The last time we met Dick Powell was in my piece about one of the worst films ever made, The Conqueror. Powell directed that turkey and didn’t appear in it. 1945’s Cornered was a showcase for the actor’s new image as a tough guy. It was a triumph for all concerned.
Cornered reunited the creative team that made Murder My Sweet such a big hit the previous year: Powell was joined by producer Adrian Scott, director Edward Dmytryk, and screenwriter John Paxton. The producer and director would later be blacklisted as members of the Hollywood Ten. Dmytrk eventually flipped and became a friendly witness. Politics in post-war Hollywood were tricky.
Cornered was one of the first movies made about a returning veteran as World War II ended. It’s a tough minded noir with Powell as Laurence Gerard, a Canadian pilot who married a French resistance fighter near the war’s end. Powell returns to France to settle his wife’s estate. He also has a score to settle.
She was killed on the order of Maurice Jarnac a sinister Vichy Nazi type. Nobody knows what he looks like, so his face is the movie’s MacGuffin. Think of him as the Klaus Barbie of the piece. You know, the Butcher of Lyon.
I usually think revenge is stupid, but I understand Powell’s passion to avenge his wife’s official murder. He follows leads from France to Switzerland and finally Argentina. Buenos Aires was home to many Nazi exiles and Powell hopes to find his quarry there.
The first person he meets in Buenos Aires is Walter Slezak as Melchior Inzca. He presents himself as a tour guide/detective who knows the people Powell needs to meet. As always Slezak’s character is a talker, and his ties to German exiles makes him useful but suspicious to our hero. We learned not to trust Walter Slezak in The Fallen Sparrow, Born To Kill, Lifeboat, and Riff-Raff. I do, however, trust the actor’s taste in scripts.
Powell parties with this sinister couple played by Stephen Gerey and Nina Vale on the day of his Argentine arrival.
Dig that hairdo, y’all. She looks like something out of a wax museum. Come on down, Madame Tussaud.
The plot is complex. I don’t want to spoil its twists and turns with too much exposition. Suffice it to say that Powell’s vengeance quest turns into a crusade to bring his wife’s killer to justice.
Cornered is a fast moving film with fine performances by all concerned, especially Powell and Slezak. It’s their movie and they ride it hard although it’s not a Western. The idea of the garrulous Austrian Slezak in the saddle tickles me. He was more at home in the shadows:
Powell, of course, was as at home on the range as he was in Noirland. In the movie he wears the trench coat and grizzled expression mandatory for a film noir tough guy.
Grading Time: I give Cornered 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A-.
I have a grade correction for a Dick Powell movie I wrote about last summer, Cry Danger. I’m bumping it up to 4 stars and an A- as well. Does that make me a resident of Bump City? Discuss amongst yourselves.
Let’s peruse some posters.
We begin with the long sheets, foreign and domestic.
It’s time for a trip to the quadrangle to view a quad:
The next image comes from a UK trade show:
It’s time to tango to the lobby and learn what’s in store for us: Candy or popcorn?
Now that we’re back in our seats with a box of Hot Tamales let’s goose things up by taking a gander at the color lobby cards for this black and white film.
I’m feeling cornered after those images. Let’s escape aboard the trailer.
The last word goes to Eddie Muller with his Noir Alley intro and outro: