Outside the Law

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.

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 underrated actor, Ray Danton, stars as aGI with a checkered past, who is now working for his father in the Treasury Department. The father and son team (along with several t-men) are trying to crack a very sophisticated counterfeiting ring originating in Germany. I can tell you from direct experience as an owner of a small paper collectibles business, that the Germans are the absolute best paper counterfeiters in the world, by a large margin.

They counterfeit paper collectibles very often in addition to doing counterfeit bill reproduction.

There is the usual romantic interest from a B actress, who was never seen again (or rarely), but it really has little chemistry (her acting is pretty bad). Danton, on the other hand, is very good in his role. Catch him if you can.

Rather good noir with an interesting story of some counterfeiting corruption and a splendid gun fight among the coaches in the bus garage. Leigh Snowden is great in this but only made about ten films although she did make the fantastic, Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and Grant Williams was also good although he made a few more and his most famous one as The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) Of course this gives us a clue as the director made this and the other film by Jack Arnold and if this isn't a wonderful one it is certainly well shot and no messing around and no boring moments. He was 56 when he made this one and before he had Tarantula (1955) and Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) - not bad even if there aren't really any beasts in this one.

Army parolee Johnny Salvo (Ray Danton) is offered a chance to "wipe his slate clean" and regain his citizenship rights if he agrees to help the Secret Service investigate the suspicious death and activities of another Army parolee while in Berlin. It's a dicey situation because he'll be under the supervision of his own father, whom he deeply resents, and the investigation leads to an international counterfeiting ring who'll stop at nothing, including murder, to protect their operation. With his life in danger, Johnny falls for the attractive widow in the case who may or may not be part of the criminal gang. Charming but sinister gang boss (Grant Williams) is determined to get Johnny out of the picture. Suspenseful and absorbing drama as the complicated operation is gradually uncovered will keep viewers engaged.