Dangerously They Live

You can skip this one unless you're determined to see every Warner Bros. movie about spies and Nazis that the studio ever made. That's about the only reason for sitting through this turkey, despite a cast that includes such stalwarts as JOHN GARFIELD, RAYMOND MASSEY and NANCY COLEMAN, all of whom must have wished they were not floundering in a weak script.

Garfield looks and acts like a hood, but he's supposed to be a respectable doctor taking care of a patient who claims to have amnesia. (The amnesia theme got quite a workout throughout the '40s as a convenient plot device). But here it turns out that the woman patient (Coleman) is only pretending to have amnesia because some Nazi spies are hot on her trail.

When Garfield allows her to be taken to a private sanitarium where she will be taken care of by the seemingly helpful Raymond Massey, he soon discovers that the house she is sheltered in is really a place for her to be kept prisoner until she divulges some wartime secrets.

There's a little suspense in all of this, but none of the performers seem to be in top form and Garfield seems ill at ease in his doctor role.

Summing up: Not quality stuff. Has all the earmarks of a quickly produced potboiler.

John Garfield is an intern who cares for a young accident victim in "Dangerously They Live," also starring Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, and Moroni Olson.

This looks like a B movie and is certainly short enough to have been a second feature. This is what Warners put John Garfield in after he made a big splash in "Four Daughters?" Jack Warner must have been punishing him for something.

The accident victim in this film, Jane Graystone, played by Coleman, is thought to have amnesia. She is actually a spy for the U. S., and the Nazis are after information she has about a convoy in New Zealand.

Moroni Olson poses as her father, a Mr. Goodwin, but she tells Dr. Lewis (Garfield) the true story and asks for his help. Garfield is a little waylaid, however, when one of his teachers, Dr. Ingersoll (Raymond Massey) appears as a doctor on the case.

He doesn't realize Ingersoll is part of the Nazi team. Ingersoll allows Dr. Lewis to come "home" with Jane - but home seems more like a prison.

Massey turns in an excellent performance and is quite scary as Ingersoll. Coleman, who went on to have a career in television, is pretty, reminiscent of Barbara Rush or Piper Laurie in their youths. However, she's not as good an actress as either of those women.

Garfield is appealing but this is not his kind of role. It would be a few more years before he would be given parts more suited to his abilities. Fortunately, he'd have about five years of excellent roles before the blacklist and his early death.

Though the movie was made right before Pearl Harbor, the handwriting was on the wall for the U. S. The theme of Nazis in our midst was in several films of that time, including "All Through the Night."

Nancy Coleman plays an British agent based in Washington D.C during the Second World War who has some vital information about Allied convoys which

German agents are keen to get their hot and sticky little hands on it and none too scrupulous about how they do it .They capture her but she escapes from their clutches only to be involved in an auto accident which leaves her concussed and with memory loss, Enter John Garfield as the intern in charge of her case .He facilitates her recovery but -suspecting many of the people who claim to know her are in fact Nazi agents -she continues to feign amnesia .She is taken into a private sanatorium by an eminent psychologist ( Raymond Massey ) who is a Nazi agent and which turns out to be a prison in all but name .All the servants and other help are "de facto" wardens and the last part of the movie deals with the attempt of Coleman and Garfield to escape and prevent the bad guys extracting the vital information from them Garfield was unenthusiastic about doing this movie -and agreed to do so only because he could not afford another suspension by the studio .It shows in a lacklustre performance and Raymond Massey has no problem stealing the acting honours in what is a proficient but minor Warner Brothers melodrama -watchable but not exceptional

Nothing to complain about concerning acting, directing because it is a Warner Bros film, so very fast paced without any length, no scene in excess, no, the problem is that it is a dull espionnage yarn, anti Nazi, so predictable that it is a shame that John Garfield, the most gifted actor of his time, the announced heir of Humphrey Bogart, was involved in this so lousy story where everything is written ten miles in advance. And the sequence when Garfield falls - not jumps, falls - from the second floor balcony and then stands up quietly, just as if he stood up from the lawn after taking a sunbath, this scene is just awful to watch...I reject this movie from such a talented director, who gave us authentic film noirs, real dark, terrific - CROOKED WAY, JOHNNY ONE EYE, KING OF ALCATRAZ instead of this one.

It's not Hitchcock quality, but this yarn about World War II espionage in New York is fast-paced fun. It lives up to its intriguing title.

Nancy Coleman plays a beautiful British agent who's hiding a big secret and trying to keep one step ahead of the Nazis. When she briefly lands in a hospital, she fakes amnesia to fool her pursuers, then confides in a young intern (played by John Garfield). Though he likes her looks, he doesn't believe a word of her story, and the two find themselves in plenty of hot water before they finally turn into an effective team.

I have read that Garfield resented having to make this movie. Maybe he preferred "serious" films to escapism, but maybe he just disliked the character he played. The young intern is really dimwitted. It takes clue after clue to convince him that the conspiracy is real. And even afterward, he keeps falling for the Nazis' tricks. He's constantly exclaiming, either with words or with his facial expression, "Gosh, now I get it!" Coleman's character is the bright one. Her spy is resourceful and tough (though more reckless than she ought to be).

The villains are the real stars here. Raymond Massey is always terrific as a manipulative fiend, and Moroni Olsen keeps up with him as his fellow ringleader. When the two ruthless Nazis turn on the charm and pull the wool over decent people's eyes, you want to laugh and hiss at the same time. The contrast between their skillful charade and the transparent thuggery of their minions (played by such veteran heavies as John Harmon and Ben Welden) adds some comic relief.

The end is fairly predictable and less clever than the beginning. (This is not Hitchcock, as noted before.) But unless you truly hate romantic spy films, "Dangerously They Live" will give you a few smiles.