Cloak and Dagger (1946)

cloak-dagger-poster-2 Cloak and Dagger (1946)

Run time: 106 min
Rating: 6.5
Genres: Romance | Adventure | Thriller
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner Jr.
Stars: Gary Cooper, Robert Alda, Lilli Palmer
Storyline
Toward the end of World War II, the allied secret service receives a partial message indicating that the Germans are researching nuclear energy to build atomic bombs. In Midwestern University, the scientist Alvah Jesper is called up by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to meet his former colleague Dr. Katerin Lodor in Switzerland and bring her to North America. However, his mission fails and Dr. Lodor is killed by the Nazis but first she informs that Alvah’s acquaintance Dr. Giovanni Polda is working for the Nazis in Italy. Dr. Jesper travels to Italy and with the support of the Italian partisans leaded by Pinkie and Gina, he has a meeting with Dr. Polda that is under the surveillance of the Gestapo. The scientist tells him that his daughter Maria had been abducted by the Gestapo and Alvah makes a deal with Dr. Polda, promising to release Maria first and bringing them to North America. While Pinkie travels to rescue Maria, Alvah stays with Gina and they fall in love for each … Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Details:
Release Date: 28 September 1946 (USA)

4 responses to “Cloak and Dagger (1946)”

  1. IMDBReviewer says:

    "Cloak and Dagger" is certainly one of the better movies of its type for that era. It’s exciting as well as entertaining and not as dated as one would imagine. Gary Cooper is excellent as a nuclear physicist who turns smoothly into a secret agent. There is a fair amount of action (mainly good old-fashioned shoot-outs), a rather conventional romance and one superbly executed fight sequence.

  2. IMDBReviewer says:

    Fritz Lang’s Cloak and Dagger is a romantically cast, post WW II production that dramatizes a fictional OSS mission. It involves the attempt by the OSS to insert a physicist to learn the status of the Nazi Nuclear weapons program. It is neither realistic, factual, nor tightly crafted. But it is a fun movie, with a solid cast. Gary Cooper is perfect as the physicist turned OSS agent. He somehow brings all the experienced hand to hand combat skills and spycraft to the OSS field operations that no mid-western college professor would be expected to have. Lilli Palmer is the beautiful partisan that reluctantly falls for this sudden visitor. Alan Alda is unfortunately poorly developed in his OSS role. The smaller parts all well played. The fight scene is realistic as a life-death struggle. Pretty tough, especially for a college prof. But, the story, the setting in Italy and the sense of the race toward nuclear weaponry is compelling and interesting. And Cooper and Palmer steam! Lots of little production elements give the movie a high quality with lighting, tension, and scene settings, while others are almost low-budget (e.g., the shoot-out). A fun movie, from the low budget Republic Studio. Not a frequent play on movie channels, it is unfortunate that it dos 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.

  3. IMDBReviewer says:

    Toward the end of World War II, the allied secret service receives a partial message indicating that the Germans are researching nuclear energy to build atomic bombs. In Midwestern University, the scientist Alvah Jesper (Gary Cooper) is called up by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to meet his former colleague Dr. Katerin Lodor (Helen Thimig) in Switzerland and bring her to North America. However, his mission fails and Dr. Lodor is killed by the Nazis but first she informs that Alvah's acquaintance Dr. Giovanni Polda (Vladimir Sokoloff) is working for the Nazis in Italy. Dr. Jesper travels to Italy and with the support of the Italian partisans leaded by Pinkie (Robert Alda) and Gina (Lilli Palmer), he has a meeting with Dr. Polda that is under the surveillance of the Gestapo. The scientist tells him that his daughter Maria had been abducted by the Gestapo and Alvah makes a deal with Dr. Polda, promising to release Maria first and bringing them to North America. While Pinkie travels to rescue Maria, Alvah stays with Gina and they fall in love for each other.

    "Cloak and Dagger" is a suspenseful and full of action romance in times of war. The enjoyable story has good moments of tension but it is only a reasonable work of Fritz Lang. Gary Cooper's character seems to be a skilled and well-trained agent and not a scientist in many moments and Lili Palmer performs a strong female character in one of her first works. My vote is seven.

    Title (Brazil): "O Grande Segredo" ("The Great Secret")

  4. rgkeenan says:

    Mike Burke eventually ran Ringling Brothers and then the New York Yankees. He eventually moved to his beloved Ireland where he died as I recall. Whether or not his character was in some way a model for Charlton Heston in "The Greatest Show on Earth" I know not, but he WAS the advisor for this film having been an OSS secret agent during World War Two, and this is supposedly based on his experiences. He is mentioned in the credits. Gary Cooper is his usual fine self as a professor recruited to infiltrate Europe and convince a nuclear physicist friend to defect. His adventures are a little hard to take for a mere professor but with Cooper it always works. NOTE: 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. It’s too bad Lawrence got blacklisted during the Fifties. But catch this movie when you can.

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