The Man with a Cloak *** (1951, Joseph Cotten, Barbara Stanwyck, Leslie Caron, Louis Calhern) – Classic Movie Review 11,390

Director Fletcher Markle’s 1951 MGM black and white Gothic noir thriller The Man with a Cloak is a sleekly made, very unusual and involving 19th-century Manhattan murder mystery propelled along with an excellent cast, including Joseph Cotten as the mysterious Dupin, a cloaked famous real-life character (Edgar Allan Poe, though unnamed as such before the end of the film) helping sweet young French orphan Madeline Minot (Leslie Caron) to hold on to her legacy.

It is New York in 1848. Evil housekeeper/ cook home-help Lorna Bounty (Barbara Stanwyck in splendid Mrs Danvers mode) tries to catch Cotten’s eye while she greedily plans to bump off her sick boss, exiled former French Marshal Charles Francois Thevenet (Louis Calhern), the grandpappy or grandfather of Caron’s fiancé.

Madeline arrives at Thevenet’s house, presenting him with a letter of introduction from his grandson, who has sent her to ask him for money to support the revolution in France. Mrs Flynn and butler Martin are also after Thevenet’s fortune, having waited for ten years for him to die. But Madeline has an ally in a chance acquaintance apparently named Dupin, a poor, hard-drinking poet.

Martin (Joe De Santis) and Lorna (Barbara Stanwyck) in The Man with a Cloak (1951).

Neatly played, especially by Cotten and Stanwyck, but also by Joe De Santis (as butler Joseph Martin), Jim Backus (as barkeeper Flaherty), and tautly written, attractively shot and beautifully handled, it is a lot of fun.

Frank Fenton’s screenplay is from John Dickinson Carr’s short story The Gentleman from Paris.

Also in the cast are Margaret Wycherly, Nicholas Joy, Mitchell Lewis, Francis Pierlot, Roy Roberts, Jean Inness, Richard Hale, Jonathan Cott, Frank Worden, Rudy Lee, Dan Foster, and Ernie Flatt.

It cost $882,000 and was a surprise flop for MGM, resulting in a loss of $455,000.

Stanwyck’s singing voice is dubbed by Harriet Lee. ‘Another Yesterday’, the song Stanwyck performs on screen, is written by Earl K Brent.

Calhern took over from Lionel Barrymore as he was ill. Marlene Dietrich turned down the role of Lorna.

It is produced by Stephen Ames, the photographer is George J Folsey and the score is composed by David Raksin.

The print shown on Turner Classic Movies is 81 minutes, though the original running time was 84 minutes.

Leslie Caron celebrated her 90th birthday on 1 July 2021. She made her film debut in An American in Paris (1951), followed by The Man with a Cloak (1951), Glory Alley (1952), The Story of Three Loves (1953), Lili (1953) and The Glass Slipper (1955).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,390

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