Appointment With Danger
Posted by martinteller on September 30, 2010
Another “infiltrating the organization” noir, following the usual template. T-Men championed the treasury department, Border Incident showcased the border patrol, and The House on 92nd Street highlighted the FBI. This one delves into the life of a postal inspector. Except for the nicely done opening sequence, I was rather underwhelmed at first and found the movie a bit clunky. But eventually its charm started to rub off on me. Alan Ladd brings his usual light touch to the proceedings, and there’s a lot of terrific snappy patter. Although there are only a few tense action scenes, the way the story unfolds is engaging, if not very original. There’s some wonderful business involving Phyllis Calvert as a nun witness, and Jan Sterling makes a good moll. The film repeats the same pre-”Dragnet” casting as Dark City, again with Harry Morgan as the nice guy baddie and Jack Webb as the rotten one. Paul Stewart is good too, playing pretty much the exact same role he would do the next year in Loan Shark. Overall, it’s not a masterpiece or anything, but I had fun with it. Rating: 8
