Wordiezett So much average

Console best movie i've ever seen.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

BasicLogic first of all, the screenplay is so stupid and so shallow. a professor without any field training could become involved and acted like double o seven, flew first into swiss, then infiltrated into Italy, it's just such a naive screenplay. the sound track of the music synchronized with every gesture and movement of the actors, so over-the-top dramatic and exaggerated like Walt Disney's cartoons, sometimes very patriotic, sometimes sentimental, Christ on a crutch, givemeabreak. then when the guy sneaked into Italy, all the morons started smoking in the rear of the truck, when met Italian army's road block, the car was stopped, then easily let go, but then another stupid scenario put into play, the truck stuttered and couldn't drive away, then the Italian soldier lifted the canvas, used flashlight to check the back. the soldier must got a flu so serious that he couldn't even smell the cigarettes smoke those morons (including the high i.q. American physicist) just lit up and snuffed out a moment ago. then the stupid music accompanied the movie's actions and tempos going on and on. i don't want to mentioned the stupid arrangement of a beautiful Italian woman, Gina, the change her wet clothes in front of those men. the woman did another clothes changing in front of the American professor again, and warned him not to stare at her. the whole screenplay was just so stupidly drafted with contrived dialog, and the directing was also primitive. but the most annoying thing is the music. Jesus, sometimes even with so romantic violin score. stupid romance during the war, what a drag.

Alex da Silva Gary Cooper (Professor Jesper) is a nuclear scientist who is sent on an espionage assignment into Switzerland to discover and report back what progress the Nazis have made in developing an atomic bomb. It's World War II and the race is on to blow each other up. He is told that respected scientist Helen Thimig (Katarin Lodor) is to be his point of contact but his assignment turns into a rescue mission on meeting her. When this fails, he switches his focus to Italy where he links up with the Italian Underground movement in order to rescue Vladimir Sokoloff (Polda), another super-brain scientist.The film reminded me of a James Bond style spy story. The cast are all OK and there are plenty of sequences that propel the plot forwards, although the film loses it's pace a bit with the romantic section between Cooper and Resistance fighter Lilli Palmer (Gina), which slows things down for about 20 minutes. As regards the plot, I'm not sure it makes sense. Jesper is sent to find out information and report back, but he ends up in the front-line as a spy with a gun who has to fight and defend himself and is involved in a kidnapping plot. Totally unreal but it really doesn't matter. It's an enjoyable film with a collection of memorable sequences, eg, the French Resistance at the beginning, the scene when Cooper confronts undercover Gestapo agent Marjorie Hoshelle (Ann Dawson), the Italian Resistance and the episode in the truck, and the fight scene between Cooper and Marc Lawrence (Luigi).

ferbs54 Inspired by the wartime exploits of the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA, Fritz Lang's "Cloak and Dagger" (1946) tells the story of Alvah Jesper, a mild-mannered physics professor at a Midwestern university. Jesper is "hired" by the OSS to go to Europe at the tail end of WW2 and investigate Germany's development of the atomic bomb. (Hmmm...a mild-mannered, Midwestern university professor fighting Nazis during WW2...why does that seem so familiar?) Jesper, played by Gary Cooper, travels to Zurich and fascist Italy, winds up helping two fellow physicists who are being used by Germany, and becomes involved with a pretty Italian underground courier, Gina, feistily portrayed here by Lilli Palmer. (Curiously, although the film's opening credits say "And introducing Lilli Palmer," she had appeared in dozens of films before this one. What's up with that?) The picture features a fair amount of suspense and paranoia; indeed, not even nuns can be trusted in the web of espionage that Prof. Jesper finds himself caught in. Although it slows down a bit in its midsection, when Alvah and Gina are hiding out in various (not-so) safe houses, the viewer's brief patience is soon rewarded by the film's highlight: a brutal fight between Cooper and an eye-gouging OVRA agent (well portrayed by the perpetually slimy character actor Marc Lawrence); a tough, dirty and realistic battle to the death with only the sound of a street singer as accompaniment. I would imagine even Hitchcock applauding this bravura sequence. Expertly directed by Lang for maximum tension and featuring still another rousing score by the great Max Steiner, "Cloak and Dagger" is quite the winning entertainment indeed. Bottom line: If you want to see Cooper in what almost amounts to a proto-James Bond role--and he does acquit himself quite credibly--then this picture is for you.

kyrat I'm a fan of both Gary Cooper and Fritz Lang films, and while I don't think this film is either person's greatest work, I did enjoy it.I think it's important to think about the time this was filmed and to think about how close it was to the events at the time, coming mere months after the US had bombed the Japanese.I think it was an important step at the time to make us aware of the dangers of nuclear weapons.I felt the film was careful not to turn into a propaganda piece trying to stir up hatred and fear.I also enjoyed see the "average" (if we all looked like movie stars) people doing what they could to fight the enemy. This wasn't supposed to be a trained James Bond, just someone truly concerned with helping as he could.I think what I liked best about the film is that it actually featured strong female characters. There was a famous and respected female nuclear physicists (in a world where women are STILL discriminated against in the sciences at Ivy League schools)! There was a female spy. There was a schoolteacher turned resistance fighter. There were evil women who killed. Women were just as much a part of everything that went on as anyone else.*Spoiler warning* Without revealing too much, I'd like to say that I also like the ending! I liked seeing that duty was chosen over escape or personal comfort. Coming from a woman (who has probably been socialized that men/love is everything) - that was refreshing to see in a movie! No unrealistically wrapped up happy ending.