Danger Zone

Hugh Beaumont is Dennis O'Brien, a guy who lives on the docks of San Francisco with drunkard Eddie Brophy. O'Brien makes most of his living renting out boats, but he has a sideline as an unlicensed PI, available for quick jobs for small sums. Unfortunately the jobs always wind up involving corpses, and police lieutenant Richard Travis is always anxious to put him in the hot seat. This means Beaumont must solve the case for him. In the first one, there's a murder over a saxophone. In the second, he's framed as a co-respondent in a divorce, only for the husband to turn up dead.

It's a typically cheap Lippert production built off scripts from the Jack Webb radio show Johnny Madero, Pier 23. Lippert followed this up with two more movies much like this, talky and full of people speaking like they should be talking out of the sides of their mouths. Still, director William Berke keeps things moving along like the B movie director he was, and the cast includes Tom Neal and Pamela Blake. If you want to know what Old Time Radio would have been like as TV, this is a movie for you.

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.

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.

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 Eventually Made it to TV...Not as a Chandler-Marlowe Cloned "Mini-Me"...

but in the Form of a Mega-Hit-Ultra-Loved-Sit-Com..."Leave it to Beaver" 1957-62).

Here the Men Pushing the Buttons Behind the "Idiot-Box" were Offered this "Neat Little Show" Called "Danger Zone", with Beaumont Following in the "Gum-Shoe" Footsteps of Phillip Marlowe.

Re-Located from L. A. to S. F, with an Office on "Fisherman's Wharf" (..."if you love sea-food", Narrates Beaumont in 1 of the Many Voice-Overs),

He has a Roommate Assistant, Called "The Professor" who Provides High-Brow Verbiages of Witticisms, Declarations, and Reports.

In Contrast to Beaumont's Low-Brow "Snappy-Patter"...He also Does Research for His Pal-Roomie-Employer.

The Writers Hacking Chandler took His Snap-Patt SERIOUSLY...

it is the Bedrock of 90% of the Dialog and Narration and in such Large Doses, Contains a Lot of Pretentious Fails.

They Must have Consulted the "Film-Noir Playbook", and Skipped the Chapter on Restraint.

You can Fake a "Style" but You Can't Fake Talent.

The Unhappy End to this "TV-Show-Pitch"...

No One was Buying... so "Lippert Studios" Improvised (that must be in the "Poverty Row" Playbook as a Last Resort).

Sent 2-Stiched as 1 to Theaters as a 1 Hr Movie and a Cheap Rental.

But After That...The Trail Goes Cold.

Everyone Loves a Good "Detective/Mystery" and Raymond Chandler was a Star.

He and His Creation (Marlowe) are Still Being Copied and Enjoyed Today.

"Danger Zone"...Minimalism for the Masses...

Worth a Watch

Note...Be on the Look-Out for "Tom Neal",,,Famous for Edgar G. Ulmer's "Detour" (1949)..."Infamous" for Other-Things Off-the-Screen.