A Dangerous Profession

The twist of this film is that Bill Williams is in jail with his bail set at $25,000 and Ella Raines, his wife, seeks to have him bailed out by bail bondsman George Raft, with whom she had a platonic affair (the production code still held some sway in 1949) while married to Williams. But she only has $4,000 and Raft and his partner Pat O'Brien want her to come up with the whole $25,000. Duh, if she had the $25,000 she wouldn't need them; she would post the bail. The whole point of the bail bond business is that you pay them about 10% of the bail amount and they put up the rest. In return for their fee they assume liability for the whole amount if the defendant skips town. Later, when a mysterious and obviously fraudulent stranger offers Raft and O'Brien $12,000 towards the $25,000 bond, they somewhat unethically keep that plus the $4,000 and still worry that they're not being paid enough.

Williams's crime is also hard to understand. He is said to have cashed $150,000 in securities for two men without knowing they were stolen. Somehow he is unable to name or describe these men, although one of them owns a night club he frequents. Similarly, incorruptible cop Jim Backus wasn't able to find Williams for two years despite his being in plain sight. And despite Williams being unable to identify the two men, they want him killed so he can't identify them.

This film has the noir look and cast but it's more like a routine detective story where the detective (or ex-cop bail bondsman in this case) goes on a sort of treasure hunt where person A sends him to B who sends him to C and so on until the movie has gone on long enough for him to solve the case.

Backus acts like Raft's posting bond for this inept patsy was equivalent to springing a mass murderer. O'Brien keeps acting suspiciously for no reason. Raines doesn't strike me as the femme fatale she's supposed to be, but that's just personal taste.

Obligatory car-driving-over-cliff scene. L. A.'s canyons were littered with auto bodies in those days.

Richard Winnington was a bit unfair on George Raft when he accused him of just going through the motions "without a flicker of expression or removing his hat", since he takes his hat off quite often in this involved but uninvolving tale of bail bond officers, the Dangerous Profession of the title.

It's actually far more laid back that the rather dramatic title indicates and too brightly lit to qualify as 'film noir'. Pat O'Brien and Jim Backus (who also supplies the opening narration) seem to be enjoying cynically sauntering about in big suits more than Raft himself.

George Raft was a cop. Now he's a bail bondsman, in partnership with Pat O'Brien. A series of disappearing clients has him worried, as does Ella Raines, an old girl friend who reappears in his life.

It's a noirish sort of movie without many of the trappings; the most dramatic bit of lighting occurs in a shot of the firm's secretary taking a call, with the light shining through, the company's logo etched in reverse on the wall above and behind her. Ted Tetzlaff's direction is workmanlike, and as often seems the case, Raft's delivery is fast and guarded, giving the impression, as so many of his later movies do, that he's there for a paycheck, and anxious to get through the shoot as fast as he can. Jim Backus steals the movie as a police detective who seems to have a relationship with Raft.

During the late forties, George Raft made several film noirs for RKO pictures, mostly directed by Edwin Marin: NOCTURNE, INTRIGUE, JOHNNY ANGEL, RACE STREET, but here he works with Ted Tetzlaff, who gave us WHITE TOWER, and several other good films, such as the terrific THE WINDOW, his most notorious movie. So that said, here, George Raft gives us Raft's stuff, but I was more interested by Ella Raines and her wonderful eyes. It is for me only a good atmosphere film, which plot is totally lame and forgettable. Only atmosphere and George Raft - Ella Raines presence justify the watching of this crime noir.

I'll admit the first 30 mins were tough-going; Raft's blank-faced, ironing-board-stiff acting had me dream-casting other actors in his place. Then, with the whole blandness of the scenes and the drabness of the sets along with the byzantine storyline and ambivalence of attitude and the femme fatale lite and the grey moral dilemmas aplenty, suddenly I started to really love it - even Raft's flatness fit right in with the dreary decor and one-dimensional bit players - besides the labyrinthine plot, there is the sheer variety of locations and interaction, including some fascinating outdoor shots in the latter half. It would never win awards - but with the qualities mentioned above - the odd great shot and the occasional catchy zinger - this has an exquisite pleasure all its own. I commend this to your good self.