Today is the eightieth anniversary of the premiere of The Dark Corner, and I’ll take all good reasons to see the film again. I wrote about The Dark Corner in September 2025 to celebrate the tenth anniversary of my blog. My very first blog article—in 2015—was about The Dark Corner. It’s a film I can see again and again and never tire of it.
The following list shows three blog articles that I have written about The Dark Corner. Click on each list item below to read more about the film:
◊ The Dark Corner (1946)
◊ Four Favorite Noirs: Born to Kill (1947), The Dark Corner (1946), Marlowe (1969), and Too Late for Tears (1949)
◊ Ten Years of Film Noir at Make Mine Film Noir, and It All Started in The Dark Corner (1946)
Kathleen Stuart (played by Lucille Ball) is a secretary working for Brad Galt (played by Mark Stevens). Galt is a San Francisco transplant hoping to start a new life working as a private investigator in New York City. He is haunted by his past. His former business partner in San Francisco framed him for an auto accident that wasn’t his fault. Now, in New York City, someone is using this information against him to commit murder and pin the crime on him. The story starts with a mysterious stranger following Kathleen and Brad on their first date. Kathleen is in love with her boss, and she is willing to help him clear his name.
The start of the baseball season in the United States is barely two weeks old, so I will say again that Kathleen Stuart uses a running baseball metaphor to describe the start of her courtship with Brad Galt. It’s a metaphor she brings up more than once. The on-screen chemistry works so well between Kathleen and Brad, and one of the reasons for that is because it’s not long into the story before Brad is embellishing the metaphor, too.
For example, after one of their first dates, Brad brings Kathleen to the front door of her apartment building and expresses disappointment when she makes it clear that she won’t be inviting him up. He insists that he is thirsty and in need of a glass of water, but Kathleen stands firm: “There you go again, pitching low and outside.” Brad reluctantly agrees to leave and goes back down the steps of the front stoop. On the sidewalk at the bottom of the stairs, he gives the “safe” sign. (It’s hard to see in the photo below, but that is Brad giving the “safe” sign in front of Kathleen’s apartment building.)
The “safe” sign wasn’t obvious to everyone apparently. I bring up this particular example because it wasn’t obvious to James Ursini. In the DVD commentary for The Dark Corner provided by Alain Silver and James Ursini, Ursini admits that he didn’t know what Brad was doing when he saw the film for the first time. He says something along the lines of “Here we have the double entendre stuff, with baseball and umps, when he [Brad] does his little routine being safe. [pause] Or does that mean ‘out’?” Silver tells him that Ursini was right the first time.
I was surprised by this because I thought everyone knew the sign for “safe” in baseball. It’s my favorite sport, but I am not the most dedicated fan and follow it intermittently, and even I knew what Brad was trying to do. But the truth is that you don’t need to know anything about baseball to enjoy The Dark Corner.
If you haven’t seen the film yet, you have something to look forward to—whether or not you know anything at all about baseball. I remember how much I enjoyed The Dark Corner the first time I saw it (really every time I see it). I cannot recommend it enough.
Have I seen the film eighty times? No, not even close. But I am working on it!
April 9, 1946, release date • Directed by Henry Hathaway • Screenplay by Bernard C. Schoenfeld and Jay Dratler • Based on a story by Leo Rosten • Music by Cyril J. Mockridge • Edited by J. Watson Webb, Jr. • Cinematography by Joseph MacDonald
Lucile Ball as Kathleen Stuart • Mark Stevens as Bradford Galt • Clifton Webb as Hardy Cathcart • William Bendix as Stauffer, alias Fred Foss, White Suit • Kurt Kreuger as Anthony Jardine • Cathy Downs as Mari Cathcart • Reed Hadley as Lieutenant Frank Reeves • Constance Collier as Mrs. Kingsley • Eddie Heywood as himself, playing with his orchestra • Molly Lamont as Lucy Wilding • Ellen Corby as the maid
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox • Produced by Twentieth Century Fox
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