subway again.

The movie's message comes at the end and is reflective of the time (1945). Gerard may be pursuing justice, but the allies who help him are chasing Nazism itself. Following war's end, the survivors have escaped to Latin America and must be apprehended before the Third Reich festers all over again. (In fact, the West was unsure of Hitler's actual demise until 1956 when the Soviets finally released conclusive proof that he hadn't escaped his bunker.)

The identity of these pursuers is never disclosed, probably a touchy topic given the politics of writers Wexler and Paxton, subsequent victims of the Hollywood blacklist. In fact, the whole production crew reads like a Who's Who of the list, including producer Scott and director Dmytryk, two members of the high-profile Ten. Seems odd, finding Republican- conservative Powell in this leftish mix-- but then it's true that the war had enlisted Americans of all political stripes.

Politics aside, it's a crackling good yarn, even if a bit heavy-going at times. And for fans of noir, the lighting comes across as a textbook of shadow and menace. So much so, I doubt that the electricity bill for the entire production exceeded 10 bucks. Sure, the details seem dated but the sinister characters, passionate convictions, and convoluted schemes still entertain.

decent little movie

[cherold · 7/10 · 19 March 2005]

Sometimes I'm watching a movie and I think, wait, have I seen this before? This seems familiar. And then something else happens and I think, I don't remember that. And the whole movie I'm going back and forth. Cornered is one of those movies. Either I saw it years ago, which is probably the case, or it's a lot like a movie I've seen before.

I was never totally sucked into this movie, in part because I kept thinking, I've seen this before, it's not worth seeing twice. The best thing about it is Powell, who is effective as a world weary, bitter man. And Slezak is always good. It is also somewhat interesting to see a Canadian bull in a china shop instead of the usual American bull in a china shop. Worth watching once, anyway.

Film-Noir Celebrates V-Day

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 16 July 2012]

Early entry in the film-noir cycle and taking place in a "real-time" post war milieu, this one has the odd distinction of not having any Americans in the story. Even our beleaguered War Hero is Canadian. This was a trend that developed during the war as the world began to shrink rapidly and we all became Earth citizens.

The darkness and ambiguity of the film is by design. Although the Axis had been defeated it did not come without a very heavy toll. Here the psychological pain manifesting itself in dizziness and headaches slows down but does not stop our angry, bitter, revenge seeking husband from taking on what's left of the "scum, not salt, of the earth".

Some very typical cynical dialog and fast talking back and forth keep things moving, as does the interesting lighting and claustrophobic sets that "corner" this joyless juggernaut as he stumbles through a maze of deception to defeat not only the murderers of his wife but the enemies of the free world and their diabolical determination.

Heavy going, deep and convoluted plot developments, and wordy transitions make for an uneasy visionary venture infected with PTSD. This is how film-noir celebrated V-Day.

"Anyone with a guilty conscience will make a mistake sometime"

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 6 June 2022]

Dick Powell savours his newly tough forties persona as a former Canadian wartime fighter pilot in a crew cut in this tortuous drama of a bleakness befitting a film produced and directed by two of the Hollywood Ten. As Powell's quarry a saturnine young Luther Adler is well worth the wait.

like the noir premise

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 10 February 2022]

Canadian air force pilot Laurence Gerard (Dick Powell) returns to post-war France to find his resistant fighter bride had been murdered by Marcel Jarnac. Marcel was a Vichy collaborator who is presumed dead. He decides to investigate on his own which leads to Buenos Aires.

I like the setup and the premise. The path is winding and the turns get complicated. I would have liked some more violence early on and a plot that is much more straight forward. It should be a simpler quest as he uncovers the underbelly of fascist politics. This is still pretty good and it's great to have a Nazi hunt so quickly after the war.

Postwar Noir is Dark and Gritty...even in Daylight

[liambean · 8/10 · 12 August 2017]

A lot of the Hayes code seems destined for the trash heap in this film. We see women who are obviously willing to sleep with our protagonist. There's blood. There are bodies, right out in the open. Burned up or riddled with bullet holes, there they are. One of our characters gets slugged in the mouth and we see a bloody drizzle escaping his lips.

Yes, the Hayes code took a beating with this one.

There are dark, sinister looks, from dark sinister people. Gerard (Powell) is surrounded by murderous people and we don't know who is for him or against him. At least not until the end of the film.

This one film is proof positive that the innocence of America is long gone. No one is smiling. No one is truly happy. Everyone is on edge because, even though the war is over, our cast is headed for a long torturous road to normalcy. We are all hoping they make it.

During the war, Gerard (Powell) is returned to friendly territory were he recovers from his wounds. While in hospital, he receives a letter from his wife's father, telling him that his wife is dead. Gerard knows something isn't right and that "Dad" isn't telling the whole story.

He applies for a visa and is told a background check (his) will take a month. He returns to France illegally, to get answers. And thus the fun begins.

This is excellent film noir told from the perspective of writers, a director, and producer who have been affected by real war.

It shows.

Taking "Hard Bitten" to a new level

[hagan_family · 7/10 · 24 May 2020]

I've watched "Cornered" several times, having seen Dick Powell in most of his pre-noir performances as an upscale Kenny Baker. My admiration for the creativity, intrigue, mystery, acting, direction, and dialog is marred only by the unnecessarily over-the-top impatient, remorselessly humorless, vengeful and unnaturally adolescent portrayal of LT Gerard. It's SO over the top that it distracts from the plot and character to the detriment of a very well-structured storyline, direction and other actors' portrayals. I very much "get" fatally-disillusioned dark characters in noir ... but IMO this performance 'detracts' rather than 'intrigues.' This distraction is what makes me drop a 9-10 rating to a 7 overall. Even the brief PTSD-like exchange on the subway platform with the "Mme Jarnac" character doesn't fully

Clearly, the acting "star" of the piece is Walter Slezak (Incza) ... a sleazy, double-dealing weasel in a badly tailored suit who knows a little too much while claiming to know too little. His character is the glue that keeps the plot on track, even as it spirals up into increasing complexity.

From the female characters, I was impressed most by the slinky Sra Camargo (Nina Vale) who slithered in and out of each scene with a poise and self-assurance of one who knows her effect on men. She has a little of Gale Sondergaard's exotic, amoral seductiveness and she exploits those qualities to the max.

Overall, the film is VERY watchable, very noir and nearly unpredictable to the very end. Overall, I highly recommend this to any viewer who loves noir and who loves Dick Powell's reincarnation into the hard-boiled character which he excelled at portraying.

'They don't consider themselves to be defeated.'

[robert-temple-1 · 5/10 · 18 April 2010]

This film, made immediately after the War, is about fleeing Nazis and Vichy collaborators. They are succinctly described in the dialogue by someone who says of them: 'They don't consider themselves to be defeated.' And that was true of those who escaped. Indeed, the post-War phase of Nazism could be described as the metastasis of Nazism. Deprived of their original host body, Germany, which had finally died as a result of their having infected it, they spread throughout the larger body of the world, like carcinoma cells, lodging wherever they could, and proliferating when possible, aided by all their stolen gold which had been looted from all the capitals of Europe. (A lot of it was smuggled out of Germany in tanks of hazardous chemicals.) Their primary destinations were Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, and Argentina. Switzerland and Argentina are the ones featured in this story, most of which takes place in Buenos Aires (though it is entirely a studio set where everyone speaks English and no one seems to know any Spanish!) The film was directed by Ed Dmytryk, a passionate Nazi-hater who was later black-listed by Hollywood for his left wing sympathies. Because of his long-standing political persuasion, he was that much more alert to metastastic Nazism than most people of the time, who were simply glad for the War to be over and who naively imagined than 'over' meant 'over'. There are a few purple passages in the script which sound as if they were lifted from a political pamphlet. The lead character is played by Dick Powell, a solemn-jowled actor who does not show any humour or even politeness. He plays a demobbed Lieutenant Colonel of the Canadian Air Force who has come out of imprisonment and hospital, slightly dazed and shell-shocked, to discover that his French wife Céleste, who was a young Resistance fighter in France, has been betrayed and murdered by Vichy collaborators, along with many of her companions, including even the priest who had married them. Powell goes berserk and wants vengeance. His French father-in-law tries to restrain him but cannot, and Powell charges off to Berne where he picks up a trail to Argentina to pursue the man responsible, a mysterious figure known as Marcel Jarnac (played in arch-sinister fashion by Luther Adler), who had been a close aide to Pétain. In trying to locate the elusive Jarnac, who is supposed to be dead but is not really dead, he traces Madame Jarnac. However, there is a hitch: she is not really Madame Jarnac at all but has been pressured into pretending to be Jarnac's 'widow', while having never even met Jarnac herself. Certainly that is an unusual plot twist for such stories. She is played by the French actress Micheline Cheirel, a fragile-looking creature with a vulnerable face who was married to John Loder just before his marriage to Hedy Lamarr. She stopped making films two years later, in 1947. In this film, Walter Slezak has a prominent role playing an unscrupulous and dishonest fixer for the Nazis, and Morris Carnovsky does one of his solid and reliable characters who in this case is a Nazi-hunter. Nina Vale is a rather over the top vamp. The story is corny and unconvincing in many ways. Powell charges around like a mad dog flashing a gun and letting everyone know he wants to find Jarnac and kill him. His behaviour is so outrageously stupid that one really has no sympathy for him at all. In any case, he scowls all the time, which becomes tiresome as his one expression. As someone tries to warn him: 'You cannot catch a trout by standing on the river bank and shouting at the top of your voice "I am a great fisherman!"' However, Powell does not get the message. He continues on his rampage, blundering, getting things wrong, insulting everyone, and generally behaving like a moron. I suppose he is meant to be some kind of anti-hero. The film is deeply disappointing.

Dick Powell on the hunt for the needle of his wife's killer in more than one haystack and getting constantly caught redhanded.

[clanciai · 9/10 · 30 December 2017]

Dick Powell made his name in silly musicals in the 30s before he under Edward Dmytryk's direction suddenly turned into a hard-boiled cleaner in murky business with plenty of fisticuffs, as in "Murder, My Sweet", the first real noir. He suffered for it even then, but here he gets into constantly double trouble investigating a mess of things that all the time gets more messy and intricate, as he searches for his wife's killer after the war first rowing across to France, making visits to Marseille and Berne and ending up with the final mess in Buenos Aires at the mercy of sophisticated posh people and two very beautiful ladies, while it's impossible even for the audience to guess who, if anyone, isn't a gangster. He gets tremendous use of both his knuckles and his gun, he is after all a military officer with a record of having got shot down a number of times, but he doesn't make things easier for himself by constantly blustering in, picking quarrels, insulting everyone and making himself impossible all over society by a clinical lack of any sense of humour - only once there is a faint shadow of a smile on his lips. Walter Slezak has every right to constantly call him a stupid fool, and every time he is called by that name he adds to deserving it.

But it is a very intriguing story, as usual in Edward Dmytryk's films, which makes it worth watching with interest, as you are constantly more bewildered by the confusing intrigue getting all the time more knotted up, and not until the very end it all makes sense after all. The intrigue is thickening until it bursts open with a vengeance, and then at last you can even forgive Dick Powell his irrational clumsiness. He was only married for twenty days, his wife wasn't even beautiful, and it's difficult to understand why he would commit himself with immense pains to a wild goose chase across the world just to get a revenge, which only is explained by his incorrigibly hard and impossible character. It would be interesting to see the final bill for his France-Argentina berserk trip.

POWELL IS UNDERSERVED HERE...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 19 December 2021]

Another Dick Powell adventure from 1945 directed by Edward Dmytryk (Crossfire/Murder, My Sweet). Reuniting w/Dmytryk from Murder, Powell plays a recent Canadian veteran from WWII who finds out his wife was murdered. He decides to track down the culprit which leads him to South America & a boiling stew filled w/intrigue & betrayal. Powell is his usual laconic best worming his way from one deceitful player to another but what's missing is fun. No matter how many times another character gets the best of him, he's always quick on the trigger w/a quip or a back handed compliment but here the dourness & severity of his wife's murder (to a woman he was married to for less than a month another character reasons) hangs a pall on the proceedings even though confession time, the proceedings are exceedingly well done.

In a confused corner

[TheLittleSongbird · 5/10 · 10 May 2019]

Watched 'Cornered', having recently watched another Edward Dmytryk and Dick Powell collaboration 'Farewell, My Lovely' (aka 'Murder, My Sweet') and loving it. So hopefully understandably, a large part of me was hoping that it would be the same with 'Cornered'. Do think that it is hard not to love a film and have high expectations for another film to feature the same director, actor or both. There have been numerous cases in film of that happening, and there are examples of repeated collaborations that work and others that don't.

'Cornered' unfortunately fits in the latter and was rather disappointing, neither Powell or Dmytryk come off badly but there is not the same spark here that there was in 'Farewell, My Lovely'. Not down to them, both of them are among the film's better assets, but with the mixed results of the rest of the film. These are my own views, and with only having read a few reviews from trusted sources, the critical reception mixed just to say. 'Cornered' is competent and is far from a mess, but there are some big flaws here and ones that could have been easily avoidable.

Dmytryk directs skilfully and consummately. Powell gives another performance that is successful in the harder, tougher edge sort of roles and shying away from his musical roles, his best moments were pretty electric. Walter Slezak was the clear supporting cast stand out, his duplicity both entertaining and sinister.

It looks slick and stylish with a touch of eeriness, while the score has a haunting moodiness. The script has many moments of tautness and fun.

Sadly, 'Cornered' is let down by too many big problems summed up already. It does run too long, with some scenes feeling over-stretched and not always necessary, and really could have done with a tightening up in terms of pacing. There is evidence of some suspense, but the story does tend to be over-complicated that it becomes very muddled that the viewer loses track.

Although Powell, Slezak and the male cast in general fare well, the female roles are significantly less interesting and are actually rather blandly performed and underwritten. Character motivations and such also could have been much clearer, with the film trying to pack in a lot and go from point to point while not going into enough detail.

Concluding, competent but underwhelming. 5/10