Na Boca do Lobo

When I think of Alan Ladd, I usually think westerns like Shane, but he really did a wide variety of films. He wasn't a great actor, but reportedly one that was easy to work with; hence the large number of roles.

Here, he plays a postal detective that is trying to solve a murder. His prime witness is a nun (Phyllis Calvert who was nominated for a BAFTA Best Actress award for Crash of Silence). She really shines in the scenes she is in.

Also featured are Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, familiar to many as partners in Dragnet. In this film, they are on the other side of the law, but the familiar characteristics are there.

Also featured was the sexy Jan Sterling as the head man's moll. She would go on to get a Best Supporting Actress nomination and a Golden Globe for The High and the Mighty.

It was an interesting picture, and Ladd was superb.

If we learn one thing about the US Post Office in Appointment With Danger is that it takes care of its own. When a postal inspector winds up a homicide victim, it's another postal inspector that does the investigation. I was surprised that the FBI wasn't called in as they usually are with crimes involving the US mail.

But their top cop in the person of Alan Ladd is called in when one of the inspectors is murdered. He's found dead in an alley in a small Indiana town. And there's a witness, a nun played by British import Phyllis Calvert who sees the victim being dumped and is given an excuse by one of the perpetrators that they're just helping a drunken pal. That guy is played by Harry Morgan and Calvert recognizes him from the mug books once Alan Ladd tracks her down. The crooks also know that Calvert's been talking to the police.

Ladd's dead colleague was working on foiling a planned heist of a mail truck that will be carrying a large sum of currency. When Morgan goes missing and later turns up dead, the lead goes cold. Ladd's only way to apprehend the crooks is to insinuate himself with them and catch them in the act of robbery.

Appointment With Danger was Alan Ladd's final noir film with Paramount and it's a good one. He's a most cynical fellow in this film and can't quite wrap his mind around Calvert's character.

The gang includes Paul Stewart as the brains and trigger happy gunman Jack Webb. Interesting to see future Dragnet partners Webb and Morgan together. But though she only has a few scenes the one you'll remember is Jan Sterling playing Stewart's moll. Sterling is Stewart's girl to be sure, but she likes a little fun on the side. Her scenes with Ladd are the best in the film and Jan has a very practical turn of mind and a knowledge of the law gained from hanging around unsavory types.

Appointment With Danger is definitely a must for Alan Ladd fans and folks who might become Alan Ladd fans after seeing this movie.

Appointment with Danger (1951)

A good, run-of-the-mill crime story. It's more a heist film than a true noir, and it has a popular twist of featuring a government cop as the lead character. There are several FBI films like this (they start with a shot of government building and have a serious narrator or title card give the context), but this is the only one I know of about the U.S. Post Office police.

Alan Ladd is a solid actor, in urban crime films or in Westerns, but he's never quite inspiring or memorable, and so the movie is hampered from the start. On the other hand, there is a slew of interesting secondary characters, and some are real characters (like the ever-impressive Paul Stewart, who had his real start in "Citizen Kane"). We get to bomb through some great sets and locations (including the waterfront), and the photography by John Seitz (one of the best, see "Sunset Blvd." and "Double Indemnity") is great. The editing seemed a little sudden at times, almost as if this was shortened version (it wasn't, as far as anyone has noted), but you have to pay attention a couple times to follow what happens. In a way, I think they expect the audience to know the usual twists of this kind of plot, and if that helps explain its fast cutting, it also reveals a kind of formula behind it all.

See it? Yes, of course. It's great in particular ways.

Postal Inspector Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is a man on a mission. His partner has been murdered and he must solve the case and prevent the gang from pulling the big mail heist! Location filming in Chicago and Gary, Indiana, adds a touch of realisim that can't be captured in a Hollywood studio. This movie is above average, but the following makes it a MUST see: Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (Sgt. Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon in a future life) are members of the gang. Webb's character is particularly vicious, and he kills Morgan with a pair of bronze baby shoes!

This is a very routine film noir which features a very nice nun part.Her lines are very smart,and her notion of duty teaches the cop (Ladd) a thing or two(and maybe more).The other female part,the gangster's moll,well played by Jan Sterling,is pretty endearing too:she's primarily a lazy girl,who enjoys listening bebop records ,and she reckons that she will lose anyway:either she will go to jail or she will wear mink,but what's the point of wearing furs if you've got to hide from the world?

As for the male parts,they are okay but nothing extraordinary.The film begins with a well-deserved tribute to the post office.