Danger Zone

This film was so bad it was good. Fireign Theater must have drawn upon Danger Zone when they concocted Nick Danger. The hilariously corny metaphors (e.g., "...about as interesting as Mother's Day at an orphanage..."), the sudden right turns in the plot, characters stiffly showing up out of nowhere, the wise cracking, police taunting leading man. Oh, this is indeed a tarnished gem. And the names. Spadely (shades of Sam Spade) and the rummy bloodhound human mascot, Shicker. (Shicker, of course, is Yiddish for drunkard.) The flatness of the scenes reminded me of the early Superman TV series. Let's all stand around and deliver our lines one at a time. OK, I said my line. Now you say yours. Everybody get a turn? Good. Next scene. It takes about a half hour to solve the mystery, so they introduce a brand new plot with some of the same characters. Oy, what a mess.

Expendable junk, that's what I have to say about this awful William Berke's feature. OK, I know that the latest was not ambitious at all, only a fast paced film maker, good worker, chain director, no matter the quality. I heard he was half blind by the end of his career. Maybe this explains that. I had the greatest difficulties to make it till the end. It was very hard for me; I did not feel this for the other Berke's stuff. It remains bearable though, because it is light hearted, agreeable. If you are a thriller, rare gem thriller searcher, do not waste your time. Choose another film from William Berke. There are batches available on You tube.

Hugh Beaumont makes his contribution to the Gumshoe Genre as wise cracking Charter Boat Operator / Private Investigator Dennis O'Brien. When the Charter Boat business is a little slow, O'brien likes to pick up a few extra bucks as a PI. Showing a greater penchant for witty repartee than character judgment and well grounded decision making, O'Brien finds himself at odds with an assortment of characters he meets during the course of the day.

Danger Zone is filmed as two separate stories combined into a feature length film. In Part One O'Brien is duped by a mysterious woman (Virginia Dale) into bidding on her behalf at auction for a suitcase. As it turns out she isn't the only one interested in the suitcase and it's contents. O'Brien is soon up to the lapels of his overcoat in larceny and murder. Part Two finds O'Brien, apparently none the wiser from his previous experience in Part One, bamboozled by a fellow detective (Tom Neal) into escorting a rich socialite to a party. O'Brien is offered a quick fifty bucks to play tag-along to a rich society dame for the evening. So what could go wrong here you ask? As it turns out plenty.The situation goes sideways when O'Brien is accused of murder by the obligatory hard-nosed police Lieutenant (Richard Travis). Fortunately there to assist O'Brien in his travails is his sidekick Prof. Frederick Simpson Schicker (Edward Brophy). Schicker a Runyonesque type character, given to drink and sesquipedalian lingo, keeps an ear out for the word on the street.

Released by Lippert Pictures, this was the first part of a three picture package, each filmed as two separate stories. Lippert was a creative organization, more so financially than artistically, that was able to assimilate name talent that had been cut from their contracts at major studios. Here Lippert filmed two stories that were to be later released as stand alone television episodes. However nothing beyond the original three movies were ever made and as fate would have it, Beaumont never became one of television's legendary detectives.

Danger Zone is a low budget double bill programmer and an oddly constructed one at that. As such it's easy to say "keep moving, nothing to see here" but despite the fact that it lacks the gravitas to be a feature film, it might have made a decent television series given the chance.

Hugh Beaumont starring in this film might surprise many viewers today. After all, he's known to most as the sweet father of the Beaver on "Leave it to Beaver". However, before he appeared on this show, he appeared in many B-movies...many of which are crime films. He often played private detectives, though he sometimes played villains or cops...hardly the Ward Cleaver sorts of characters! Here in "Danger Zone" he plays a cheap private eye.

When the story begins, Dennis (Beaumont) is at an auction when a woman approaches him and begs him to be the highest bidder for an unopened suitcase. He agrees and wins it for $1000....a princely sum for 1951. But after buying it, the lady disappears and Dennis takes the case home. After opening it, he finds there's just a sax inside...and soon the losing bidder shows up to buy the sax. But before Dennis can make a deal, he gets slugged...and awakens much later. Why?? Why did the guy slug him and why did the lady insist he buy it?

Now all this sounds very interesting, right? Well, that's only HALF the movie. As it consisted of a couple TV episodes edited together to make a full-length film, there's a second story.

In this second part, Dennis is hired to use one of his boats to take some socialite to a party on a yacht anchored off shore. It's an odd job...and it's not surprising that just like the sax, there is MUCH more to the story...including murder and Dennis being left holding the bag!

The oddest thing for me isn't seeing Beaumont in such a role but seeing Eddie Brophy as "the Professor'...an overly erudite guy with a strong penchant for the bottle. Seeing and hearing him talking like some out of work Oxford professor was indeed odd, as he normally played a dopey New York hood or the like.

So is it good? Well, it's not bad but it also feels rushed. Stretching out each story into its own movie would have helped. I mostly recommend it because of its interest as a curio...evidence that Beaumont was more than just some nice-guy TV dad.

Long before he was Beaver Cleaver's father, Hugh Beaumont had an earlier television series in TV's infancy where he played a private detective complete with Raymond Chandler patter. Lippert managed to get three feature films from this series by stringing two of the half hour episodes together.

Beaumont works out of San Francisco where he lives on his charter boat when he's not sleuthing for a fee. This episode concerns him getting in trouble twice because a woman asked him for a favor. The man is not Sam Spade he's more like Miles Archer.

Favor one is Virginia Dale who asks him to bid on a suitcase at a public auction. That gets him involved with a smuggling racket and a saxophone. Favor two is when another private eye Tom Neal gets him to 'escort' a young lady to a private party on a boat. That gets him involved with a murder and a divorce. Is anyone sensing a pattern here?

Nothing special here though Beaumont is good in a part that's a quantum leap from Ward Cleaver.