The Man with a Cloak (1951)

Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

Powerful

Excellent adaptation.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It's 1848. Young Frenchwoman Madeline Minot (Leslie Caron) arrives in NYC to see Charles Francois Thevenet (Louis Calhern). He is the wealthy grandfather of her fiancé and had been with Napoleon. His grandson hopes that he's willing to support the Republic. She is introduced to Lorna Bounty (Barbara Stanwyck) who manages his affairs and tries to keep Minot away from him. She pushes her way in to ask for money to help the cause. Bounty and the butler Martin seems to be waiting for the old man to die and leave the fortune to them. They are not happy that Minot is invited to stay. The only man who helps her is the broke Dupin (Joseph Cotten), the man with a cloak. Minot tells him that they're trying to kill Thevenet.The movie starts very simply and there is no mystery. There is some overacting and unimpressive writing at the beginning. The movie does improve a little. Stanwyck is quite good as a cold calculating character. She's like a black widow spider. However it's not as dark as it needs to be. I wanted the Dupin character to be more complicated and more murky. The movie never gets truly interesting. There is a reveal of the name at the end but I don't see it as that fascinating or that enlightening. It answers a question that nobody is even asking.

Interesting period thriller about a young Frenchwoman (Leslie Caron) who comes to New York City looking for the grandfather (Louis Calhern) of her fiancé, a French patriot. She soon finds herself in the middle of a plot hatched by the grandfather's housekeeper (Barbara Stanwyck) to steal the old man's money. The only person she can turn to for help is a cloaked stranger (Joseph Cotten) she meets at a tavern.Not bad but not great costumer. Stanwyck is fine. Caron is pretty and likable in just her second film. Cotten is the best part of the movie. His character's true identity is the movie's big twist. A twist that is likely spoiled for you if you read too much about this one before you see it. Still, the clues are there throughout the picture, such as the character's assumed name and a certain bird that appears throughout. Nice score by David Raskin helps set the mood of a routine story masked by its setting.

I am giving this film two stars, and the reason is that it wastes Barbara Stanwyck. I have seen a large number of her films, and she always stole the picture. People she appeared in films with? Gable, Cooper, Fonda, Bogart, Robinson, Wayne & Elvis (Yep she stole "Roustabout" from Elvis). I can go on, but the point is Stanwyck is dominated by an extremely boring Joseph Cotton as Edgar Allan Poe. Is it a bomb? No it is not, but it is not a Stanwyck Picture for Barbara fans. If you are not that familiar with Barbara's work start with "Ball Of Fire" & "Meet John Doe", this should be about the last film you watch of hers.

Man with a Cloak has an impressive roster of performers but somehow they fail to jell as a team to make for a winning film. Usually Joseph Cotton and Barbara Stanwyck shine in these dark ambiguous roles but here they fail to connect like the rest of the cast who also seem disconnected from each other. It's as if they are still in rehearsal working on their parts and oblivious to everyone else. Wealthy Charles Tavernier (Louis Calhearn) is near death. Loyal but fed up housekeepers await the day to collect the inheritance they feel they so richly deserve. Enter Madeline Minot (Leslie Caron) from Paris who tries to persuade Tavernier to leave his money to his grandson and her fiancé. On the periphery but soon inveigling his way into the drama Dupin a mysterious poet takes up the cause of Minot as Tavernier starts to circle the drain.Stanwyck as the plotting housekeeper gives a nice icy performance in attempting to outwit Minot and Dupin. As things begin to unravel she retains her cool pushing around fellow conspirators and undermining Tavernier's health. Cotton is miscast as the poet more in search of a drink than a sonnet. He lacks the carefree nature of a free spirit and is more smug than charming as the protagonist. Caron is a dour GiGi, Margaret Wycherly steals every scene she utters a word and Calhearn walks off with the acting honors as the withering Tavernier.Director Fletcher Markle and cameraman George Folsey serve up a few William Wyler deep focus moments with some revealing compositions but they never build up enough steam to sustain the whole film or heighten tension before capping things off with a silly denouement that reveals to the audience they have wasted their time.