March 13

Henry Hathaway

There are two things I have learned since I have been doing these blogs, 1) my spelling has not improved as much as I have been trying and 2) I don't know directors as well as I thought I did.

Henry Hathaway is know for directing westerns, but in looking up his films he did a number of different styles. To honor his work on his birthday I watched The Dark Corner a film noir. There are a lot of circles of light moments in the film, some to show the actors and some to show the silhouette of the actors. It is very atmospheric.

The film stars Mark Stevens as a private eye and Lucille Ball as his secretary. While the two are on a date at an arcade a man follows them, a man in a white suit played by William Bendix. They meet up at Mark's office where William said he is also a private detective. When he empties his pocket there is a close up of a role of nickles “a poor mans brass knuckles” and a horseshoe key chain. When asked how long he was following him William says “Two days. I was climbing in your pocket all the time.” “Who buys the tickets?” (just the beginning of great dialog). William states that Jardine hired him. Jardine was Mark's partner in San Francisco, a charming man with a hobby of blackmail. Years ago Jardine drugged Mark and Mark caused an accident which killed a man and he was sentenced to jail for 2 years. The next night Mark was knocked down by a car. William was driving that car. He drops it off at Clifton Webb's house and he honks the horn. William goes into his own car. The next scene Clifton is meeting with Jardine. Clifton looks at his watch and calls it an end to the meeting he has an appointment. It is Jardine's car that William was driving. Jardine is having an affair with Clifton’s wife, who is a much younger woman who visits him. Mark got a partial license plate and was able to trace it to an apartment. Mark goes to that address and Jardine is surprised. Jardine denies any knowledge of hiring a private defective. They fight and the woman calls the police.

The movie takes a strange turn when art gallery owner Clifton shows a select few an old Italian painting that he was obsessed with that looks just like his wife. Jardine and Clifton's wife talk about going away that night, just a few feet away from Clifton. He sees their shadow in a circle of light as they kiss. William then meets with Clifton and makes an arrangement to meet with Mark with Clifton sets up Jardine. Mark goes to apartment where William is waiting for him and Mark gets chloroformed. William hits Jardine with a poker and puts the poker in Mark's hand and trashes the place and stomps on Mark's thumb. Mark wakes up to Lucille ringing the door bell. He stashes the body and Lucille cleans up the apartment. Music from the night club down the street plays in the background during the entire scene. He tries to track down William. “I'm backed up in a dark corner and I don't know who is hitting me.”

Clifton goes to his wife to see if she is ready to leave for a party. He said he needs to meet with Jardine at the party to talk about one of his friends who has discovered his wife is having an affair and to find out a way of getting rid of him legally. He tells his wife that Jardine was in love with another woman a Mrs. Wilding. The wife states jealously that he loathed her. Clifton states “he loathed her rather intimately” in his dry witted humor style. He continues “My love for you is the only malady I've contracted since the usual childhood diseases and it's incurable.”

Mark comes up with the idea of tracking down cleaners for William's white suit which he rubbed ink on in his office. They finally come up with a positive match. They go to that rooming house. William has already left. A little girl heard a phone conversation and told Mark where William went to, but Mark did not understand everything she said. At the same time Jardine's body was discovered at Mark's house. William goes to meet Clifton. When Clifton goes to give him the money he drops some, William bends down to pick it up and Clifton pushes him out the window. This gets me every time. You just don't realize it is coming. Mark sees the role of nickles and the horseshoe key chain on the ground by the body. Mark steals the cab with Williams belongings with the police in hot pursuit Mark gets away and goes to his office where he and Lucille go through the belongings. They then figure out what the girl was saying as the police show up. Mark gets away and goes to the art gallery. Pretending to purchase a statue he waits for Clifton in his office. Clifton's wife comes in while he is waiting and he recognizes the perfume. She faints and Clifton comes in with a gun, upset that Mark is touching his wife's hand. Clifton takes Mark down to the safe. I won't give it away, but hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.