Fritz Lang's "Cloak and Dagger" is a romantically cast, post WW II production that dramatizes a fictional OSS mission.
A thriller, from the low budget Republic Studio. Gary Cooper is perfect as the physicist turned OSS agent and Lilli Palmer is the beautiful partisan that reluctantly falls for this sudden visitor.
Character actor Marc Lawrence is fabulous as the Ovra (Italian Gestapo) agent Luigi. The hand to hand fight he has with Cooper is one of the best, most vicious, and most realistic ever filmed.
Not a frequent play on movie channels, it is unfortunate that it does not get more play time. Based on the stars performance and Lang's direction, this movie is worth the time to watch and the cost of the recently released (and at sale price) DVD.
"Cloak and Dagger" (1946)
Good call, Mongo; CLOAK AND DAGGER is definitely one of Lang's least known and under-appreciated films. And it really is a dandy espionage thriller with terrifically moody cinematography and a growing aura of suspense and dread. Nice to know there's a DVD of it out there; I hadn't thought about this film in some time!
Thanks, Dewey. Here is the original review of the movie from the New York Times:
N.Y. TIMES REVIEW
THE SCREEN; 'Cloak and Dagger,' With Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer, New Actress From England, in the Lead Roles, Arrives at Strand
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: October 5, 1946
When someone invented the nickname, "the cloak and dagger boys," for the daring intelligence officers of the wartime OSS, that someone was being ironic in a grimly humorous way and throwing a bit of sarcasm in the direction of Hollywood, for some of the missions of those agents had a markedly cinematic flair. Only, of course, there were manifest points of difference. That's what made it a joke.
However, the people in Hollywood have missed the irony and have gladly embraced the opportunity to take over the OSS. Thus we have had a couple of pictures already which have played it to be precisely the sort of organization that the jokesters had in mind. Now comes "Cloak and Dagger," yesterday's arrival at the Strand.
At least this one telegraphs its nature—it is a straight "cloak and dagger" film, with all of the elements of adventure and romance that the classification implies. More than that, it is highly suspenseful in a slick cinematic style. Apart from the realm of realities, it is fast entertainment on the screen.
And apparently the people who made it—United States Pictures, that is, with Fritz Lang as the director and a quartet or so of writing men—were conscious of fabricating, for they loaded the whole thing down with the baldest and most familiar of spy-thriller clichés.
In telling the melodramatic story of a young American atomic scientist who penetrates Italy, via Switzerland, during the war to scout the Nazis' works, they have tossed in a Mata Hari, a mysterious character in a thick black beard, any number of beetling German agents and a lovely Italian partisan. And, of course, it is the last who helps the hero achieve success after a fly-by-night passage of romancing and a blistering gun duel by his side.
As the hero, Gary Cooper—an old hand at partisan war—gives a good Gary Cooper performance, which is what was expected of him. And Lilli Palmer, a new girl from England, makes almost believable, with a wistful and sensitive personality, the role of the Italian girl. Vladimir Sokoloff projects one mood of torment as a hostage Italian scientist, and Robert Alda, Dan Seymour and J. Edward Bromberg are competent as assorted spies.
Mr. Lang, being wise and experienced, has not pretended to show any more than a romantic thriller, which is what his writers prepared. One scene has particular intensity, however, in the finest Lang style; that is a cold and silent killing to the accompaniment of an Italian street song.
CLOAK AND DAGGER; screen play by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr., based on an original story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin, suggested by the book by Corey Ford and Alastair McBain; directed by Fritz Lang; produced by Milton Sperling for Warner Brothers. At the Strand.
Prof. Alvah Jesper . . . . . Gary Copper
Gina . . . . . Lilli Palmer
Pinkie . . . . . Robert Alda
Polda . . . . . Vladimir Sokoloff
Trenk . . . . . J. Edward Bromberg
Ann Dawson . . . . . Marjorie Hoshelle
The German . . . . . Ludwig Stossel
Katerin Lodor . . . . . Helen Thimig
Marsoli . . . . . Dan Seymour
Luigi . . . . . Marc Lawrence
Colonel Walsh . . . . . James Flavin
N.Y. TIMES REVIEW
THE SCREEN; 'Cloak and Dagger,' With Gary Cooper and Lilli Palmer, New Actress From England, in the Lead Roles, Arrives at Strand
By BOSLEY CROWTHER
Published: October 5, 1946
When someone invented the nickname, "the cloak and dagger boys," for the daring intelligence officers of the wartime OSS, that someone was being ironic in a grimly humorous way and throwing a bit of sarcasm in the direction of Hollywood, for some of the missions of those agents had a markedly cinematic flair. Only, of course, there were manifest points of difference. That's what made it a joke.
However, the people in Hollywood have missed the irony and have gladly embraced the opportunity to take over the OSS. Thus we have had a couple of pictures already which have played it to be precisely the sort of organization that the jokesters had in mind. Now comes "Cloak and Dagger," yesterday's arrival at the Strand.
At least this one telegraphs its nature—it is a straight "cloak and dagger" film, with all of the elements of adventure and romance that the classification implies. More than that, it is highly suspenseful in a slick cinematic style. Apart from the realm of realities, it is fast entertainment on the screen.
And apparently the people who made it—United States Pictures, that is, with Fritz Lang as the director and a quartet or so of writing men—were conscious of fabricating, for they loaded the whole thing down with the baldest and most familiar of spy-thriller clichés.
In telling the melodramatic story of a young American atomic scientist who penetrates Italy, via Switzerland, during the war to scout the Nazis' works, they have tossed in a Mata Hari, a mysterious character in a thick black beard, any number of beetling German agents and a lovely Italian partisan. And, of course, it is the last who helps the hero achieve success after a fly-by-night passage of romancing and a blistering gun duel by his side.
As the hero, Gary Cooper—an old hand at partisan war—gives a good Gary Cooper performance, which is what was expected of him. And Lilli Palmer, a new girl from England, makes almost believable, with a wistful and sensitive personality, the role of the Italian girl. Vladimir Sokoloff projects one mood of torment as a hostage Italian scientist, and Robert Alda, Dan Seymour and J. Edward Bromberg are competent as assorted spies.
Mr. Lang, being wise and experienced, has not pretended to show any more than a romantic thriller, which is what his writers prepared. One scene has particular intensity, however, in the finest Lang style; that is a cold and silent killing to the accompaniment of an Italian street song.
CLOAK AND DAGGER; screen play by Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner Jr., based on an original story by Boris Ingster and John Larkin, suggested by the book by Corey Ford and Alastair McBain; directed by Fritz Lang; produced by Milton Sperling for Warner Brothers. At the Strand.
Prof. Alvah Jesper . . . . . Gary Copper
Gina . . . . . Lilli Palmer
Pinkie . . . . . Robert Alda
Polda . . . . . Vladimir Sokoloff
Trenk . . . . . J. Edward Bromberg
Ann Dawson . . . . . Marjorie Hoshelle
The German . . . . . Ludwig Stossel
Katerin Lodor . . . . . Helen Thimig
Marsoli . . . . . Dan Seymour
Luigi . . . . . Marc Lawrence
Colonel Walsh . . . . . James Flavin
Joseph Goodheart
Thanks for posting that great review; I hadn't realized that CLOAK AND DAGGER was all that well recieved when first released. Also of note, the credited screenwriters, Albert Maltz and Ring Lardner, Jr. would later gain further noteriety as members of the "Hollywood Ten," blacklisted by the film industry because of their refusal to name names of communists and/or communist sympathizers when brought up before the House Un-American Activities Committe (HUAC).
The man credited with the original story was Boris Ingster who, six years earlier directed the film that many consider to be the first American "film noir"--STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR.
The man credited with the original story was Boris Ingster who, six years earlier directed the film that many consider to be the first American "film noir"--STRANGER ON THE THIRD FLOOR.
I was struck by two things when I saw "Cloak and Dagger" several years ago. I liked Cooper's first mission, when he thinks he's being clever, and it turns out that he was making all sorts of mistakes.
Then I still can't get over the fight between Cooper and Marc Lawrence, which struck me as one of the most violent things I'd seen in movies made in that era. Perhaps the Karloff-Daniell fight in "The Body Snatcher" is more vicious, but I'm not sure.
Then I still can't get over the fight between Cooper and Marc Lawrence, which struck me as one of the most violent things I'd seen in movies made in that era. Perhaps the Karloff-Daniell fight in "The Body Snatcher" is more vicious, but I'm not sure.
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