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Cloak and Dagger – Eureka Video (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Date: USA, 1946
Director: Fritz Lang
Writers: Albert Maltz, Ring Lardner Jr.
Cast: Gary Cooper, Lilli Palmer, Robert Alda, Vladimir Sokoloff, J. Edward Bromberg, Marjorie Hoshelle, Ludwig Stössel, Helene Thimig, Dan Seymour, Marc Lawrence

Release Date: January 27th, 2020
Approximate Running Time: 106 Minutes 38 Seconds
Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1 Aspect Ratio / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC
Rating: PG (UK)
Sound: LPCM Mono English
Subtitles: English SDH
Region Coding: Region B
Retail Price: £14.99 (UK)

"Nuclear physicist Alvah Jesper (Cooper) is recruited by the U.S. Office of Strategic Services to become a reluctant undercover agent, traveling to Switzerland to meet with a fellow scientist regarding information on Germany’s plans to construct an atomic bomb. After this colleague is assassinated, Jesper must sneak into Italy via the underground resistance, to contact another scientist. While there, Jesper falls in love with resistance fighter Gina (Lilli Palmer, in her first Hollywood role), and the two must battle shootouts, double crosses, and narrow escapes to smuggle the scientist out of Italy." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 3.75/5

Cloak and Dagger comes on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 44.9 GB

Feature: 30.4 GB

No information is provided about this transfer; that said, it appears to use the same source that Olive Films used for their 2013 Blu-ray. The source is in very good shape, and any source debris is minimal. Image clarity, contrast, and black levels are strong; compression is very good; and the image retains an organic look.

Audio: 4/5

This release comes with one audio option, a LPCM mono mix in English with removable English SDH. The audio is in great shape. Dialog comes through clearly, everything sounds balanced, and range-wise things sound very good.

Extras:

Extras for this release include Cloak and Dagger: Lux Radio Theater radio adaptation starring Lilli Palmer and Ronald Reagan (57 minutes 58 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), Cloak and Dagger: The Radio Series – twenty-two episodes (twenty episodes approximate running time is 29 minutes 31 seconds and the other two clock in at 28 minutes 1 second and 28 minutes 31 seconds, LPCM mono English, no subtitles), a video essay by David Cairns titled Spycraft (19 minutes 15 seconds, LPCM stereo English, no subtitles) an audio commentary with film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, and a 28-page booklet with cast & crew information, an essay titled Year One of the Atomic Age; Terror in Fritz Lang’s Cloak and Dagger written by Samm Deighan, an episode guide for Cloak, and Dagger the radio series and information about the transfer titled Notes on Viewing.

Summary:

Directed by Fritz Lang, whose other notable films include Der Müde Tod (Destiny), Metropolis, Spies, M, Scarlet Street, The Woman in the Window, and The Big Heat.

Though Fritz Lang directed most of his espionage during World War II, his last espionage film, Cloak and Dagger, was released in 1946, a year after World War II ended. Content-wise, all the espionage films that he directed in America have an enemy that Fritz Lang knew all too well: the Nazis. In 1933, he left Germany when the Nazis took over the government.

The time during which Cloak and Dagger takes place is what sets it apart from Fritz Lang’s other espionage films. Where his other espionage films took place during World War II, Cloak and Dagger takes place near the end of World War II, during a time when Americans were in a race with Germany to create what’s now known as an atom bomb.

The Cloak and Daggers narrative is propelled by the protagonist’s urgency to find out how far along the Germans are in regards to building their atomic bomb. And it’s precisely this urgency that allows Cloak and Dagger to keep up the tension that builds to a fever pitch by the film’s finale.

Perhaps the ability to create tense moments, more than any other element, most embodies Fritz Lang’s films. Throughout his career, he had a knack for talking about mundane moments and turning them into moments overflowing with tension. And nowhere is this clearer in Cloak and Dagger than in a scene where the protagonist gets forced to kill a Gestapo agent to hide his identity. The protagonist is not a spy; he's a nuclear physicist who’s been thrust into the world of espionage, and before this moment, he’s never killed anyone.

Performance-wise, the cast is very good in their respective roles, especially Gary Cooper (Meet John Doe, High Noon) in the role of this film’s protagonist, a nuclear physicist named Alvah Jesper. Other notable performances include Marjorie Hoshelle (The Mask of Dimitrios) in the role of Ann Dawson, a double-dealing femme fatale whose job it is to expose American spies, and Marc Lawrence (Dream No Evil) in the role of a Gestapo agent named Luigi. Ultimately, Cloak and Dagger is a well-made film that fans of espionage cinema should thoroughly enjoy.

Cloak and Dagger gets a first-rate release from Eureka Video that comes with a strong audio/video presentation and a wealth of extras, recommended.