Maschere e pugnali

Oftenly overlooked and seemingly forgotten Fritz Lang's WWII espionage thriller. Although passable by Lang's standards, but entertaining enough for die hard noir and spy genre enthusiasts. This film is most notable because of being one of the first mainstream movies with anti-nuclear attitude. Lot of that was cut out from final film of course.

'Cloak and Dagger' is war time melodrama in dark espionage sauce - there is romance, there action, there are thrills. Still the film feels little uneven at places. Gary Cooper's performance as professor Jesper was cool and charming, but at places he seemed too skilled and experienced as an secret agent opposed that he supposed to be just scientist inexperienced at secret agent field. That kind of gives the film James Bond like fairy tale super agent feel. Not that is a bad thing itself.

Fritz Lang is one of those directors whom every film I want to see, and 'Cloak and Dagger' didn't disappoint me at all. Entertaining flick with enough juice to nail the viewer to the screen from beginning to end.

Conventional and slick spy-thriller set during wartime from Fritz Lang at his best. However , Warner Bros reedited the movie into an usual spy melodrama with some action and intrigue . It deals with a scientific enlisted by the secret service and undertaking dangerous adventures throughout Europe . During the last years of WW2 the US learn that the Nazis are investigating an atomic power so the OSS (organization strategic services) asks for help to University Professor Alvah Jasper (Gary Cooper), an American scientist leading the way to atomic bomb development in the USA . They assign him to go to Europe to meet Dr. Polda (Vladimir Sokoloff), an atomic scientist being kidnapped by the Nazis and he is helping them to build the bomb . As Jesper working for the OSS must bring him to the United States, but he first must meet up with his old professor from college Dr. Katerin Lodor (Helen Thimig) who explains him that Polda is in Italy . Then there happens a shockingly casual execution . Later on , Jasper must go to Italy in search of the scientist. In Italy he is accompanied by a group of Italian guerrilla fighters led by a brave American (Robert Alda) and a valiant resistance fighter named Gina (Lilly Palmer). After that , Jasper has a brutal fight (Marc Lawrence) against a Nazi in an alley . And of course Jesper gets the girl and both of whom fall in love for each other.

Interesting espionage film about the dangers of the atomic age with an intrepid physicist who becomes into secret agent working for the O.S.S . Good performance of Cooper as scientist who spend most of the time trotting round Germany , Switzerland and Italy ensuring the Germans don't obtain the atomic bomb . An attractive Lilly Palmer steals the show as sensible female fighter Gina , someone with whom Cooper forms an enjoyable bond in part because she brings out him sensitive qualities . Considered talent involved at the movie as the classic musician Max Steiner who composes a fine score and atmospheric cinematography in black and white by Sol Polito . The version filmed by Fritz Lang was considerably more strong and exciting carrying on to suggest that German scientific has discovered the secret of atomic bomb and escaped with it to Argentina , then Warner Bros got into the act and cut it .The film belong to the Lang's trilogy about Nazi time along with ¨Man hunt¨and ¨Hangmen also die¨. Lang directed masterfully all kind of genres as Noir cinema as ¨Big heat , Scarlet Street and Beyond a reasonable doubt¨ , Epic as ¨Nibelungs¨, suspense as ¨Secret beyond the door, Clash by night¨ and Western as ¨Rancho Notorious and Return of Frank James ¨ .This standard espionage drama with some good and thrilling moments will appeal to Gary Cooper fans .

While this is probably the first Fritz Lang film I wasn't overwhelmingly impressed with (well, maybe Siegfried, too), it does have a couple of things that make it really worth watching. Cooper's fury as a scientist early on in the movie railing against the amount of money the government pays for the development of killing machines, as opposed to curing diseases and making the world a better place, is beautiful and gave me chills. It's an incredibly powerful expression of grief and outrage in the wake of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (this movie came out only a year after the end of the war). Also, there's an INCREDIBLE fight scene late in the movie, in which Cooper's character (who's really a professor, and just an ordinary man, not a hardened fighter) struggles with an Italian spy. I don't think Lang is known for his fight scenes, but this one is a masterpiece. There's no Jackie Chan flying over tables, swinging on chandeliers, or kicking people through walls; instead, you have an ordinary man struggling with a somewhat superior opponent, in a very realistic, very brutal fight scene. A lot of small, practical self-defense moves I remember my dad teaching me when I was young are employed in this fight, including stomping on someone's instep and a couple of simple arm grapples. The action is extremely believable and practical, and the combat is savage, between two men fighting desperately for their lives. No one watches Fritz Lang movies for the fight scenes, but this one's really one of the highlights of this otherwise "eh" film--it's extremely well-done, and very surprising for a 1940s movie.

One of 'Cloak and Dagger's' biggest attractions was having Fritz Lang as its director, have said more than once about liking Lang a lot as a director and this film does nothing to change my mind. Of the cast, Gary Cooper is the most familiar name to me and while there are performances of his that are great there are a few that are not so good. The story sounded really interesting on paper and sounded like it would be a very atmospheric film.

'Cloak and Dagger', when seeing it, could easily have been very run of the mill and very routine. Instead, to me on the most part it was really quite gripping. While 'Cloak and Dagger' is not one of Lang's best films, not by a long shot, and there are better spy thrillers out there, but it is still well done and better than a lot of similarly themed films from around this period and doesn't do anything to squander Lang's or Cooper's talents (a good thing, wastes of talent get on my nerves).

Very atmospheric photography is an obvious good point, and the same goes for the lighting. Both add to the film's bleak atmosphere. Lang directs with great skill, didn't get the sense that he was bored or unsure of what he was doing, instead in control of the material and getting much out of it as possible. The script doesn't ramble or feel melodramatic, with it feeling as tight and cohesive as ought generally. The story more often than not is dripping in tension, at its best nail-biting, and the time that the film is set in is superbly portrayed in a frighteningly bleak manner and not shying away.

There is one fight scene that is particularly tense. Cooper does very well in his role once he warmed into it. Lilli Palmer excels even better in a sensitive performance as a character just as interesting. Everybody else is solid, with Robert Alda being especially memorable.

Unfortunately, 'Cloak and Dagger' does start off a bit too sluggishly and uncertain, would go as far to say routine.

While the central relationship settles believably once things get going (which it took perhaps a little too much time to do so), it wasn't one that settled straightaway and took time to. The music is too intrusive in volume and tone, over-emphasising the mood.

Altogether, solid film if not a great one. 7/10

I have a sort of mission to track down and see all of Fritz Lang's American movies and welcomed the opportunity to watch this post Second World War Drama starring Gary Cooper. The film has its longueurs but on the whole tells a good story and contains at least one memorable set-piece by the great director.

Cooper's Hollywood roles tended to fall into two broad categories - shy bumbling whiter-than-white innocents ( see "Mr Deeds...", "Meet John Doe" or "Ball Of Fire") or calm, grace-under-pressure heroes like here. For me he does both equally well and while you can see that the man has aged as he enters the twilight of his career, he still carries off with aplomb the lead role. He also convinces in his relationship with his younger love interest, Lilli Palmer, who besides her good looks, displays maturity and sensitivity in her role as a behind-the-lines Resistance fighter.

The story has a topical theme too, the race to the Atomic bomb and Coop's character gets in a hefty diatribe early on about the perverse uses that science is being put to by men before he's drafted by an old comrade, now in the American secret service, to attempt to rescue a pair of fellow-scientists from enforced collaboration with the Nazis.

For me the story hangs together well, the acting as indicated, is good and the cinematography throughout is fine. The story does drag a bit in the middle as Cooper and Palmer start to get to know each other but is enlivened by the memorable "dirty-fight" between Cooper (and Palmer) with a pursuing enemy agent. No hay-maker punches here with enhanced sound effects, instead the fight encompasses face-gauging and finger bending before erstwhile peace-loving scientist Cooper dispatches his protagonist by strangulation. Lang then piles on the suspense with a scene reminiscent of "M" as a little boy's ball innocently bounces to where the fresh corpse lies, threatening discovery, only for Cooper to quickly improvise a cover-up. The fight scene (indeed some of the plot elements too) surely entered Hitchcock's thoughts when he produced his 1960's Cold War thriller "Torn Curtain".

Lang also doesn't shirk the brutalities of war, for instance the German nurse's brutal slaying of elderly, maternal scientist number one and the casual announcement later by a female Nazi agent that the second scientist's kidnapped daughter has also been cold-bloodedly slain.

On the whole a good, solid movie, not without faults but another worthy entry on my Lang-watch list.