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.
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.