The Dark Corner bears a resemblance to Preminger's Laura in its depiction of the art world as a vicious battleground with only the thinnest veneer of elegance. But Hathaway's tight and engrossing thriller cleverly uses a dual plot development to keep the audience one step ahead of the hero, a private eye (Mark Stevens) just released from jail after having been framed for a crime by his ex-partner. In searching for the turncoat he becomes drawn into the murderous schemes of art dealer Clifton Webb. In The Dark Corner, as in Hathaway's Kiss of Death, the disorientation experienced by men just sprung from jail--men who "feel all dead inside"--serves as a perfect expression of postwar disillusionment and the high price of social readjustment. In a fine cast, Lucille Ball plays Stevens' secretary, and William Bendix creates a memorable emblem of terror (not unlike Widmark's in Kiss of Death) as the omnipresent "man in the white suit" tailing Stevens.