The Dark Corner (Fox Film Noir)
by Henry Hathaway
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Clifton Webb, Kurt Kreuger, Lucille Ball, Mark Stevens, William BendixDirector: Henry Hathaway
Brand: Fox
Cinematographer: Joseph MacDonald
Editor: J. Watson Webb Jr.
Producer: Fred Kohlmar
Writer: Bernard C. Schoenfeld
Writer: Jay Dratler
Writer: Leo Rosten
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-12-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of The Dark Corner (Fox Film Noir)
Movie Review: A nearly perfect crime coupled with several memorable characters makes this movie Fox's best film-noir offering yet!
Summary: 5 Stars
This review is for the 2005 Twentieth Century Fox DVD.
Mark Stevens stars as Bradford Galt, a private detective who just moved from San Francisco to New York to start a new life after being convicted (wrongfully by his account) and paroled of vehicular manslaughter. Galt claims he was setup by his sleezy business partner, a womanizing attorney named Anthony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger) who also happens to be living in New York right now. Shortly after starting his new detective business, Galt decides to take his newly hired secretary, Kathleen (Lucille Ball), out on the town and notices that they are being tailed by a man in a white suit (William Bendix). Galt corners him and roughs him up a little so that he can find out why he's being spied on. This stalker doesn't tell Galt hardly anything, but from his wallet Galt finds out his name is Fred Foss. The truth, unknown to Galt, is that this Foss character has been hired by Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb) as a thug for a devious murder plot that is designed to frame Galt. The murder goes off as designed and Galt is suddenly the patsy. This sets up the rest of the film where Galt and Kathleen put their minds together to figure out who is behind this diabolical conspiracy.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film for many reasons. First, the murder plan is very slick and well thought out. In fact, the scheme is so good, the two main characters of the movie really have hardly anything to go on. Furthermore, since there is so little to go on, it slightly weakens the final climax of the movie. The second reason this film is impressive is that Clifton Webb steals the show in his role as a refined, high society art dealer with a beautiful, and relatively young trophy wife, who at the same time is a ruthless, cold and calculating avenger. The Hardy Cathcart character is a complex person to watch since he is masterminding a cold-blooded murder, yet at the same time he's a somewhat sympathetic victim of an unfaithful wife. Another thing I enjoyed about this film was the music and location shots used for the movie. There's a nice segment with jazz pianist Eddy Heyward.
Another intriguing feature of this film is that Lucille Ball plays a major role as a loyal and virtuous companion to the Mark Stevens character. Her performance is very serious and nothing like her TV comedy roles as "Lucy". It was interesting to find out in the commentary that she was loaned out by MGM for this part, strongly against her wishes, and even had a nervous breakdown midway through the shooting of the picture. None of this emotional trauma seems noticable in this film.
Even though there a few minor weaknesses in the story, such as hiding a body under a bed for several days and hoping a cleaning lady wouldn't find it and or not really explaining how Cathcart knew to use Galt as the perfect patsy, the strengths of the plot and characters heavily outweighed these minor problems and I found the film highly entertaining.
The DVD quality wasn't quite up to snuff. Unlike the rest of the DVD from the Fox Noir series, this picture didn't seem to have that crisp, digitally restored look. But overall, the visual presentation was free of major problems and the sound was adequate. The bonuses included trailers of the movie and six other Fox noir films plus optional real-time commentary by authors James Ursini and Alain Silver.
Movie: A
DVD Quality: B
Summary of The Dark Corner (Fox Film Noir)
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