I somehow missed what the Clifton Webb character's motivation was for bringing down the private dick.
Any help is appreciated.
Marianne
No, Cathcart was trying to bring down Krueger, the man his younger wife was seeing behind his back, when he was murdered, I didn't see any motivation for him to kill Stevens. Unless I missed something too..
"I promise you, before I die I'll surely come to your doorstep"
Cathcart had nothing specific against Galt, he just needed a convenient fall guy to take the rap for the death of his wife's lover. Galt fit the bill perfectly because of the private eye's previous association with Jardine. Cathcart had covered his tracks well in having his love rival murdered and getting it blamed on Galt. He even launched hired killer "White Suit" out the office building window, so that no one could ever connect him to the crime. But Galt was a better detective than he thought, and traced the murder right back to Cathcart's art gallery.
"Howdy, Bub"
Actually, Galt wasn't all that much better than he thought, but his secretary, played by Lucille Ball, was: 'Twas she who figured out that the garbled message that Galt got from the little girl with the flute referred to Cathcart's gallery. What would Galt have done without Lucy? :-)
shareGood observation wjrapaport. Well said.
shareYou know though what was a really nice touch on the part of the director, Henry Hathaway?
When the William Bendix character was talking to the Clifton Webb character on the phone he wrote down all the information about their meeting on the wall. Had the little whistle girl shown Galt that scrawl he may have gotten to the bottom of the whole thing much sooner and more conveniently. It never came down that way though so Galt and Kathleen had to go about it the hard way. Just a real nice touch by a great director.
Thought so too except that Bendix wrote the address on a piece of paper which he took with him off the wall.
shareWell, after all Lucy was the star of the film. She couldn't just be a dumb secretary.
share[deleted]
That little girl with the whistle was annoying as heck. If I'd lived in that apartment building, the whistle would have "disappeared" and been found stomped into little bits.
I'm thinking only a drum could be a more bothersome toy for a child in an apartment building.
No two persons ever watch the same movie.share
The particular evil of Webb's character (as compared to the other bad guys in the story) was that he had nothing against Galt; he was just using him as a means to his own ends.
shareAnd he played it so cool. So detatched, and all due to his obsession with his wife.
shareI also appreciate the terrific casting of Webb. The guy's so overtly homosexual and his obsession with his wife amounts to her being more of a cherished art object, which plays into him being an art dealer. The Dark Corner still ranks near the top of my list of favorite noirs--- yeah Lucy was 35 and a bit old for the role perhaps, but it's got a solid plot, excellent performances, great direction (Hathaway was a self-described tyrant but yeesh, he gave us Kiss of Death a year later too) and a fantastic shocking matte shot of an airborne Bill Bendix you just don't see in a lot 40's movies (okay, Saboteur...). And Galt nearly gets squished by a '46 Lincoln Continental V-12 cabriolet... the pinball machine scene... I love this movie!
I never saw him as homosexual, actually. I saw him as a total control freak, who has to obsessively order everything around him, up to and including his wife. A prissy and self-important control freak, the sort who looks down at us worms, but not as homosexual.
Just my take.
A masterful performance.
shareMy friend and I were cracking up when after he killed the hit guy by pushing him out the window and then calmly went to his dentist appointment. When he saw his wife kissing her lover in the yard, I actually felt a little sympathy for the old guy since it's obvious he adored his cheating spouse. But after he framed Galt, it went out the window. No pun intended. I will admit, I was shocked by the ending when his angry wife "iced" him. Galt is lucky she didn't shot him, or try to frame him again.
shareA very late response on my part.
Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb) wanted to take out his partner, Tony Jardine (Kurt Kreuger), for fooling around with his young wife, Mari Cathcart (Cathy Downs). Cathcart knew that if he murdered Jardine he'd fry for it. He also knew that Jardine had framed Bradford Galt (Mark Stevens). What better way to get rid of his lethario partner than to kill him and frame Galt for the murder.
Much to the screen-writer's credit, this wasn't obvious at first, nor did they feel the audience had to be hand-led to the plot point; they let the audience figure it out themselves.
Watta ya lookn here for?
Absolutely! While Cathcart had no relationship with Galt, he'd done his homework and knew that Galt, having done a two-year bit after being set-up by Jardine, came with a ready-made motive: revenge.
The police of that time wouldn't've looked two-inches past Galt for Jardine's murder, especially given the way that Stauffer set him up for the killing! (And he further insulated himself by posing as the fictitious "Fred Foss" in case Galt had mentioned that name to anyone.
It was a complex and brilliant scheme… one which NYPD Lieutenant Frank Reeves readily bought into ("He's going to fry for it.")
Absolutely! While Cathcart had no relationship with Galt, he'd done his homework and knew that Galt, having done a two-year bit after being set-up by Jardine, came with a ready-made motive: revenge.
The police of that time wouldn't've looked two-inches past Galt for Jardine's murder, especially given the way that Stauffer set him up for the killing! (And he further insulated himself by posing as the fictitious "Fred Foss" in case Galt had mentioned that name to anyone.
It was a complex and brilliant scheme… one which NYPD Lieutenant Frank Reeves readily bought into ("He's going to fry for it.")
Also, the plan originally was to push Galt into committing the murder himself. Bendix lets himself get made, and even roughed up into revealing that "Jardine" is behind it all.
But Bendix later says to Webb that: "Galt isn't going to put his head in a noose. Why don't you let me take care of it?"
That's when the plot changes to simply framing Galt.