Cornered (1945)

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Cornered (1945) – E. Dmytryk

Dick Powell is a shell-shocked Canadian airman at the end of his tether looking for the Vichy French collaborator who killed his wife (and dozens of others) and fled to Argentina.  He doesn’t listen to nobody but that’s probably a wise idea when the people he meet are like Walter Slezak’s oily guide (a.k.a. go between) who leads him straight to the fascists hiding his target only to double or triple cross him (although everyone is out for themselves here).  It isn’t clear whether we are meant to be seeing things from distrustful Powell’s perspective or whether the endless lies told by all of the secondary characters were craftily designed to fool us.  This is a film noir that is constructed to create a world that is confusing as hell.  Even at the end, I wasn’t quite sure until the final minute who had won.  Director Edward Dmytryk was notorious as a member of the Hollywood Ten, jailed for contempt of Congress for not speaking to the House Un-American Activities Committee, who eventually named names.  Whether he inserted a message willingly or not, Cornered does contain some pleas for solidarity against the fascists who could be anywhere, even today. Indeed, the fascists in this film attribute the credit for their own success to the policies and acts of major governments that keep people in poverty and refuse to take notice of them and to treat them with respect. The film looks grimy and burnt out, exactly as a post-war noir should.