Cornered **** (1945, Dick Powell, Micheline Cheirel, Walter Slezak) – Classic Movie Review 5252

Director Edward Dmytryk’s edgy, gripping 1945 RKO film noir thriller finds an ideal star in Dick Powell, who plays a former Canadian airman called Laurence Gerard, who returns to France and then goes to Buenos Aires as he doggedly tracks down the Nazis who killed his Resistance fighter wartime French wife.

John Paxton’s screenplay, based on a story by John Wexley, has the odd longueur and plot muddle, but it is otherwise very strong and sturdy and compelling.

And also otherwise, Dmytryk keeps his movie as taut and tense as possible. The film marks the very welcome re-teaming of Dmytryk and Powell after Farewell My Lovely (1944), with the star back on his best dour form.

Also in the cast are Micheline Cheirel, Walter Slezak, Morris Carnovsky, Nina Vale, Edgar Barrier, Jack La Rue, Luther Adler, Gregory Gaye, Steven Geray and Ellen Corby.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5252

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