Editor's note: This week Raquelle, who writes the excellent blog Out of the Past, serves up a review of one of the best looking classic film noir: The Dark CornerBy Raquelle
I feel all dead inside. I’m backed up in a dark corner and I don’t know who’s hitting me.
The Dark Corner is a polished gem of a film noir. Released by 20th Century Fox and directed by Henry Hathaway the film stars Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb, William Bendix and Mark Stevens. I’m not terribly good at writing summaries, but I’ll give this one my best shot. Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens) has just gotten out of jail and is looking to start afresh as a detective in New York City. He hires Kathleen (Lucille Ball) as his secretary, a warm-hearted woman with a wise-cracking tongue. Bradford discovers he’s being followed by a dirty detective in a white suit (William Bendix) and finds that his past in San Francisco has come back to haunt him. He suspects that Anthony Jardine (Kurt Krueger), his old partner and the trickster who got him into jail, is after him. But Anthony has his own problems as he tries to steal away Mari (Cathy Downs), the precious wife of Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb) an art-dealer and society man. The more Bradford tries to find out what is going on, the more he gets put into a “dark corner” with only his trusting and loving secretary to help him.
The first thing that struck me about this film is how so often in films from this era the boss and the secretary are inevitably linked romantically. It’s as though a man hires a secretary just to woo her and a woman seeks out a job in order to be wooed. It’s takes the concept of work romance to a whole other level. The Maltese Falcon remake Satan Meets a Lady (1936) comes to mind, with lusty Warren William drooling over his new secretary who has expectations of him but is dismayed to find he’s got a roving eye. It’s assumed that the secretary role is a temporary one; a sort of springboard into wifedom. The paint on the door isn’t dry yet and Bradford already starts the courtship process by taking her out to a penny arcade and she begins the seduction by not so coyly having him check out her gams when she complains about her stockings. Arranged or not, the chemistry is there. When they kiss, he is rough and she gives in. The kiss is passionate, a mixture of pleasure and pain. She leaves possibly with a bruise on her arm but inevitably with butterflies in her stomach.

The juxtaposition of opposites is quite important in this film. I was particularly intrigued by the Kathleen versus Mari opposition. Kathleen is maternal. For example, when Bradford is hurt her instinct is to take care of him, get him coffee, mother him. Mari on the other hand is like a porcelain doll. She’s only useful as an object of adoration or lust. Art-dealer Hardy Cathcart marries her based on the fact that she resembles a subject in his favorite portrait painting! Having Mari in the story helps us better comprehend Kathleen as a character and vice versa. We have a better understanding of who someone is when we understand who their opposite is. Or I might just be an amateur Deconstructionist.
If there is ever a child character in a film noir, be on the alert! No matter how

I cannot go on about this film without talking about the debonnaire Clifton Webb! Oh goodness me! They did not even need to give his character his own name. He could have just been “Clifton Webb” and we would have gotten it. The audience is introduced to him at a high-class society party where he is being suave and sociable. He’s a rich art-collector obsessed with possessing his wife. It’s the quintessential Clifton Webb role, second only to his character in Laura (1944).


I often relish those little details that may be insignificant to others but are always a pleasure to me. The fact that a gun is referred to as a “pepper pot” made me giggle. Any mention of “chop suey” makes me



The Dark Corner had made several trips onto and off of my lengthy Netflix queue. I was intrigued by the idea of a Lucille Ball-film noir but needed another angle to get me to watch it. When I was asked to write about one of a few films, I knew this was my chance to really sink my teeth into another good film noir. I was very glad I did and will recommend this film to anyone who will listen.