Dangerously Yours

From 1937, Dangerously Yours, directed by Malcolm St. Clair, concerns an ocean liner that is filled with criminals after the fabulous Omar diamond which a gem dealer is bringing to the United States. One of the "crooks" is a detective.

We have Victor Morrell (Cesar Romero) who claims to own a cattle ranch in Argentina. Valerie Barton (Phyllis Brooks) and her Aunt Cynthia (Jane Darwell) are on board as well.

Other passengers include a suit manufacturer, Julien Stevens (Alan Dinehart), and two obvious criminals, Phil and Monet (Leon Ames and Albert Conti).

Everyone believes Morell is planning on stealing the diamond, so he is constantly approached to be a partner in the heist. Morell is romancing Valerie - she works on him to get to the diamond.

Nice B movie that moves quickly. Romero is wonderful and very handsome, better than the material as he often is.

Pleasant enough. I recognized some of the sets from Cafe Metropole, a superior film.

"Dangerously Yours" is a film with lots of twists and turns. Unfortunately, one of them is betrayed by IMDB's summary of the movie. I think it best if you DON'T read up on the movie and just watch it!

Victor (Cesar Romero) and Valerie (Phyllis Brooks) are having a romance. However, Valerie's aunt (Jane Darwell) doesn't like Victor and thinks the worst of him. But when Valerie and her aunt board a boat for home in the States, Victor unexpectedly shows up...as do a bunch of jewel thieves. Who's a thief on this ship? Well, it seems like practically everyone is in this strange mystery movie.

While the film is quite polished, the plot is essentially that of a well made B-movie...the types the studio made a ton of in the 1930s. This isn't to say it's bad...but it is light and more of a time-passer than anything else. Romero, as usual, is terrific.

It starts in Europe, where jewel dealer Douglas Wood buys a fabulous diamond for his New York store. Meanwhile, suspect Argentine cattle rancher Cesar Romero is romancing Phyllis Brooks, despite the disapproval of her aunt, Jane Darwell. The ladies flee Romero's charms aboard the same ship carrying Wood and the stone. Romero shows up to continue the romance. But is it more? And what does the odd assortment of characters on the A deck really consist of, between Alan Dinehart, John Harrington, Earle Foxe and Leon Ames.

It's one of those fast, breezy Twentieth Century-Fox B movies filled with twists and turns, and you never know who is what after the third time a character turns out to be something else entirely. I guessed correctly a couple of times by the way the movie was structured, but other than that I was pleased by the smooth operation of what I consider the best Hollywood B factory of the period. Sol Wurzel may have been considered a worse vulgarian than Harry Cohn, but freed of the politics of trying to maintain Fox's A movie division, he could turn out a fine, unassuming movie with faded directors like Mal St. Clair.