Just after WWII, the studios rushed to be first to release films about the super secret OSS (Office of Strategic Services) the prototype for Britain’s MI6 and USA’s CIA. OSS starring Alan Ladd and 13 Rue Madeleine starring James Cagney were two of the offerings. A third was Cloak and Dagger starring Gary Cooper and directed by Fritz Lang (Metropolis, “M”).

Gary Cooper ( Beau Geste, Sergeant York, For Whom the Bell Tolls ) stars as Alvah Jesper a mild mannered physicist working on a part of the top secret Manhattan Project.

We join him in his lab and marvel at the equipage of a 1940s physics lab compared with what we would see today. Jesper’s lab looks more like a mechanic’s workshop with heavy cast iron wrenches, C-clamps, drill presses, bench grinders, and so on; nary a scientific instrument in evidence, so quite interesting from an historical perspective. A wall full of such paraphernalia serves as a backdrop for the scene.

Professor Jesper has a visitor so he retreats away from his experimentation to a neutral area of the workshop to receive his guest, who turns out to be an old friend who is now a colonel in the OSS. The colonel quickly establishes his bona fides by commenting about Cooper’s secret work on the atomic bomb. Now that they are talking turkey the colonel reveals that he is authorized to relieve Jesper from his work for a more rewarding career discovering what the Nazis are doing with their atomic bomb program. As an added incentive, he reveals that a top physicist, Dr. Katerin Lodor, will be his first contact. Jesper agrees to become a spy and whisks off to Europe.

In Switzerland he meets with Dr. Lodor (Helen Thimig), who has escaped from Hungary, however, the Nazis have found her and are pressuring her to return or they will begin killing her countrymen at the rate of ten per day. The Nazis then kidnap the doctor from the hospital where she has been convalescing. Jesper's cover has also been pierced and a beautiful Nazi agent befriends him in order to keep tabs on him. Jesper's controller comes up with a brilliant blackmail scheme and the agent tells them where Dr. Lodor is being held. Their attempt to free her ends in her murder by her ruthless Nazi captors but she had revealed her contact in Italy during their earlier conversation, so it's off to Italy for Dr. Jesper.

The second half of the film concerns the mission in Italy and Jesper falls in love with Gina, the beautiful Lilli Palmer (Counterfeit Traitor). Giovanni Polda (Vladimir Sokolov - For Whom the Bell Tolls) is a brilliant physicist that has similar trouble with the Nazis. The Nazis are holding his daughter to ensure his cooperation. Jesper promises to free her and move them both to another country. They manage to free the daughter but, as usual in a spy film, there is a twist. There is also one of the most brutal hand to hand fights I've ever seen depicted on the screen. I'll leave the rest to your viewing pleasure.

Director Fritz Lang specialized in German Expressionist cinema where the murky shadows are carefully composed in the frame. Cloak and Dagger has the same type of camera work, by Sol Polito, as found in the early films of John Ford and William Dieterle. This style established the cinematic vocabulary that would lead to film noir in the 1940s. Lang's directorial style is gritty and grim and makes the Nazis look as bad as possible. There are a couple very brutal scenes that will make you turn away. Max Steiner contributes a decent score, as he usually does.

The acting is quite good overall with Gary Cooper playing the unlikely combination of a bookish professor and a streetwise, hardened killer. Lilli Palmer is excellent in her first big role, while Robert Alda (Alan's dad) lends good support as a foreign OSS agent. Marc Lawrence does an exceptionally creepy job as a Nazi agent. The supporting cast is well chosen and perform their parts well.

The Artisan DVD is available at a bargain price, under $10, and will please Gary Cooper's many fans as well as fans of the spy genre. The film is well preserved and presented in 4x3 theatrical format. As usual with Artisan DVDs, there are no extras. Three stars.

Enjoy a good film tonight!






Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV