Danger Signal

This is a must for film noir fans, and it deserves to be better known. If it had more of an A-list cast, it would probably be considered a classic.

At the very beginning it resembles Hitchcock's "Shadow of a Doubt." Zachary Scott plays a secretive writer on the run from the law, though for a while it's not clear whether he's really a criminal. Under an assumed name, he charms his way into a household of women.

From then on, the plot is original -- consistently clever but never confusing. Male treachery and female jealousy play their parts, and just when one character's motives become clear, you have to start wondering what another character is up to. If you guess how it all turns out, you're a psychic.

There is one little detail that's handled sloppily, but it comes early and is excusable. All in all, this is what a mystery should be.

Between the ages of 30 and 51, when he died of a brain tumour, Zachary Scott made 70 films. He was introduced in 1944 in Jean Negulesco's 'The Mask of Dimitrios', where he played Dimitrios. The next year, 1945, he made three films, of which this is one. He is best remembered by cineastes as the star of Jean Renoir's 'The Southerner', one of the 1945 films, where he had a sympathetic role. However, he often played creepy characters, and in this film he is a sociopathic killer of women for money. So what happens here? He lives in a house with three women, so watch out! Faye Emerson, who also appeared in 'Dimitrios', plays the older of two daughters in the house. She falls in love with Scott and they become secretly engaged. Then her 'cute kid' younger sister (played effectively by Mona Freeman, who resembles Bonita Granville both in looks and in behaviour) returns from boarding school and reveals casually in conversation with Scott that she has inherited a tidy sum, so Scott turns his sights on her instead, with all the torrid jealousies seething in the household which that was bound to arouse. Things get tense, and then they get tenser. Meanwhile, plans for murder are going forward in the mind of the calculating Scott. But it turns out that he is not the only one with such intentions. He is also being searched for as a result of his last kill, with which the film has opened, so that we know his back story. James Wong Howe gives effective noirish cinematography to this tale, which was directed by Frenchman Robert Florey who had moved to Hollywood some time earlier. The film is an effective psychopath-in-the-house mystery which can cause a bit of wear of the edges of some seats, for those of such an inclination.

... actually she (Rosemary Decamp as Dr. Jane Silla) is a psychiatrist.

The film opens on a man (Zachary Scott as Ronnie Mason) looking at the inscription on a woman's wedding ring. The woman is lying in bed, dead although she appears to be sleeping. Ronnie grabs most but not all of a large wad of cash from her purse and disappears down the fire escape as the landlady is banging loudly on the door. She has just found out the two are not married. The woman left her husband for this man two months ago, but she has died by poison and left a suicide note. The woman's husband vehemently disagrees that his wife would kill herself and demands justice. So all of this just establishes that Ronnie is a bad guy to the audience. We know who the villain is from the outset.

Ronnie really is a puzzle. He apparently is a writer of short stories and a semi successful one. The woman he killed did not have so much money that she would be worth jail or the chair. And Hilda, a workaholic stenographer and daughter of his next landlady, is not wealthy either. What is the point of him winning her over? But that he does. And then Hilda's younger sister returns from a convalescent home. And Ronnie turns on a dime and goes after her, mainly because he realizes she will come into some money when she marries. Because he and Hilda were so quiet about their romance at his insistence, he is able to lie and say that she pursued him and that there was never anything between them.

So what is up with this guy?That is where De Camp's Dr. Silla comes in. She explains - or tries to explain - Ronnie's psyche to Hilda who is now genuinely concerned for her sister's welfare if she marries Ronnie. Hilda talks about killing him. Dr. Silla talks "production code speak" as to how that would damage Hilda as much as Ronnie. I'm not so sure of that doc.

Throw in a charmingly awkward chemist with a crush on Hilda played by Bruce Bennett, a guy waiting for his draft notice, his voice to change, and for Hilda's younger sister to notice he is alive played by Richard Erdman,, plus that pesky husband of the first victim in this film, and you have to wonder - how exactly is Ronnie going to get his? Will he get his? Watch and find out.

I like this noir because it tries to introduce a psychological angle into Ronnie's behavior. Plus for a film made in 1945 it does not try and pretend that the war is just gone. It is part of the plot. And I like how Rosemary DeCamp turns what is basically a plot device into a full fledged character with a charming continental accent. And poor Zachary Scott. He looked like a villain and he played them so suavely that he was forever typecast.

There were really no big names in this one, but it is a worthwhile entry in the noir genre demonstrating how one normal looking sociopath can upturn the lives of so many average people, not by appealing to their greed as is true in so many noirs, but by appealing to their desire to be loved and understood.

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.

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.