Acossado!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.