Outside the Law

Shortly after the story begins, a soldier is shot and killed by his so-called 'friends'. Only moments before, he was talking with another soldier, Johnny Salvo (Ray Danton). Well, soon Johnny is offered a chance to work with government in order to try to not only solve the murder but stop a counterfeiting ring....the same 'friends' that killed the soldier. What incentive are they offering for Johnny's help? Well, he joined the army because he was offered a choice...the army or prison! Apparently, Johnny's an ex-con...and if he helps, he'll have his entire criminal record released. The case is complicated when Johnny falls in love with the widow...and you have no idea if she's part of this gang or not.

Ray Danton is hardly a household name today, but he was a good actor...and a very handsome one at that. This film shows that he COULD do a great job despite being a B or C-list actor...and he is very good here. The story also is interesting and kept my interest. Well worth seeing.

Ex-con Ray Danton is recruited by his father, Onslow Stevens, to help track down and break a gang of counterfeiters in Germany. Danton is angry with his father, but accepts. Stevens can't keep his love for his son from interfering with the operations.

It's a nice, murky little movie directed by Jack Arnold, with some love interest provided by Leigh Snowden, and a general air of "just doing my job" on the part of the other agents and the counterfeiters, even when they look like they're about to get violent. Utility cinematographer Irving Glassberg shows his usual high level of professionalism in the sort of throwaway programmer that Arnold was able to put something extra into.

Jack Arnold directed this subpar Universal-International movie, a Ray Danton vehicle of one-dimensional characters and flat, boring story elements.

The culprit is screenwriter Danny Arnold (no relation). Right through to the corny, blah ending, his work is quite poor, hardly indicative of hi great success later in TV producing and creating hits "That Girl" and "Barney Miller".

Danton plays an ex-con and WW II vet chosen by his estranged father to become an undercover government agent to help break up an international counterfeiting ring. He glides effortlessly through the role, while Arnold's iconic hero (of "Incredible Shrinking Man") Grant Williams sleepwalks through a cast-against-type assignment as chief heavy. The uneasy re0lationship between Danton and his dad Onslow Stevens is central to the story but comes across as completely artificial. Leigh Snowden is the pretty but overly "nice" heroine, as Danny's script fails to give her character an edge or any possibility of being a femme fatale.

It adds up to being a forgettable, boring programmer.

The noirish theme of the returning G. I. is perpetuated in this film made as late as 1956, more than a decade after most had returned from the War. In this case, Ray Danton plays an Army Staff Sergeant who has been called back from Europe to help the U. S. Treasury crack a counterfeiting case which has been plaguing them for 15 years. Danton had been permitted to join the Army as a condition of his parole, having been imprisoned for a minor offence when younger. He has done well in the army, been promoted, won a medal, was wounded, the whole lot. He is now offered the chance to have his "slate wiped clean" for his earlier crime by cooperating in solving the case. The head of the enquiry team in Washington is his own father! They are severely estranged and tensions run high between them. The reason why Danton is considered important is that he knew a member of the counterfeiting gang who was recently murdered. He is asked to call on that man's widow (played by Leigh Snowden) and see if he can glean any information on the gang. It turns out that Snowden had only known her husband for three months before he left for Europe and is ignorant of his criminal activities. But she is jealously watched by another member of the gang. Things get violent very fast. Will our hero survive? Will he fall in love with the pretty widow? Can the villains be traced? And can the case be solved? The film is competently done and all is eventually revealed.

Ray Danton stars with Leigh Snowden in Outside the Law from 1956.

Danton is Johnny Salvo, ex-army and currently on parole. He has a chance to wipe his record clean if he can help catch the members of a counterfeit ring.

He has an "in" - someone he knew in the Army whom the treasury department believe played a part in the ring was recently murdered. The problem is that the head of the investment is Johnny's father (Onslow Stevens), and they are estranged. He agrees to be part of the investigation, but reluctantly.

Johnny meets his friend's widow Maria (Snowden) and falls for her. He has competition in the sinister Don Kastner ( Grant Williams). Are they involved with the counterfeit ring?

The most interesting thing to me was Snowden, who at some angles bore a strong resemblance to Marilyn Monroe. In fact, she was signed as a Monroe type by Universal.

She didn't have MM's personality but few women were signed to a film contract by walking on stage in front of soldiers during a Jack Benny show. She retired early and sadly died young.

Exciting scenes at the end, and fascinating as the authorities search for counterfeit money in a linens shipment.