★ 6 / 10
Mark Stevens is "Brad Galt" a newly arrived
CinemaSerf
Mark Stevens is "Brad Galt" a newly arrived New York PI trying to set up anew after serving jail time after being famed by his erstwhile partner "Jardine"…
Mark Stevens is "Brad Galt" a newly arrived New York PI trying to set up anew after serving jail time after being famed by his erstwhile partner "Jardine" (Kurt Kreuger). A visit from the local police "Reeves" (Reed Hadley) sets him on edge and before long he realises that someone is out to get him again! Aided by his secretary "Kathleen" (Lucille Ball) - who is a considerably more effective investigator - they decide to find their antagonist before he prevails. It's quite a decently paced crime thriller. Ball is on good form and bonds quite well with the handsome, boyish, Stevens and a couple of contributions from Clifton Webb and his henchman William Bendix keep the story interesting, if not exactly intriguing, for a while. It is a bit too long, but still worth a watch.
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★ 8 / 10
Patterned on Dick Powell; great brief scene
s-hill4
Mark Stevens a couple years earlier had played a sweet-voiced singer (small role in "Rhapsody in Blue," 1943-45). So when Fox Studio in '46 cast Stevens (4th…
Mark Stevens a couple years earlier had played a sweet-voiced singer (small role in "Rhapsody in Blue," 1943-45). So when Fox Studio in '46 cast Stevens (4th in name order) as the hard-boiled private detective, they probably hoped Dame Fortune would smile on Stevens the way she did on Dick Powell (former sweet-voiced singer) when he was cast against type as the hard-boiled private detective in "Murder My Sweet" (RKO '44). Not to speak of minor actor Alan Ladd, who had been cast (only 4th in order) as the hard-boiled anti-hero in "This Gun for Hire" (Para. '42) -- and became a super-star overnight. Evidently the 3d time was not the charm, and Mark Stevens didn't strike it rich, the way Dick Powell and Alan Ladd had done... Speaking more positively, I would like to credit what to me is one of the best scenes in the film, combining high drama with plausible psychology. Detective Stevens, totally desperate to find the true culprit before the police catch him, tries a shot in the dark. He visits the "Cascara Gallery," with which he's totally unfamiliar (he's never been there). Awaiting gallery owner Clifton Webb in the latter's office, Stevens encounters a young woman (Cathy Downs), unknown to him, who turns out to be Webb's wife. From this point on, the desperate Stevens must improvise (think on his feet), trying to get the truth out of Downs. With believable uncertainty and hesitation (plus audience suspense), he does improvise, in a way that is dramatically quite satisfying. It's as if director Hathaway went back to the film pioneer D. W. Griffith (celebrated for "photographing thought"), and did the same thing in this one brief scene. Watch this part of "Dark Corner" and judge for yourself. -- Steven P Hill, Cinema Studies, University of Illinois.
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The trailer is for the movie, but these posters aren't. FYI