THE MAN WITH A CLOAK (1951)

In 1848 New York, young innocent country girl Madeline Minot arrives from Paris, looking for Charles Thevenet, the rich grandfather of her lover Paul, a revolutionary who needs money to continue his activities back home. At a tavern, the penniless alcoholic poet Dupin (the titular cloaked man) helps Madeline find his address but she is distressed by her reception. Thevenet, though supposedly dying, is an unpleasant old curmudgeon being attended to by his arrogant housekeeper Lorna and his unfriendly butler Joseph. When Madeline asks Joseph what is causing the old man's death, he replies, "His life." Lorna and Joseph are expecting to get money when Thevenet dies, and are aware that, if the old man gives money to Paul, they may wind up mot getting what they see as their fair share. Suspicious of Lorna, Madeleine gets Dupin to help her investigate Thevenet's situation. Worried that Lorna may be poisoning the old man's medicine, they have it analyzed to find that it's neither nor medicine poison but sugar water. Thevenet calls his lawyer to change his will to leave his money to Paul, then plans to kill himself with a poisoned brandy, but he has a debilitating stroke just after attending to the will and the lawyer winds up dead, having drunk the brandy instead. The will goes missing, though Thevenet, unable to speak, tries to communicate the will's hiding place to Dupin, put somewhere in the room by his pet raven. After the old man dies, all concerned are looking for the will, though Dupin has the advantage, if only he can decipher Thevenet's last clues.

This is a period psychological thriller with a twist; it's technically a spoiler, but every reviewer and summary writer mentions it, and most viewers will figure it out fairly early on: Dupin is actually Edgar Allan Poe, a struggling unknown poet, though Thevenet appears to own a volume of Poe's poetry, from which Dupin reads a portion of The Raven out loud. In real life, Poe was well known by 1848 and died just a year later. The presence of Poe (using the name of his detective character Auguste Dupin) is mostly a gimmick that has little importance to the plot, but Joseph Cotten is fine in the role, wisely underplaying throughout, though it does feel strange that the alcoholic poet never acts drunk in the least.  Leslie Caron is serviceable as Madeline, but the real star of the show is Barbara Stanwyck as Lorna—because she looks every bit the secretive villain, she also effectively underplays her role. A flirtation of sorts develops between her and Dupin but goes nowhere. Almost as good is Louis Calhern as Thevenet; he makes the old man quite unlikable but still somewhat sympathetic. Villion, the pet raven, is fun; Joe De Santis is the thuggish butler, Margaret Wycherly is the cook, and an unrecognizable Jim Backus is an Irish bartender who lets Dupin drink without paying. A nice near Gothic feel is generated by the sets and cinematography. Pictured are Cotten and Stanwyck. [TCM]