Cornered (1945)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

John Paxton (screenplay)
John Wexley (story)

Release Date:

25 December 1945 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller | War

Plot:

On being demobbed at the end of the war, Canadian flyer Laurence Gerard returns to France to discover...

Plot Keywords:

Canadian | Concentration Camp | Treason | Aviator | Underground Resistance

Cast

Dick Powell	...	Laurence Gerard
Walter Slezak	...	Melchior Incza
Micheline Cheirel	...	Mme. Madeleine Jarnac(Laurent)
Nina Vale	...	Senora Camargo
Morris Carnovsky	...	Manuel Satana
Edgar Barrier	...	DuBois, Insurance Man
Steven Geray	...	Senor Tomas Camargo
Jack La Rue	...	Diego, Hotel Valet (as Jack LaRue)
Gregory Gaye	...	Perchon, German Banker (as Gregory Gay)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Luther Adler	...	Marcel Jarnac

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (1954) | Sweden:15 | UK:A | USA:Approved (PCA #11040)

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Quotes:

Laurence Gerard: I'll tell you what. I thought it over and decided not to pay any attention to you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Crossfire (1947)

Intrigue in Peronist Argentina

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.