Danger Signal

Zachary Scott does what he does best, i.e., plays a worm, in "Danger Signal," a 1945 B movie also starring Faye Emerson, Mona Freeman, and Rosemary DeCamp.

Scott plays a writer who kills women after he gets their money. On the lam from his last murder, he rents a room in the home owned by the Fenchurch family, Hilda (Emerson) and her mother (Mary Servoss). Scott throws himself at Emerson, and she's dazzled.

Mid-romance, her younger sister Anne (Freeman) comes home from a medical treatment. When she mentions that she was Uncle Wade's favorite and he left her $25,000 (big bucks by 1945 standards), Scott loses interest in poor Hilda and makes a play for Anne.

Anne looks like Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm until she starts sneaking around with Scott - overnight, she ages 10 years and becomes downright nasty to her sister. Finally getting the message that her tenant is no good, Hilda calls in a psychiatrist (Rosemary DeCamp) to psyche him out and advise her.

Psychological dramas were all the rage during and after World War II, and Scott does an excellent job as a smooth sociopath. This was his forte - as a weak-willed sheriff in "Flamingo Road," he exhibited no real presence. As for two-timing, we saw him do that in "Mildred Pierce," where he proved himself particularly good at it.

Emerson is a bookish stenographer with her hair pushed off her face and her big glasses, but after hours, she's lovely, and gives a strong performance. DeCamp was always an underrated actress - here, she sports a soft German accent and is delightful.

This is a highly entertaining film though a very routine story. The acting truly elevates it.

Killer Zachary Scott (Ronnie) romances women, kills them and takes their money. So watch out Faye Emerson (Hilda) and sister Mona Freeman (Anne) because he's just moved in to the spare room of your house. And you are both in his sights.

Scott is excellent as the psychopath who has no empathy or feelings towards his victims. He is charming and totally evil. All the cast do well but Mona Freeman's personality changes are a bit unbelievable and the shy, indecisiveness of doctor Bruce Bennett (Andrew) is pretty annoying.

The film keeps going without any lulls up until its sudden ending which could have better. Up to that point, though, it's good and Scott seems to be in complete control of his scheme……until Emerson fights back with some psychological torture of her own.

An interesting commentary of the times is made when Mary Servoss remarks to her daughter Faye Emerson that with the housing shortage as it post World War 2 it was a patriotic duty to house folks if someone had a spare room. Faye poopoos the idea until the charming Zachary Scott comes along with limp and suitcase and tells Emerson that the limp was a 'souvenir of the South Pacific'. After that Scott is invited in. If Danger Signal were remade today a different reason would have to be found for Scott to gain access to home and hearth.

But that's Scott's business. He's one charming seducer of the female sex and would have a career playing such. When he gets their money he murders them.

He concentrates first on Emerson, but she's seen a bit too much of the world and then he focuses on younger sister Mona Freeman. But the police authorities are closing in so he has to work fast.

If this seems to borrow a bit from Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow Of A Doubt, Danger Signal is a reasonaably good facsimile. It's a well cast bit of drama which could have used a more dramatic ending.

Still you'll find little to complain about.

Not the best of the genre, but a well-acted B-flick by a cast of great character actors.

The storyline is typical. -- It's the performances that make this fun to watch. Zachary Scott is type-cast as the slimy, shady, kill-for-profit "lady's man" type, played almost exactly as in the A-Films: "Mask of Demetrios" and "Mildred Pierce".

Faye Emerson, who often played bad girls in her lead-roles in B-Films, plays the good-girl here. - One who's first fooled by, then catches on-to, Scott's bad-boy character. She's lovely in a hard way, and handles her part like the pro that she was.

I enjoyed the supporting role played by Rosemary DeCamp, as a doctor with a slight European accent. After seeing this film, I've since read that doing foreign accents was a specialty of hers. Bruce Bennett (also playing a doctor) does nicely, as well.

The film's ending is expected, and slightly disappointing, but the talented cast, the film's tight script, and it's noirish atmosphere more than make up for that.

It's short, moves quick, and it's an enjoyable watch. I rated it 6.

I won't summarize the plot,as several others have done this already. Just two things: Yes,the ending seemed tacked on,like the writer couldn't think of a way to end the picture and just threw this together at the last minute. The other thing is that several posters are under the impression that Zachary Scott did Mildred Pierce first. No,this film came first,two years before Mildred Pierce,in fact. The Monty Berrigon character Scott played in that film is almost a carbon copy of the guy in this film,not the other way around. In fact,I wonder why Scott would agree to play the MP character since it was so close to this one. Maybe he wanted to work with Joan Crawford or maybe ,under the terms of his contract, he had to play anything they told him to. At any rate,he played these sleazy scoundrels well