Daily Archives: February 7, 2015

Cloak and Dagger (1946)

Posted on February 7, 2015 | Leave a comment

Cloak and Dagger
Directed by Fritz Lang
Written by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr.; original story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin
1946/USA
Warner Bros./United States Pictures
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] I was never a spy. I was with the OSS organization. We had a number of women, but we were all office help. — Julia Child [/box]

This is not one of Lang’s more memorable films but it still looks awfully good.

The Office of Strategic Services (wartime forerunner of the CIA) recruits nuclear physicist Prof. Alvah Jesper (Gary Cooper), known as “Jess”, to contact a scientist friend of his in Switzerland and bring her back to the U.S.  The scientist should be up on the latest on German progress toward developing an atom bomb.  But the Germans kill the woman before Jess can complete his mission.

Jess decides the next best thing is to go to Italy and look up an old associate, Dr. Poldi (Vladimir Sokoloff) who is also working on bomb development.  He is met by a group of Italian resistance fighters, including the world-weary Gina (Lilli Palmer).  Naturally, Jess and Gina immediately fall in love despite her professions of toughness.  It turns out Poldi is being kept on a short leash by the Nazis who have his beloved daughter in their power.  The resistance must rescue the daughter before Poldi will agree to cooperate.

This movie would have been better if there had been more espionage and less doomed romance.  It’s OK for what it is anyway and the images are striking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRQInTIvgF4

Mini-clip

Leave a comment

Posted in 1946

Crisis (1946)

Posted on February 7, 2015 | Leave a comment

Crisis (Kris)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
Written by Ingmar Bergman from a play by Leck Fischer
1946/Sweden
Svensk Filmindustri
First viewing/Hulu Plus

 

[box] Any idiot can face a crisis – it’s day to day living that wears you out. — Anton Chekhov [/box]

Ingmar Bergman is still finding his way in his directorial debut.

Nelly has been raised by her nearly penniless “Mutti” Ingeborg in conservative small town Sweden.  She is now 18 years old and has not seen her real mother, Jenny, since she was a toddler.  Nelly is being wooed by veterinarian lodger Ulf but feels only friendship for the older man.  On her birthday, the worldly, rather vulgar Jenny arrives from the city to take Nelly to live with her.   Jenny has her flamboyant ne’er-do-well boy toy Jack in tow.

Nell has set her heart on making a splash at the local ball that evening.  Jack sweet talks her and gets her drunk and she succeeds beyond her wildest dreams, thoroughly scandalizing the townspeople in the process.  Lured by Jack and afraid to face the sea of judgmental faces, Nell agrees to go to work at her mother’s beauty parlor.

Ingeborg is left distraught and alone since Ulf moves out as soon as Nell does.  She is also seriously ill.  But more than that she worries that Nell is unhappy.  Her visit to the city offers a fairly horrifying look at the clientele of the beauty parlor and confirms Ingeborg’s suspicions.  Yet Nell does not want to go home.  Before she can, she needs to face a crisis set up by Jack.

The film starts out looking like a satire on small town life, with some witty looks at provincial manners. It ends up as a psychological study complete with Bergman’s trademark closeups and some symbolism. Right off the bat, he obviously had a way of bringing the best out of his actors. I actually liked both halves of the movie but it could have worked better as a coherent whole. I guess he had to start somewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8ptUt-VdAw

Clip

Leave a comment

Posted in 1946, Movie Reviews