... maybe that's why she never sang in any other picture. But that's a minor point, because "The Man With A Cloak" is an absorbing, interesting 84 minutes with a surprise payoff. I hate rehashing plots, but just a couple of brushstrokes; Joseph Cotten arrives in NYC, as does Leslie Caron, he penniless and she interceding for her fiancé back in Paris (it is 1848). She is looking for her fiancé's dying grandfather (Calhern) to intercede for funds and runs into Cotten. She tells him she has come to an impasse in the form of Calhern's iron-willed housekeeper (Stanwyck). It seems none of Calhern's staff like him and hope he will die soon so they can split his fortune. Together Cotten and Caron try to outwit his staff's plans to hasten Calhern's departure.
I disagree with most of the other reviewers and I felt it was a very good story (from a book by John Dickson Carr) which keeps the viewer off balance throughout. It is held together by old pros Stanwyck and Calhern and keeps you guessing right up to the end of the picture. I thought it could have used some mood music at times to heighten tension in some spots, but on the whole it is a very entertaining 84 minutes without any perceptible down time which could have been edited out. Good, solid, if unspectacular, filmmaking. And don't forget; there is a unique ending as a bonus.
I disagree with most of the other reviewers and I felt it was a very good story (from a book by John Dickson Carr) which keeps the viewer off balance throughout. It is held together by old pros Stanwyck and Calhern and keeps you guessing right up to the end of the picture. I thought it could have used some mood music at times to heighten tension in some spots, but on the whole it is a very entertaining 84 minutes without any perceptible down time which could have been edited out. Good, solid, if unspectacular, filmmaking. And don't forget; there is a unique ending as a bonus.