Mon 28 Aug 2017
Archived Movie Review: DANGEROUS CROSSING (1953).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Suspense & espionage films[8] Comments
DANGEROUS CROSSING. 20th Century Fox, 1953. Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter (as Casey Adams), Carl Betz, Mary Anderson, Marjorie Hoshelle, Willis Bouchey. Based on the radio play “Cabin B-13” by John Dickson Carr. Director: Joseph M. Newman.
You probably know the story, or one very much like it. After a young honeymooning couple board a trans-Atlantic ocean liner in New York City, married for only a day, the husband (Carl Betz) goes off to run an errand at the purser’s office and promptly disappears. The new bride (Jeanne Crain) simply can’t believe it.
An intensive search takes place and shows that the husband is nowhere on board. The couple’s stateroom is empty, the wife’s luggage is in a room down the corridor, and most telling, there’s no one on board who can even say they saw the two of them together.
There is only one person is not thoroughly convinced that she is crazy, and that’s the ship’s doctor (Michael Rennie). If not for him, the new Mrs. Bowman would surely think she has gone mad.
To my mind, this is one of the great suspense movies of all time — or at least it could have been and should have been. It begins well, but it doesn’t maintain the same sharp, keen edge it should have over the full length of the movie.
It does have its moments, however. You certainly should not watch this film if you suffer from any of the ten warning signs of paranoia. The ocean crossing is a foggy one, with the constant blaring of foghorns, and that helps considerably. Nonetheless, as you sit there watching, you’ll probably begin to wonder what might have happened if someone like Alfred Hitchcock had gotten his hands on it.
August 28th, 2017 at 12:46 am
The “Cabin B-13” plot has been used ad infinitum over the years, moving the setting from shipboard to railroad to hotel to manor house, et al, and a good time is had by all.
The hotel version turned up in an early episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: “Into Thin Air”, the first show to be filmed, but the fifth one shown, on October 30, 1955.
What I remember mainly about this show is that after Hitchcock did his tag, he walked off camera – and then poked his head back into a close-up and said:
Oh, uh, incidentally, I thought the little leading lady was rather good, didn’t you?
The “little leading lady” was his daughter Pat Hitchcock, making the first of her many appearances on AHP.
Anyway, I thought it was kind of sweet …
August 28th, 2017 at 1:50 am
The story at least dates back to an alledged actual incident in Paris at the time of the great exposition when a French hotel tried to gaslight a young woman into believing her brother who had traveled with her had not rather than reveal he had contracted a highly contagious disease.
That version was filmed as SO LONG AT THE FAIR with Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde, David Tomlinson, and Austin Trevor based on a charming novel by Alex Thorne.
Whether there is any truth to the story I can’t say.
This one is quite good even minus Hitchcock. It was also the basis of a radio series, that took off from the SUSPENSE episode featuring John Abbot as the ships doctor.
August 28th, 2017 at 9:26 am
Ed Hoch couldn’t resist doing his own version in a Dr. Sam Hawthorne story in EQMM (“The Problem of the Leather Man,” December 1992), with Sam being the “victim.” Hoch’s explanation pushes the envelope of likelihood, but he makes it seem plausible.
August 28th, 2017 at 11:48 am
Dangerous Crossing was made on the cheap and Jeanne Crain presented poorly, especially in her dramatic sequence crossing a crowded dining and dancing area. Strictly second feature stuff, or later on, fodder at the made for television level.
August 28th, 2017 at 12:35 pm
Here’s a link to the radio version pf “Cabin B-13” as broadcast on the CBS series SUSPENSE on November 9, 1943, starring Margo and Philip Dorn. This was the second time it appeared on that series, The first was on March 16, 1943, and starred Ralph Bellamy.
https://ia800500.us.archive.org/26/items/OTRR_Suspense_Singles/Suspense_431109_065_Cabin_B-13_-128-44-_27897_29m40s.mp3
August 28th, 2017 at 5:39 pm
Funny, but just today I read that Hoch story that Mike mentioned, and noticed the reference, which of course I remembered from the earlier movie.
August 28th, 2017 at 8:21 pm
Coincidences regarding posts on this blog like this happen to me so often I don’t call them coincidences any more.
It’s just the natural order of events!
November 12th, 2019 at 8:38 pm
“Cabin B-13” is one of my favorite single-episode mystery productions on OTRR. It was also a series, wasn’t it? Oh well. I’ve seen and savored too, that Jean Simmons brit-noir flick set in 1800s Paris. Saw it on the big screen. Very evocative; may be the best incarnation of the essential tale (of ‘group gaslighting’ someone). Anyway –for some reason —radio does really, really well with any plots set on ships-at-sea. The foghorns and ship’s bells and all the other sound effects come together to convincingly recreate the enclosed, ‘shipboard’ environment. I hope it’s okay to add this comment to this older thread. Came across it browsing.