Cloak and Dagger (1946) - film review

One day, in the latter years of WWII, Alvah Jesper, a physics professor at an American university, receives an unexpected visit from a secret services official.   Jesper is currently engaged on a project to develop a nuclear weapon for the American military and is hardly surprised when he learns that the Germans have a similar objective and are close to a break through.   One of the Germans’ key scientists, Dr Katerin Lodor, has fallen ill and is receiving treatment at a hospital in Switzerland.  Jesper is invited to fly out and interview her, so that he can find out how close the Germans are to manufacturing a nuclear bomb.  Although the mission is likely to be risky, Jesper agrees to go, but not long after his first meeting with her, Lodor is abducted.  When an attempt to rescue the scientist fails, Jesper and a party of American agents head for Italy, where they plan to smuggle Dr Polda, an eminent nuclear physicist, out of the country.  Polda refuses to leave without his daughter, but she is being held a hostage by the Nazis...

Fritz Lang was well into his stride when he made this, his twelfth American film, during his highly productive period in Hollywood.  Cloak and Dagger is a stylishly shot, well-paced spy thriller which pays homage to the work of the American secret services during WWII.  The film shows Lang’s keen visual sense, with some striking cinematography and ingenious use of lighting to heighten tension and involve the spectator, techniques he had perfected during the early expressionistic phase of his career.  Max Steiner’s score also helps with the mood and pace of the film, which feels surprisingly modern for its time, particularly in its graphic depiction of violence.

Gary Cooper is perhaps not the best casting choice for the lead role - he appears to have some difficulty making the transition from taciturn cowboy to a nuclear physicist with a streak for romance and adventure (actually, the character is pretty implausible if you stop to think about it).  That said, Cooper’s scenes with Lilli Palmer have a certain poetic charm, and he is of course more than qualified to handle the action sequences.   A propos, this was Palmer’s first American film – she had previously appeared in a handful of British films, before she married Rex Harrison and followed him to Hollywood.  

On a more sombre note, the film’s screenwriters Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr. were to become two of the first victims of the McCarthy anti-Communist witch hunts that would sweep America in the decade following the end of WWII.  Maltz and Lardner were two of the famous Hollywood Ten who refused to answer questions when they appeared before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in October 1947.  Both men were imprisoned and subsequently blacklisted from working in Hollywood.  Lardner’s career subsequently flourished, with the writer wining acclaim for his work on Robert Altman’s hit film M*A*S*H (1970).

© James Travers 2009

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