Movie Monday: Cloak & Dagger

 

Movie Monday: Cloak & Dagger

Another in the plethora of the spy/film noir movies that came out after World War II, Cloak & Dagger stars Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer. The film is based on the non-fiction work of Corey Ford and Alastair MacBain, Cloak & Dagger: The Secret Story of OSS. Winner of an Academy Award for his portrayal of Sergeant York five years earlier, Cooper plays a scientist who is sent by the Office of Strategic Services to Europe to contact Hungarian scientists working on the German nuclear weapons program. Palmer plays a member of the Italian resistance with whom he falls in love.

As with many of Hollywood’s films, there was plenty of “cloak and dagger” behind the scenes. Fritz Lang, a German who fled to the US after Hitler’s rise to power, was known for his anti-Nazi spy thrillers as well as being difficult to work with which often created tensions on the set. Another issue was the speed in which the screenplay was written, despite which producer Milton Sperling hoped Lang would be able to create a credible movie. The two men were said to have quarreled often. The final issue was the cutting of Lang’s original ending. He shot a scene where Cooper’s character leads a group of American paratroopers in Germany to discover the remains of an underground factory that held evidence of nuclear weapons. Then he says, “This is year one of the atomic age and God help us if we think we can keep this secret from the world.” Thinking it unrealistic, Sperling cut the scene further alienating the two men.

The film was not well received by critics, many of whom complained at the “belatedness” of the movie

being released a year after the end of the war, and of its inaccuracies (the Nazis were nowhere near producing an atom bomb). Box office response of $2.5 million against a budget of $2M may indicate audiences weren’t impressed either. Interestingly, I found more than a few websites that tout the movie’s value as a gripping thriller with excellent acting.

One site comments: “The stolid, plain-spoken Cooper is miscast as a man of science, but he credibly conveys his character’s transformation from amateur spy to ruthless operative. And while Palmer was by all accounts treated terribly by Lang on set, she turns in a strong performance as a hard-bitten yet tender-hearted partisan in her first American role.” Another site said, “While not the most flowing and psychologically satisfying of Fritz Lang films, Cloak and Dagger is replete with threat of danger…the settings delight, most specifically in their over reminders of fascism.”

In addition to Lang as director, Cloak & Dagger features several European actors who fled to the US in the mid- to late-1930s: Vladmir Sokoloff (Russia), J. Edward Bromberg (Hungary), Lilli Palmer (Germany), Ludwig Stössel (Germany), and Hella Petric (Hungary).

Have you seen this classic?

___________________

Swedish Sunrise

Espionage. Diplomacy. Resistance. Is there any room for love?

Weeks after being accepted into America’s Office of Strategic Services, Birgit Westgard finds herself in Stockholm, Sweden - “Casablanca of the North.” The job is supposed to be easy: typing and filing. Then her handsome boss taps her to be his “plus-one” at social events where they collect intelligence, plant propaganda, and dance the nights away. How much longer can she remain impervious to his charm?

Silas Cronin is one of the lucky ones, and his plane crash lands in neutral Sweden. Bored with cooling his heels in an internment camp, he raises his hand when the government comes looking for someone who can type. Suddenly, he’s in Stockholm, mired in intrigue and subterfuge, and more than a little attracted to his new secretary who wants nothing to do with him. Is she right that wartime is no time for romance?

Purchase: https://books2read.com/u/3RRqyv

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloak_and_Dagger_(1946_film)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038417/
https://www.sensesofcinema.com/2022/cteq/out-of-the-shadows-cloak-and-dagger-fritz-lang-1946/
https://www.classicfilmnoir.com/2023/11/cloak-and-dagger-1946.html
https://letterboxd.com/film/cloak-and-dagger/


Photo Credits: 

Movie Poster: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17147257 

Movie Stills: Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures