Fri 13 Nov 2015
DICK POWELL Movie Review #3: CRY DANGER (1951).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[9] Comments
CRY DANGER. RKO Radio Pictures, 1951. Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman, William Conrad, Regis Toomey, Jean Porter, Joan Banks, Jay Adler. Director: Robert Parrish.
This was the next to last of the black-and-white crime movies that Dick Powell made, and it’s the last if you don’t count The Tall Target, released later the same year. I wouldn’t call Cry Danger a noir film, unless you define a noir film by style rather than content. It’s a crime film, but with the lighting and semi-sleazy setting of a film noir, with characters to match, but without the sense of inevitable doom that some viewers feel that a true noir requires.
But why quibble? It’s a crime movie that’s a lot of fun to watch, and if you do, be sure to obtain a copy of print recently restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. The picture quality is sharp and clear, showing us once again that the people who made black-and-white movies back before color took over completely knew exactly what they were doing.
Dick Powell plays Rocky Mulloy, a guy who’s just been released from prison after five years. A witness has surprisingly shown up and given him an alibi for the time of the robbery and murder.
Not as lucky is his friend Danny Morgan, who’s still in jail for the same crime. Richard Erdman plays Delong, the fellow who supposedly cleared Rocky, but in reality has given himself an opportunity to obtain a share of the missing loot, just as he’d planned.
While Rocky, who really was innocent, tries to clear his pal still in jail, the two of them hole up in a rundown trailer court in an even more rundown trailer. Danny’s wife (Rhonda Fleming) lives in the same court, as does Darlene (Jean Porter), a blonde bimbo who also has the nimble fingers of a skilled pickpocket. She and Delong get along just fine, sort of, in a serio-humorous kind of way.
I should also mention Castro, the bookie who Rocky is sure planned the robbery. He’s played in super sleazy fashion by William Conrad, who like Raymond Burr made an early career for himself playing characters just like this.
The dialogue between Rocky and Delong is sharp and witty, and very nearly worth the price of admission in itself. Add the two ladies to the mix, along with Castro and a cop (Regis Toomey) who doesn’t believe a word of Rocky’s alibi, and you have a story that can easily suck you in without letting go.
Of the players, I think Rhonda Fleming is the least believable She’s simply too good-looking to be the wife of anyone in a movie like this. As for Dick Powell, he certainly knew what he was doing when he made a such a sharp turnaround in his career, and started making movies like this.
November 13th, 2015 at 11:33 pm
When Dick Powell made the switch from comedy and musicals to tough guy and hard-boiled films, we saw one of greatest make overs in movie history. Very few people would have thought Powell capable of such a career switch.
Look at this list of hard-boiled film noir and crime films:
Murder My Sweet
Cornered
Johnny O’clock
To the Ends of the Earth
Pitfall
Rogues’ Regiment
Cry Danger
The Tall Target
Then he went into TV which is a shame because he stopped making excellent films.
November 14th, 2015 at 1:06 am
I reviewed THE TALL TARGET here
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=28728
“However you describe it, Anthony Mann’s The Tall Target is a extremely well-constructed, taut thriller about a New York City policeman named John Kennedy (Dick Powell) tasked with stopping an assassination plot against President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Nearly the entire film takes place on a night train from New York en route to Washington DC, giving it a beautifully claustrophobic sensibility.”
November 14th, 2015 at 6:28 am
Even after MURDER MY SWEET (1944) Powell enjoyed making the occasional comedy, like THE REFORMER & THE REDHEAD, SUSAN SLEPT HERE…. and his performance as Private Eye Rex Shepherd in YOU NEVER CAN TELL is a witty send-up of his Philip Marlowe.
As for CRY DANGER, you’re right Steve, is doesn’t have the downbeat ending many associate with noir, but it’s tough and cynical enough to qualify as far as I’m concerned.
November 14th, 2015 at 9:53 am
Depends on what you’d call “downbeat;” I’d say that the discovery Powell’s character makes at the movie’s conclusion, shattering as it does the goal he’s pursued throughout the picture, makes the film end on a pretty down note–as exemplified by his closing line, “How would you feel?” It’s true that the film’s two most likable characters are still alive at the end, but other than that there’s nothing very happy about the conclusion.
November 14th, 2015 at 9:55 am
I should add that none of the above is a criticism of the movie; it’s one of my favorite “film noirs.” I especially love its continually snappy dialogue (by William Bowers), which Powell and Erdman in particular deliver with aplomb.
November 14th, 2015 at 12:44 pm
Like several of you I wouldn’t call this noir, though it has some of the elements. It is the least of Powell’s tough guy films unless you count ROGUE REGIMENT a Legion film or STATIONS WEST a Luke Short western, but it has more than a few good qualities of its own, and deserves another look from those who may dismiss it in comparison to films like CORNERED and PITFALL.
What I noticed here was just how tough an embittered Powell’s Rocky is. His time in jail and his anger has made a criminal out of him in many ways so the curve where he is saved from himself at films end is pretty strong.
He continued to play hardboiled types on television including playing Marlowe again in an adaptation of THE LONG GOODBYE, playing the role of club owner Dante until it was picked up as a series with Howard Duff, and doing the pilot for BURKE’S LAW in a much tougher mode than Gene Barry. He also did a two parter on his anthology series playing a lawyer hired to act as private eye for millionaire Lloyd Nolan investigating, among others, Barbara Stanwyck.
Dan,
I loved him as Rex Shepherd, an odd little film that Powell keeps grounded with his perfect timing and smart bits of business. It is also, as you point out, a perfect send up of Marlowe and private eye tropes.
A few times it goes over the line, but for the most part it is very smart.
November 14th, 2015 at 5:03 pm
Dick Powell combined the musical and hard-boiled aspects of his career when he starred in the “Richard Diamond, Private Detective” radio show, 1949-52. Each episode would usually end with tough-guy Diamond crooning a tune to his loyal girl friend, played by Virginia Gregg.
November 14th, 2015 at 8:13 pm
Right you are, Gary. It was one of the better detective shows on old radio, partly because of Dick Powell’s easy-going way with a script, but also because Blake Edwards wrote a good many of them.
When the show went to TV, Richard Janssen took over the part, but they dropped the songs at the end.
November 15th, 2015 at 6:22 pm
Blake Edwards credited Powell with much of his success for his support during the RICHARD DIAMOND era.