The Dark Corner was Lucille Ball’s venture into film noir, as a secretary who helped a private detective clear his name.
The Dark Corner was released in 1946, directed by Henry Hathaway. Mark Stevens played Brad Galt, a private detective who was framed for murder by a former partner, played by Clifton Webb. Lucille Ball played Kathleen Stewart, Galt’s secretary, who believed in his innocence and helped him to uncover the plot against him.
The film used the shadows, night streets and moral ambiguity of film noir, a genre that was new in the mid-1940s. Ball’s Kathleen was practical and loyal, and her performance showed that she could work in a serious thriller as well as in musicals and comedies.
The Dark Corner is less well known than Ball’s later television work, but it remains an interesting part of her film career. It showed her range, and it came at a time when she was moving from MGM back to freelance work, just before radio and television changed her career.