Danger Zone

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.

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.

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.

Danger Zone is an odd little double-truck of a movie; it tells two entirely independent stories, one after the other, though with three recurring characters. The only plausible explanation is that the stories were pilot episodes of a television series that never got picked up, but were salvaged by packaging as a twofer and farming out as a programmer to theater chains.

A troubleshooter who earns his keep renting boats on the San Francisco waterfront, O'Brian (Hugh Beaumont) picks up spare change by taking on freelance assignments; his usual fee is $50, for which he is usually set up. He shares his nautical digs with an old souse called (of course) The Professor (Edward Brophy), a Runyonesque character with a Thesaurus instead of a voicebox -- he never says "I had the chance" if he can proclaim "The opportunity befell me." Then there's the dim-witted and antagonistic police detective (Richard Travis), always ready to clap the cuffs on Beaumont just before the truth emerges.

Neither of the stories -- the first about a woman who pays Beaumont to bid an exorbitant amount on a locked suitcase that turns out to contain a saxophone, the second about a private detective (Tom Neal, of Detour notoriety) who sets up Beaumont as correspondent, and murderer, in a society divorce case -- gets worked out in any satisfying way. The half-hour allotted to each allows little room for extra characters or unexpected bends in the road (television was to prove that the most successful mystery/detective shows thrived in a hour format). Danger Zone, viewed as early television, is perhaps a tad better than such pioneers as Martin Kane, Private Eye -- at least it's filmed, not done live in studio -- but was nonetheless passed over by the networks in 1951. Beaumont would have to wait six more years, until Leave It To Beaver, to hit his personal jackpot.

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.