On Dangerous Ground

This adventure film came out before the US entered WW I and serves as a warning of what was to come. Carlyle Blackwell stars as a man studying in Germany with war on the horizon. He's pulled into a mysterious race across Europe by a mysterious woman (Gail Kane) who has some papers she wants to deliver and keep from the Germans.

Several exciting chase scenes are enhanced by a good original music score by Edward Lorusso, who also ran a Kickstarter campaign to release a DVD of this film.

Kane and Blackwell are excellent and were major stars at the time this film was made. Work searching for!

Both Carlyle Blackwell and Gail Kane were big stars when they made this American propaganda film in 1917 at the height of America's involvement in World War I. Yes, it portrays the Germans as evil Huns, but there is some restraint in this depiction because of a major plot element.

Set at the beginning of the war and before America was involved, Blackwell plays a neutral American in Germany who watches his pal get drafted by the German war machine. As he prepares to leave Germany, he surprisingly finds a suitcase full of women's clothes in his hotel room. This discovery is soon followed by the woman herself (Gail Kane) who is a spy trying to get a vial of secret papers to the French authorities. She persuades Blackwell to pose as her husband and help her escape Germany.

As they face cross country, avoiding the enemy, they fall in love. When their luck finally runs out, can anything save them and the secret papers?

Blackwell, a matinee idol of the teens, was often teamed with leading ladies like Alice Joyce and Evelyn Greeley. By 1917 he was established in feature films, working with Gail Kane, Doris Kenyon, and Marion Davies in his final American film. Kane was just about at the height of her stardom when she made this film. Her career would suffer from a lawsuit against Mutual Film.

Stanhope Wheatcroft co-stars as Hugo, William Bailey is Ritter, and Frank Leigh is Trapadoux.

Carlyle Blackwell has been studying medicine at Heidelberg. He is incredulous when when his German friend, William Bailey, tells him that Europe is about to tear itself to pieces in war, and he had better get back to the U.S. He is even more incredulous when he stops at a hotel while waiting for connections and finds beautiful Gail Kane. She has told everyone she is his wife. She has to get out of the country. With his permission, she alters his passport -- and makes him as much a spy on the run as she is.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND has some impressive credentials. Besides the leads, at the top of their fame, the script is by Francis Marion, and the camerawork is by the talented Lucien Andriot, so it's always good to look at. However, the story is pure potboiler, and despite the appeal of the stars and steady and exciting pace at which director Robert Thornby pushes things along, it never exceeds those limits.

What it does succeed in doing is keeping that pace up and never boring. Not many features survive from 1917, and many of those are considered classics, and amidst bits that we admire, we see things that seem bizarre a century later. This movie may never hit those high points, but it is solidly entertaining throughout.