Danger Ahead

The synopsis to this film listed on IMDB is 100% wrong. There is no Bob Hill in "Danger Ahead" and the plot is entirely different...and there is no armored car.

The story is very simple. A captain has come into money....$40,000 to be exact. However, a gang of idiots who cannot fight pursue him throughout the movie trying to take his money....and again and again, a smart reporter thwarts the mob....aided by his dopey sidekick (Fuzzy Knight).

The story is weak...even for a B-movie. Add to that impossibly inept crooks and you've got a movie that is, at best, a time-passer and nothing more.

Captain John Elliott delivers his cargo and meets with Bryant Washburn for his payment. He's surprised when he's paid the $40,000 in cash, but Washburn is a crook. His henchmen steal the money. However, newspaperman Lawrence Grey takes the money, has his pal delicatessen manager Fuzzy Knight hide it in the bologna, and the rest of this movie is about their attempts to get the money back and Grey and the captain's daughter, Sheila Bromley, making nice and trying to get the money back where it belongs.

This is an action comedy. We can tell it's a comedy because of the large number of comics, including policeman Fred Kelsey. However, it's a thoroughly stupid story, because first, if they're going to steal the money back immediately, why bother using real money, and second, why don't the good guys, when they have a moment to spare, deposit the money in a bank and use checks? Albert Herman seems to direct everyone as if they're one of Paul Winchell's marionettes, with lots of eyebrow waggling.

All of this idiocy is understandable, because it's a Sam Katzman production. It's mildly surprising, because it's from a Peter Kyne story, and he was a pretty good writer. J. Farrell MacDonald is present as Grey's boss for a couple of days' work. I suppose he figured he could use the money.

Danger Ahead is a pretty amusing crime drama that takes pains to either make things painfully obvious before they occur, or make things impossibly clueless and stupid that it becomes amusing. An old sea captain and his daughter go to a club to get the 40,000 dollars he's owed for the cargo he's brought in. But unfortunately, the club's owner, who brought the cargo in, has a scheme (with plenty of eyebrow raising) of robbing the man of his money. After knocking the guy senseless, a newspaper reporter, who's viewed all of this it seems from the table he was sitting at the club, rescues the money from the bad guys, and then holds the money in the newspaper's vault for safekeeping so that the captain can pick it up. (They advertise that on the front page). Well, now hold on a second, why couldn't the reporter just give BACK the money to the captain? He was still at the club. 2nd of all, after the newspaper exposes the embezzlement at the club, why are the bad guys still hanging out there, and better yet, why aren't the cops doing anything? Such ridiculous questions abound in this film. Although the plot is well, implausible, at least Lawrence Harvey makes for an entertaining hero, and the cast does a great job of supporting him. Lot and lots of action here too, so this is a film that never gets boring.

$40,000 is the main topic of this movie. It moves around quite a bit, and even spends some time in a large sausage. I assume the $40,000 is in $5,000 notes, as it is a very small bundle for such a large amount.

The vocal styles and interesting manner (including the rather strange dance-like movements in some scenes) of almost every actor is fun to watch. Plenty of action as well as the comic elements.

Beware; many of the characters are masters at soft knock-out blows. A light tap, and the person is rendered unconscious for some time. Haha.

There are the "clacky" fist-fights (you know, the odd, light clacking sound of someone getting punched in these old movies as opposed to the explosive deep bass sound of a punch in some modern movies), a very well-done comic piano and vocal performance by the deli bloke (far more entertaining than the one on the David Letterman show for sure), and even chimney-climbing! It's also a lot of fun seeing (and trying to identify) all these old cars from the 1930s.

I consider the writing above average for a movie of this kind and of this era. Certainly worth the hour of enjoyment it brings.

There are other comic/crime dramas from this era. This is certainly one of the more amusing and entertaining ones.

8/10

Lawrence Gray plays a reporter who witnesses a sea captain getting robbed by crooks in a scam after delivering $40,000 in silks. Paid in cash, it is a setup to steal the money back. After Gray takes the money from the crooks, the chase is on by the crooks to find the money which seems to go on a longer voyage than the silk ship.

There is of course the captain's daughter who caught Gray's eye in the first place as the tacked on love interest, and Fuzzy Knight, the friend in the delicatessen meant for comedy relief, and who fails miserably. You don't expect great acting in B-movies of this sort, but this one is particularly bad, and only Lawrence Gray at least manages to not make you roll your eyes.

While B-movies are known to have poor fight choreography, it is usually at least short. This one aspires to be an action movie, and manages to include several fight scenes that drag on and on, even when the crooks are holding guns that they won't use.

Not amusing enough to be camp, not interesting enough to enjoyable diversion, this movie is best avoided.