Turfseer Director Edward Dmytryk was known for creating film noirs prior to being blacklisted in the 50s due to a past association with the Communist party. Ironically, Dymtryk quit the party after the writer of the first draft, John Wexley, lambasted him at a Communist party meeting over changes he made to the script, toning down the pro-Socialist message. You would think that people in the government after World War II, would have been pleased with the basic premise of the film: that Nazi war criminals were still alive and hiding in such places as South America. But the "party" line was that the war was over and the Fascists had been defeated; any suggestion that this nascent bunch of deplorables were plotting to rise again was decidedly politically incorrect. Despite the unusual theme for a film noir (and it's debatable how much of a "film noir" this film is), Cornered proved to be a rather lame potboiler in its execution. The narrative actually begins decently. Dick Powell plays Canadian RCAF flyer Lawrence Gerard, a former POW, who returns to France to find out who was responsible for the death of his bride of 20 days, a member of the French resistance. His father-in-law Rougon informs him that it's Marcel Jarnac, an official in the Vichy government who collaborated with the Germans (Jarnac is officially declared dead but Rougon doesn't believe it but has no idea where he is). Gerard finds a tantalizing clue in the freshly burned out office of Jarnac's associate--an envelope addressed to Jarnac's purported wife. Gerard ultimately attempts to find the widow in Buenos Aires. It is at this point that the narrative falls apart given the totally unlikely course of action Gerard takes. The Canadian enters the bad guys' lair under his own name making it quite clear he's looking for Jarnac and intends to take him down. In real life, such a person would probably last a scant week in such an environment before bumped off by the unsavory thugs he's looking for. To add insult to injury, Powell is not the charming, cynical private eye Phillip Marlowe in the clever adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel Farewell my Lovely (called Murder, By Sweet in the American release, also directed by Dmytryk a year earlier in 1944), but a decidedly unlikable hothead. Gerard is approached by the portly Melchior Incza (played by character actor Walter Slezak) who is later revealed to be working for Jarnac. Incza offers his services as a guide around town but Gerard is determined to find Jarnac on his own. Gerard soon meets Jarnac's alleged widow at a party where he also meets Tomas Camargo, a fascist connected to Jarnac, and Camargo's uncle, lawyer Manuel Santana, who turns out to be operating an anti-Fascist group, tracking Jarnac on his own. After hounding Mme Jarnac, she finally reveals to Gerard that she's being paid to pretend she's Jarnac's wife and she's actually afraid of him. A good deal of the convoluted plot is taken up with Gerard's ruse--pretending to have an entire dossier on Jarnac which he threatens to release to the press unless Camargo agrees to reveal Jarnac's whereabouts (Gerard only has one signed title page of the dossier which he found in the burned out ruins of Jarnac's associate back in France, which he gives to Incza). The climax leads Gerard to an old meeting place of Jarnac's where he finally reveals himself (and murders Incza in the process). You can pretty much guess what happens next--a struggle to the death between Gerard and Jarnac with Jarnac ending up on the losing side of Gerard's set of multiple (fatal) punches. A paper detailing Camargo's connection to Jarnac ends up in Santana's hands, who plans to reveal it in court, not only to get Gerard off the hook for the Jarnac homicide, but to expose Camargo's organization in Buenos Aires. Despite the worthy warning of a Fascist resurgence, the Nazi villains here are a decidedly generic bunch. They really are a bunch of stock characters from the typical murder mystery of the day. With the one-note Powell and an overly talky plot, Cornered fails to come close to the much more worthy film noirs of its day.

evanston_dad A post WWII snoozer about an American (Dick Powell) investigating the death of his wife. The plot involves Nazi war criminals, shady dealings, European settings that have been turned into rubble by the war, and all of it is pretty dull. It's billed as a film noir, but like so many such films, it's only done so because it's in black and white, was released in the 1940s, and has a strong crime/espionage element to it. But it really doesn't feel like a film noir in any significant way, not in its tone or themes. That wouldn't be a criticism if the film was better, but it's unfortunately long and draggy. Edward Dmytryk, who could show a lot of panache when he wanted to (see "Crossfire") directs with no discernible style here.Grade: C

jc-osms 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.

sronan2002 Powell's is an unsentimental, yet human, portrayal of a man broken by war who clings to vengeance as salvation. In my opinion, it is Powell's greatest acting achievement.The emotional subtlety of his performance is intimidating. Anger, tension, and frustration are portrayed without histrionics. It's like watching Picasso on an Etch-a-Sketch; fast, surprising, and riveting. By the time he made this movie Powell had learned the camera likes less, not more, and he used his face as subtly as Bogart used his voice, and Gary Cooper his eyes.This movie has great direction, dialogue, memorable bad guys, and Dick Powell's strongest performance to recommend it.