Cloak and Dagger

Alvah Jesper is a physics professor called into service by the OSS during the war. His job is to find and extract an atomic scientist the Nazis are holding. Italian partisans help him, among them Gina, a woman who has learned to do the work without feeling. Fritz Lang made the film in 1946, immediately after the war, and it carries the unease that followed the atomic bomb. Lang does not present espionage as excitement; scene by scene he shows how amateurish and lethal it is. The best passage is a long, silent struggle, entirely removed from any aesthetic of heroism. Gary Cooper plays the professor and Lilli Palmer plays Gina. The film's original ending was changed by the studio, and a darker closing about the nuclear threat was cut. Who it's for: Viewers who like Fritz Lang, postwar espionage films, and tension built quietly. Who it's not for: The romantic line dilutes the tension and the ending is rushed. The pace is low for anyone expecting the faster examples of the spy genre.