I Live on Danger

I have always liked the acting of Chester Morris. While he was never a huge name in Hollywood and usually made B-movies, he managed to make these films a bit better than they should have been considering their often ridiculous plots. A good example are his Boston Blackie films--all formulaic but also strangely enjoyable. Another example is "I Live on Danger"--a film with a plot that is often hard to believe but which works nevertheless.

Jeff Morrell (Morris) is a crusading radio reporter. He'll do just about anything for a story--even pick at the bones of survivors from a shipwreck. However, through the course of this film, he proves to be a decent guy down deep--though he has trouble proving it until late in the film.

It seems that among the folks who were rescued from the shipwreck was a young lady (Jean Parker) who Morrell immediately realizes is the sister of a man wanted for murder. So, he takes her home and treats her kindly--all just so he can get a story. However, over time, he is really smitten by her and is torn between getting the big story and his love for her. When she learns why he brought her home and nursed her back to health, she's naturally furious and their budding love is dead. Later, when her brother is captured, Morrell sees a possibility that the guy was framed. Can he prove this and get the girl back or is the seemingly innocent man destined for execution? There are many coincidences and watching a reporter solve a HUGE criminal conspiracy is a bit far-fetched. But it also is pretty exciting and Morris once again does a very professional job. Worth seeing and far better than you might expect from a B.

By the way, the plot to this film seemed very, very familiar and I'd swear I'd seen it before but IMDb does not indicate that "I Live on Danger" is a remake. If you can help me with this, I'd appreciate it.

Chester Morris stars as a disgraced radio reporter who stumbles on a story he feels will resurrect his ailing career. While reporting on a maritime disaster, he realizes that one of the survivors (Jean Parker) is a fugitive wanted for murder. He takes her in under the pretense of giving her a place to stay while recovering with the intention of using her to find her partner who is still on the run. The problem is that he falls in love with her and develops a personal stake in the story ... and also comes to realize that they are most likely innocent. A rapidly paced entertaining programmer.

I Live On Danger casts Chester Morris as a radio news reporter who has a rivalry going with fellow reporter Dick Purcell as the two constantly try and top each other with stories. This Pine-Thomas film from Paramount's B picture unit depends considerably on Morris's breezy personality to carry it and it's too great a burden.

Morris's determination for a scoop has him aiding in the capture of fugitive Edward Norris wanted in the murder of a racketeer for whom he took a serious gambling rap and did three years.

Another gambler Douglas Fowley sets Norris up and kills bookie Edwin Maxwell with shots fired through an open window. I mean really if Norris had kept a cool head and stayed and reported the murder they would have seen he had no gun and would have looked in other directions for a solution. Even at that in a montage of clips about the trial he keeps insisting he had no gun. I think a law school freshman could have gotten him off.

Morris gets the scoop but earns the enmity of Norris's sister Jean Parker and even his own mother Elizabeth Risdon. After that he works to free Norris.

Not much suspense here, my three year old grandnephew could figure this one out.

Pine-Thomas came up real short here.

It's a tense moment and everything is up to radio reporter Chester Morris. He grabs his microphone and cable, and just as he turns to charge into the face of danger, he instructs the remote broadcast engineer: "Give them the signal to put me on the air right away!" –It's not a very likely story, but it makes for an entertaining show.

Morris as our hero is his usual fast-talking self—confident, imaginative, quick but cool under pressure—but this movie aims for some character development from his role as well. Early on, while Chester's interested only in the facts of a case and in his own promotion, his broadcast partner attempts to tell him that there's more to life than headlines: "Someday something's gonna come and hit you in the kisser," he says. "Then you'll know what I'm talking about." And sure enough, something does come along….

Namely, Jean Parker as the sister of an accused murderer whom Morris helps to capture. Parker is quite good—the dialog isn't exactly brilliant, but she is allowed to express anger, confusion, affection, concern, a whole range of emotions, and she doesn't skimp on the theatrics, or overdo them either.

Dick Purcell is fun as a flamboyant rival reporter. (Purcell and Morris refer to each other as Nip and Tuck and have an ongoing competition over which one gets to be Nip.) A variety of other familiar B movie faces are also on hand.

The plot isn't much….in fact, the version of this movie that I watched had several minutes missing (cut for TV at some point?) so there were moments in the first half of the film where I had absolutely no idea what was going on. I caught up, more or less, and the second half of the film seemed pretty much intact; but anyone watching a 65-minute version of the film will want to know that the full picture was once 73 minutes…and yes, you can tell there's something missing.

Overall, though—it's a neat little B mystery-adventure-romance.