Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Cry Danger Blu-ray Movie Review

Maybe more noirish than noir.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 31, 2014

There’s a certain economy to a lot of B-movies that bigger budgeted, more bloated affairs could well learn from. Many of these ostensible second tier efforts waste little time in establishing their premises, cutting to the bone in terms of letting us know who the characters are and what they’re up to, and getting to the climax with little fuss or bother. Cry Danger is an excellent case in point. This quasi-noir clocks in at well under an hour and a half, and within the first few minutes gets the audience ensconced in the travails of one Rocky Mulloy, an ex-Marine who has just been released from the joint after a five year “tour of duty” for a crime he insists he didn’t commit. As he gets off the train in Los Angeles, he’s tailed by two guys. The film utilizes a newspaper salesman to give us Rocky’s backstory in a quick glance, for Rocky’s release has made the front page of the daily rag. When the two guys finally catch up to Rocky, we’re given even more information. The leader is a detective named Gus Cobb (Regis Toomey), a nice enough guy who nonetheless is convinced that Rocky had something to do with the robbery and murder for which he had been sent away, and isn’t shy about letting Rocky know he’s going to be followed to see if he goes after the loot from the heist which has never been found. The other guy turns out to be a one-legged Marine named Delong (Richard Erdman), an alcoholic vet who just happens to be the late arriving alibi that got Rocky sprung from prison. Within barely five minutes, the pieces are in play for a decent suspense thriller with noir overtones, and William Bowers’ screenplay (based on a story by Jerome Cady) then takes a neat left turn by disclosing that Delong actually isn’t an alibi at all, but merely a guy with a penchant for research who realized his presence in town the night Rocky supposedly went over to the dark side could give Rocky a way out of the joint. Delong himself is, like Cobb, convinced Rocky had something to do with the crime and wants his own piece of the stolen loot pie. Rather strangely, Rocky doesn’t seem to mind too much, and invites Delong to accompany him as he attempts to find Nancy (Rhonda Fleming), the wife of Rocky’s supposed partner in crime, a guy who, unlike Rocky, is still jailed for the supposed robbery and murder which Rocky insists they had nothing to do with.

Cry Danger is often lumped into the noir category, but I’m not so sure it belongs there as firmly as some might suggest. The film takes place largely in the sunny confines of daytime Los Angeles (one of the joys of the film is the circa 1950 location footage, which captures a somewhat less hectic way of life in the City of Angels), and there are several other salient differences, as well. This film never really exploits the traditional noir trope of a femme fatale leading a good and decent man down the path toward ruin, nor does it have the moral ambiguity that is often part and parcel of the genre. Instead, we have a rather stalwart hero in Rocky. Yes, he’s had his issues, and he’s certainly not above taking the law into his own hands (especially since the “real” law did him wrong), but he doesn’t have even a moment’s vacillation in trying to get to the bottom of the crime that put him away for so long.

The film is not even especially circumspect when it comes to revealing what’s actually going on with regard to Rocky’s plight. Almost immediately Rocky has centered on a local racketeer named Louie Castro (a relatively svelte William Conrad, relatively being the operative term). Castro more or less confesses to having set Rocky up in one of the film’s first scenes, which then leads to a long middle section where Castro seems to be getting Rocky some of the missing loot. That turns out to be one of the film’s interesting detours, when Rocky is sent on an apparently successful chase after winnings on a rigged horse race which actually turns out to be a major setup. (There’s some B-movie shorthand in the place of logic in this sequence, including a suddenly disappearing backroom and a magazine salesgirl who similarly vanishes into thin air).

The burgeoning romantic angle also doesn’t completely work, especially for those who are tuned in to how fifties’ era moral standards played out in film. Nancy is, after all, a married woman, and so her erstwhile affair with Rocky probably can’t come to a happy conclusion unless something nefarious were to happen to her incarcerated husband. Those with a penchant for “twists” can probably read between the lines and come to a conclusion about Nancy that the film delays until one of the final scenes.

What ultimately buoys Cry Danger are some great performances, along with the aforementioned location work. Powell, one of the few actors able to matriculate from being a song and dance man to a hardboiled man of action in films, does good if not very innovative work as Rocky. Fleming doesn’t actually have much overt chemistry with Powell, but she plays a nice middle ground here where the viewer is led to believe Nancy is about as wholesome as apple pie, albeit with a bit of arsenic in the crust. The real fun here is in some of the supporting work. Conrad doesn’t have a whale of a lot to do other than look menacing, but a couple of his scenes with Powell, especially after Powell gets the upper hand, are quite amusing. Even better is Richard Erdman as Delong. Erdman’s face will be instantly familiar to many viewers, even if they can’t recite any of his copious credits (many will remember him from the classic Twilight Zone episode, “A Kind of Stopwatch”). Erdman does great work here as the physically and psychologically wounded ally of Rocky, bringing some unexpected depth to the role. Trivia lovers will delight in seeing a young Hy Averback as a bookie (Averback’s name should be familiar to baby boomers as a producer of such mid-sixties’ fare as F Troop, and his voice was the loudspeaker announcer on television’s M*A*S*H. Also look sharp for a very brief cameo by the wonderful Kathleen Freeman at the cigarette and magazine stand.

Cry Danger Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Cry Danger is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. This transfer was culled from the recent (2010) restoration done in concert by UCLA Film and Television Archive and the Film Noir Foundation. UCLA's own website on its restorations provides the following data:

Preserved in cooperation with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. from two 35mm acetate composite master positives. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Film Technology Company, Inc. Special thanks to: Hal Jones, Eddie Muller, Ned Price.

While there is still some damage to be seen in the elements utilized for this transfer, along with some slightly variable contrast and sharpness (some of which should be apparent in glancing that the screenshots accompanying this review), this is by and large a stellar looking high definition presentation that offers a natural and organic appearance, albeit one with a few dings along the way. Blacks are solid and deep, and gray scale is very nicely modulated for the most part. In the best looking sequences, contrast is exceptional and fine detail is also very good. The best part about the restoration and/or matriculation to Blu-ray is that no over aggressive digital manipulation is in view.

Cry Danger Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Things aren't quite a good with regard to Cry Danger's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix. There's readily audible hiss as well as moments of admittedly minor damage like slight dropouts and clicks and pops. No actual dialogue is affected, and while the track is slightly boxy sounding (as befits its age and the recording technologies of the day), it's eminently listenable.

Cry Danger Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

As with many Olive Films releases, this Blu-ray disc features no supplements of any kind.

Cry Danger Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Cry Danger has one thing that many noirs don't—a sense of humor. Watch how Rocky grimaces when the valet parks his car, or when Delong figures out he's been taken (yet again) by the pretty blonde he falls for, only to discover she's a pickpocket. Briskly directed by longtime editor Robert Parrish, Cry Danger actually defies as many noir tropes as it indulges in, but it's good, solid, if ultimately not especially innovative, entertainment. While Powell and Fleming are the ostensible calling cards here, many fans may well want to check this out for its extremely colorful supporting cast, as well as some wonderful glimpses of early fifties Los Angeles. This Blu-ray offers excellent (if occasionally slightly inconsistent) video culled from the recent UCLA restoration, though the audio has its fair share of issues. Recommended.