Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Five Steps to Danger Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 20, 2018

Ruth Roman is one of those actresses with a ton of film and television credits who nonetheless never seemed to quite make it to the pinnacle of superstardom that others with similarly hefty “ographies” achieved. Roman had a long if not particularly illustrious career, one that is perhaps best remembered now for her turn in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. Now niche label ClassicFlix is bringing out two Ruth Roman vehicles from the 1950s, both with a number in their title (the other release is Down Three Dark Streets), and both at least arguably able to be shoehorned into the noir genre, if kind of fitfully at times. My personal estimation is that you’d be hard pressed to really call either of these films outright “classics” (as in ClassicFlix), but they each have interesting elements, including some fun uses of location work.

Five Steps to Danger (whose actual title card lists the film’s name as 5 Steps to Danger) begins with a really smartly done scene that finds Ann Nicholson (Ruth Roman) driving her nicely appointed convertible down what looks like a coastal highway, ultimately passing a man in another car — which, as the neatly orchestrated traveling shot reveals, is being towed and is out of service. In a kind of bizarre moment of lapsed continuity, the towed car ends up at a garage, where its owner, John Emmett (Sterling Hayden) finagles a quick sale rather than waiting for repairs, at which point Ann suddenly drives up. (You’d think if she passed the tow truck, she’d get to the shop first, wouldn’t you?)

Ann overhears John trying to make plans to get east via bus now that he’s without a car, and perhaps acting on a sudden impulse, Ann invites herself to sit with John at a nearby diner, where she propositions him (so to speak) with a free ride east as far as Santa Fe, if, that is, he’ll take over nighttime driving so that she can get to her destination as quickly as possible. That sets up the “road” element of this would be thriller, though at one of the first pit stops, John is approached by a woman named Helen Bethke (Jeanne Cooper), who alleges she is Ann’s nurse, following Ann at the behest of Ann’s psychiatrist Dr. Simmons (Werner Klemperer), who is keeping track of Ann after a reported recent nervous breakdown. Already Five Steps to Danger’s screenplay is getting perilously ridiculous, and certain aspects of Ann’s backstory are never really very adequately detailed in the film, leading to a loss of suspense and impact.

Kind of weirdly, the film shows Ann hiding from Bethke, only to confront John about her when he returns to the car. Five Steps to Danger might have done better to have spent a little time detailing this particular element, because once things really heat up, after a botched attempted arrest leaves Ann and John handcuffed to each other a la The Defiant Ones, the film tends to become downright silly with a flashback detailing Ann’s sojourn to Berlin to supposedly reunite with a long lost brother. Instead, she’s met by some kind of resistance fighter who gives her top secret information about a Soviet missile program. Not only is this overheated plot element presented with a lack of clarity, the film seems to be hinting at some kind of romantic relationship between this intermediary and Ann, just another passing plot point that feels like it had aspects left on the cutting room floor somewhere along the way.

There are any number (some might argue too high a number) of similarly passing plot points that accrue as John and Ann get to Santa Fe, all the while with nurse Bethke and the good (?) doctor hot in pursuit, but the film skips over what would seem to be salient information at times, including what exactly led to Ann’s supposed institutionalization, and what, if anything, would require her being re-hospitalized (as turns out to be a predictable plot point). The whole “McGuffin” with the Soviet missile plans is also handled kind of ineptly, with a totally weird showdown with Ann’s supposed contact that may only serve to confuse even more rather than to explain anything. (Part of this is due to the completely bizarre addition of a supporting character supposedly working for the CIA, in another plot point that is severely underdeveloped.)

If there’s no real sense of danger here, despite the film’s title, Roman does a decent enough job in a role that requires her to be an addled neurotic at one moment and a steely and smart heroine the next. Hayden, playing a kind of no nonsense Everyman, doesn’t really have all that much to do here, though he does provide a bit of probably unintended comedy simply by the sheer imposing size of his body in one kind of funny scene. When the diminutive actor playing the CIA agent supposedly is the “alpha” in an interchange, Hayden’s character complies with orders being barked out despite the fact that Hayden towers over the other performer in an almost menacing way. What gives this film at least a little momentum is some fun location photography which offers a bit of local flavor, mid-fifties style, along the way.

Five Steps to Danger Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Five Steps to Danger is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. ClassicFlix states this transfer is "restored from the original camera negative" (their blog mentions a 4K scan, though the back cover doesn't state that), and this is by and large a very nice and organic looking presentation, though there are some noticeable variances in brightness, contrast and clarity levels. The opening sequence, for example, looks somewhat brighter than some later moments, and in fact several interstitial location shots have less appealing contrast and clarity than what I assume are studio shot sequences, aspects that I assume are due at least in part to the vagaries of location shooting itself. (There are a few moments that look like focus pulling may have been a challenge.) Director Henry S. Kesler and cinematographer Kenneth Peach utilize the wide frame rather well throughout the film, especially in the outdoor material where depth of field is quite appealing, and when close-ups are employed, fine detail levels are typically very good. While the restoration efforts have delivered a presentation largely free of age related wear and tear, eagle eyed videophiles may still spot very minor and transitory damage in the form of small scratches and the like.

Five Steps to Danger Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Five Steps to Danger features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono mix which suffices perfectly well for a film that tends to deal mostly in dialogue scenes despite the prevalence of location sequences and an "on the road" mentality. There's some slight but noticeable distortion in the midrange during some of the underscore, notably during the opening credits sequence, but otherwise elements like dialogue sound fine, if a bit on the bright side and also a bit on the boxy side at times. There are some slight amplitude variances with regard to some of the location moments that make me think this might not have had much if any post looping and "live" recording techniques might have been utilized.

Five Steps to Danger Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements included on this Blu-ray disc.

Five Steps to Danger Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Five Steps to Danger could have really been a prime example of Hitchcockian paranoia had it simply developed some of its many competing plot points a bit more effectively. This is a film that wants its heroine to be both a simpering mental case and a freedom fighting superwoman, and the segues between these vast differences doesn't exactly help with any suspension of disbelief. Roman is attractive and really rather charismatic throughout this film, though, and if Hayden only occasionally gets to strut his inimitable machismo, he grounds the film in a way and almost by force hoists some rocky scenes up by their veritable bootstraps to give this entry a bit of force. There's some very enjoyable location work scattered throughout this film, for those who like to view bygone vistas (not to mention some cool looking mid-fifties cars). As usual, ClassicFlix has provided a disc with generally solid technical merits, though this particular release is lacking any supplementary material.