The Dark Corner (1946)

The Dark Corner (1946)

„The Dark Corner“ is a 1946 crime film noir directed by Henry Hathaway. The screenplay by Jay Dratler and Bernard C. Schoenfeld is based on „The Dark Corner“ a 1945 serial story in „Good Housekeeping“ by Leo Rosten.

After New York Police Lieutenant Frank Reeves warns private investigator Bradford Galt that Reeves’s California friends have asked him to keep an eye on him.

Brad invites his secretary, Kathleen Stewart, to dinner. When they notice a man in a white suit following them, Brad puts Kathleen in a cab, instructing her to park by his office and follow the man after he meets with him. Brad then surprises the man in a dark corner and forces him at gunpoint into revealing that his client is attorney Anthony Jardine. When the man spills ink on Brad’s desk, Brad wipes it on the man’s suit and sends him out, keeping his wallet. Kathleen tries to follow in her cab, but „White Suit“ loses them.

Meanwhile, at a party celebrating the anniversary of elderly rich art dealer Hardy Cathcart and his young, attractive wife Mari, Jardine returns to Lucy Wilding, an older, married woman, the love letters he once wrote to her, having received a Van Gogh painting as blackmail from her.

The next evening, White Suit tries to run Brad down in his car. A newsboy tells Brad the partial license plate number, and as Kathleen and Brad wait at a neighborhood café for the police to trace the plate, he tells her about Jardine: In San Francisco, Jardine, who preyed on wealthy women by seducing and then blackmailing them, was his partner in a law firm. When Brad caught Jardine stealing the firm’s money, Jardine knocked him out, plied him with scotch, and put him behind the wheel, after which he hit a truck, killing the driver. Brad received a two-year sentence for manslaughter, but was released early for good behavior. As Brad relates his story, White Suit parks his car in front of the Cathcart Gallery, and Jardine drives off in it.

The next day, at an exhibition, Cathcart escorts some guests to his downstairs vault to show them the Raphael that he recently bought. After the others go back upstairs, Cathcart overhears Mari and Jardine plan to leave that night, and sees their shadows as they kiss. Cathcart then finds White Suit, the man he hired to follow Brad, waiting to report that Brad roughed up Jardine but failed to kill him as Cathcart had hoped. After Brad sends Kathleen to a movie, he returns to his apartment, where White Suit, who has slipped in through a window, anesthetizes him with ether.

White Suit kills Jardine with a fireplace poker, then puts the poker in Brad’s hand and departs. The next day Brad finally tracks down the white suit and goes to the address of its owner, but discovers that the man, whose real name is Stouffer, has just left with his suitcases. A girl, however, overheard Stouffer telephoning Cathcart and gives Brad the address.

At his dentist’s building, Cathcart pushes Stouffer out a high-rise window, and Brad arrives just in time to witness his death. After the police find Jardine’s body, they go to Brad’s office to arrest him.

Brad meets Mari at the Cathcart Galler. After he tells her that Jardine is dead, she faints. Entering the room, Cathcart orders Brad into the vault at gunpoint, but Mari, now revived, shoots her husband, then throws the gun down in disgust. Afterward, Reeves makes an appointment to meet Brad the next day, and Kathleen says it will have to wait until the afternoon, as they have a date to get married at city hall in the morning.

Cast:

• Lucille Ball – Kathleen Stewart
• Clifton Webb – Hardy Cathcart
• William Bendix – Stauffer aka Fred Foss
• Mark Stevens – Bradford Galt
• Kurt Kreuger – Anthony Jardine
• Cathy Downs – Mari Cathcart
• Reed Hadley – Police Lt. Frank Reeves
• Constance Collier – Mrs. Kingsley
• Eddie Heywood – Eddie Heywood, Orchestra Leader

„Der weisse Schatten“ (The Dark Corner) ist ein Film noir von 1946 unter der Regie von Henry Hathaway. Das Drehbuch von Jay Dratler und Bernard C. Schoenfeld basiert auf „The Dark Corner“, einer 1945 erschienenen Fortsetzungsgeschichte in „Good Housekeeping“ von Leo Rosten.

Nachdem der New Yorker Polizeileutnant Frank Reeves den Privatdetektiv Bradford Galt gewarnt hat, dass Reeves’ kalifornische Freunde ihn gebeten haben, ein Auge auf ihn zu werfen.