Peligro

With Cry Danger, Dick Powell said good bye to the noir genre that had served him well since his electrifying Philip Marlowe in Murder My Sweet. Hard to believe the applecheeked tenor of all those sappy Warner Brothers musicals was the tough guy in some of the best noir films ever done. His few remaining films were not noir and pretty soon Powell was strictly on the small screen.

Powell in this case is a bookie who was sent up for a robbery that he didn't commit. He's out now due to an alibi provided by Richard Erdman who says Powell had been drinking with him the night the robbery had taken place.

With five years of his life taken from him, Powell's out to find who framed him and he hunts with only the determination Dick Powell can muster. He nearly gets framed again when he's given some of the hot money from the robbery to make a bet.

Usually in noir films, cops are usually a bit on the slow side unless the protagonist is a cop. Regis Toomey who plays the cop who arrested Powell five years before is an exception. He has Powell trailed from the moment he leaves prison and that pays off for him and for Powell.

This is a nicely done crisp little crime thriller. Good photography of the seamy side of Los Angeles, especially the trailer park where Powell is residing with Erdman, Rhonda Fleming who's the wife of his partner who's still in prison and Erdman's gal Jean Porter. The trailer park is pretty seedy, but with Rhonda Fleming there it does have its compensations.

This film was shot on location in and around the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles in the 1950's. The seedy trailer park, the crummy cocktail bars, and the Union Station (built in 1939) are the backdrop for a much better than average tale of revenge. Dick Powell gets off a train at the Union Station after spending 5 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He is met by a cop (Regis Toomey) that thinks he not only did the crime, but that he has stashed the loot. Also on the welcoming committee is Richard Erdman as an alcoholic former Marine that provided Powell with an alibi that got him out of prison. Rhonda Fleming plays the wife of a pal of Powell's that remains in prison for the crime. Powell intends to prove not only his innocence, but that of his buddy.

Add to the mix William Conrad as a bad guy with his own agenda and you have a better than average noir. The dialog between Powell and Erdman is dark and funny at the same time. The cinematography captures a part of Los Angeles that fell under the urban renewal wrecking ball that ripped the soul out of this part of the city. Not the greatest film noir ever made, but one of my favorites. Why isn't this film out on DVD?

Like the old Sinatra song, things can be far better the second time around. The first time I saw "Cry Danger" it was shortly after a viewing of "Murder, My Sweet" and it just couldn't compare to that classic. I recently viewed the movie again and I must say that "Cry Danger" was a lot of fun.

The real stars of the movie are 1) the dialogue, and 2) Dick Powell's delivery of that dialogue. Bogart and Mitchum are blue collar guys who deliver these kinds of one-liners beautifully...and it stings...but Powell has an air of elegance and intelligence wrapped in a white collar, so when he gets caustic, condescending, sarcastic, and nasty, it seems to hurt even more. And it hurts so good. There is nothing more delicious to Noir fans than Powell letting rip with a great one-liner. And the more casual he is, the more "tossed away" the line is delivered, the more we grin with satisfaction. It's just a thing of beauty.

The supporting cast is good, with just about everyone pulling their weight admirably. William Conrad, Regis Toomey, and Rhonda Fleming are in fine form. I was expecting twists, turns, and deceit from Erdman's character, but after an interesting reveal in the beginning of the film, his character seems to be abandoned and left only to provide some comic relief. That missed opportunity aside, though, the script is fun and moves along briskly.

The direction is just fine, though not as dark as I would have liked it...but that is a minor complaint. There is a rawness and realism to these B films that I find much more rewarding than a lot of the glossy A films produced.

8 out of 10 for a thoroughly enjoyable hour and a half crawl through the seedy underbelly of Tinsel Town.

Cry Danger (1951)

Humphrey Bogart smiles. Robert Mitchum smiles. Lots of tough film noir types also show a grin or manage a laugh. But not Dick Powell. Forever grim and determined, he is a the archetype of an unhappy man, and usually, as in "Cry Danger," he's out to fix some problem.

This is a Dick Powell movie all the way, and a really good one. There are some great secondary characters, especially the mob leader William Conrad and a suspicious and wise-cracking Marine sidekick played by Richard Erdman. And the plot is good, if twisting slightly and improbable at times. It's also a somewhat cheaply made affair, with a car crash that won't convince a child, and some sets that show their seams. But hey, who cares? It barrels along and stern stiff unflappable Powell (his name is Rocky Mulloy in the movie) won't be stopped, even by love, even by duplicity. And certainly not by cops who should have arrested him several times for his liberties while on parole.

This is director Robert Parrish's first film, and he didn't really direct much later of note except, in 1966, a couple scenes in "Casino Royale." Between the two he did a bunch of so-so westerns. William Conrad, who is thirty at the time of filming here, went on to be television's "Cannon" and "Jake and the Fat Man," but he appeared in a bunch of these B-list noirs and is good every time. The leading woman is a simple type, and good enough at it, but her most memorable role is in "Spiral Staircase," a couple years earlier (definitely see that one). She, too, like half of Hollywood, drifted to t.v. by 1960.

Powell's career is interesting, and his last big role before moving to television himself was in "The Bad and the Beautiful," just a year later. He is never quite a distinctive leading man, and I'm guessing he thought of this as just bread and butter work, but he gives it his usual steely best, and holds the movie together. The other leading character has to be 1950 L.A., without the glamour. Every scene is gritty and real, night and day, and it's yet another sign of end of the studio system and the rise of t.v., with all the location shooting.

A fast, fun one, well filmed.

Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Regis Toomey, Richard Erdman, and Jean Porter star in "Cry Danger," a 1951 film directed by Robert Parrish.

Powell plays Rocky Mulloy, an ex-con, recently released from prison after an alibi appears that clears him of a robbery/murder. The alibi is a Marine (Erdman) named DeLong who says that he and Powell were drinking together at the time the job was pulled.

In truth, Powell didn't commit the crime. However, he has never seen this Marine before in his life. The Marine wants money from the robbery.

The two rent a trailer in a trailer park, where the wife (Rhonda Fleming) of his ex-partner, who is still in prison, lives. She's actually an old girlfriend of Rocky's and the two are still attracted to one another.

Rocky goes after a bookie (William Conrad) who cheated him and unknowingly bets on a fixed race, is paid in the robbery money, which sends the police after him.

It's good to read the comments for this film and realize that many people appreciate the versatility and talent of Dick Powell. He was many things to many people - a wonderful singer, a great tough guy, a savvy businessman, a good director, and a marvelous producer who launched Sam Peckinpah and Aaron Spelling. Not all of his later films were "A" productions, but he was always excellent.

The performances by Erdman and Conrad are very good. Rhonda Fleming is her usual beautiful self, and Jean Porter plays a lively party girl.

This is a good noir that captures the atmosphere of post-war LA, the down and out side of it. It's exciting and a little unpredictable, too, enough to keep you watching.