The Dangerous Stranger

"The Dangerous Stranger" is an incredibly dated film that was made to warn kids about the danger possibly posed by strangers. However, while you see the action, the film was originally made without sound and instead you hear some heavyhanded narration. It's all very much what you'd expect in such an old film with a low budget. Its production values are naturally quite low and I think if you showed it to kids today, they'd mostly laugh at it. Additionally, when it comes to molestations, over the years folks have learned that strangers commit a VERY small percentage of these crimes, to the material is a bit out of date. Mildly interesting...but also not very good.

Here's a short film from Sid Davis in which the audience is urged to keep away from strangers. Unlike some of the producers of films like this, Davis is working from a decent script by Orville Hampton.

Davis would remake this movie in color in 1972, and frankly, I prefer this one. Although there are some better editing techniques in the later version, this one has a narrator who doesn't sound terribly out of place. True, he doesn't look like the way the police officer he is supposedly narrating for should sound, but sometimes simpler is better. That's especially true given that this one is in sturdy black-and-white, while the color on the remake has faded.

"The Dangerous Stranger" is a short that runs just over ten minutes. Its purpose is to teach kids about the dangers of talking to strangers. It shows some of the different situations which children might encounter. Some examples: The guy who offers kids candy. The guy who tells a little girl that he was sent by her mom to pick her up. The guy who gives a little boy a pocketknife as a present.

Today's kids would find this to be quite outdated and might have a difficult time relating to it. It also leaves out some important tricks used these days by prospective kidnappers. Like the one where a guy asks for help looking for his lost puppy. "The Dangerous Stranger" was probably once a good tool to raise kids' awareness of going somewhere with people they don't know. Today, it is more of a relic than a helpful example of how to stay safe. 4/10

A classic film shown in classrooms throughout America from 1950s on; I recall seeing a color remake of it in health class around 1980 (the remake was apparently made in the early 1970s, I think). Quite old by now and somewhat lacking in production values, Dangerous Stranger is still worth watching today as it teaches children to avoid contact with potentially dangerous adults in a variety of situations; e.g. never take candy from strangers or get in their cars. No explanation is given as to why certain adults prey on children, but since the film is aimed at kids anyway no complicated explanations are really needed.

I doubt any actual film copies of this movie still exist, it is so old, though I found it on a compilation tape with a number of other educational films of the same era. Should be required viewing for all children under 10!

This is the first of a long line of educational short films that Sid Davis produced from the start of the '50's all the way to the beginning of the '70's warning children of various dangers that they might encounter. The most infamous one being the later "Boys Beware" that has been harshly lambasted and anyone who admits to liking that particular one has been openly ridiculed and persecuted to no end. But I digress, this ten and a half minute short , like later ones, is about the dangers of being hassled by strange men. Told by the viewpoint of a local beat-cop, the film tells various instances of evil doers and how kids can protect themselves from these local scum buckets. Of course being from the Fifty's, it's slightly dated, but still informative.This short can be found as an extra on Something Weird's DVD double-feature of "Hitch Hike to Hell" & "Kidnapped Coed".

My Grade: B