Appointment with Danger

I just seen Appointment With Danger for the first time and quite enjoyed it.

A postal inspector is murdered in Gary, Indiana and fellow inspector, Al Goddard is sent over there to investigate this. He tries to track down a nun who witnessed the murder, which he does. He then joins the gang responsible and makes out he is a "bent" postal inspector.

This movie is shot well in black and white and well on location too, especially the railway scenes.

The cast includes the excellent Alan Ladd (Shane) as Goddard, Phyllis Calvert, Paul Stewart and Jan Sterling.

For some reason, Appointment With Danger doesn't seem to have been released on video or DVD, so you will have to rely on it coming on telly and tape it, which I did.

Rating: 3 and a half stars out of 5.

Postal Inspector Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is a man on a mission. His partner has been murdered and he must solve the case and prevent the gang from pulling the big mail heist! Location filming in Chicago and Gary, Indiana, adds a touch of realisim that can't be captured in a Hollywood studio. This movie is above average, but the following makes it a MUST see: Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (Sgt. Joe Friday and Officer Bill Gannon in a future life) are members of the gang. Webb's character is particularly vicious, and he kills Morgan with a pair of bronze baby shoes!

Appointment with Danger (1951)

A good, run-of-the-mill crime story. It's more a heist film than a true noir, and it has a popular twist of featuring a government cop as the lead character. There are several FBI films like this (they start with a shot of government building and have a serious narrator or title card give the context), but this is the only one I know of about the U.S. Post Office police.

Alan Ladd is a solid actor, in urban crime films or in Westerns, but he's never quite inspiring or memorable, and so the movie is hampered from the start. On the other hand, there is a slew of interesting secondary characters, and some are real characters (like the ever-impressive Paul Stewart, who had his real start in "Citizen Kane"). We get to bomb through some great sets and locations (including the waterfront), and the photography by John Seitz (one of the best, see "Sunset Blvd." and "Double Indemnity") is great. The editing seemed a little sudden at times, almost as if this was shortened version (it wasn't, as far as anyone has noted), but you have to pay attention a couple times to follow what happens. In a way, I think they expect the audience to know the usual twists of this kind of plot, and if that helps explain its fast cutting, it also reveals a kind of formula behind it all.

See it? Yes, of course. It's great in particular ways.

Films of this type, so namely thriller, really appeal to me, love films with tautness, edge and suspense and have done for a long time now. The story sounded great too on paper and the cast is a talented one, with Alan Ladd proving more than once that he does well in the sort of role he plays here (one that plays to his strengths rather than stretching him too much) and the rest of the cast is full of ever reliable actors.

'Appointment with Danger' for me was nifty and entertaining if a little disappointing at the same time, as there was more room for it to be better than it turned out to be with the promise it had. Having its issues while also having a lot to recommend, so all in all not too bad a position to be in. Regarding as to whether to class it as a film-noir, from my perspective 'Appointment with Danger' and can easily be classed as one, at the same time it can be considered a mystery/heist film with a lot of noir-ish elements (if not as hard-boiled as most and it does lack a strong "femme fatale").

Starting with what doesn't quite work, to me Phyllis Calvert's role is underdeveloped and her later scenes distract a little from what's going on and don't always add much. Calvert does portray her very winningly it has to be said, the fault does not lie with her.

Did think that at times the pace could have tightened up a little more in the middle and there could have been more suspense, with outcomes never really being in doubt and with there not being enough danger 'Appointment with Danger' has its bland spots.

It does look great though, loved the moody lighting and very atmospheric locations enhanced by some very stylish photography. They all gave off a real sense of foreboding. The music also gives off that vibe, classy and ominous without overbearing what's going on. Lewis Allen directs smartly and mostly does not let the momentum slip.

Maybe the script is not always what one calls hard-boiled, but it was hard to dislike its snappiness, tautness and surprisingly humorous moments, thankfully never unintentionally. The story on the most part does grip, thanks to a lot being packed in without feeling like there was too much going on and it doesn't feel muddled. Would have liked more suspense, but thankfully boredom never properly crept in and there were exciting moments, namely the climax.

The cast are good, a few great, Ladd has been better with him playing relatively similar roles with more steel but still does admirably (laconic does not come over as bland). Jan Sterling steals her (too few) scenes as the amusingly wise-cracking moll, that she plays the heck out of, and Paul Stewart does cynical and menacingly reserved expertly. Found the scene stealer to be a frighteningly vicious Jack Webb.

In summary, entertaining but more danger and suspense wouldn't have gone amiss. 7/10

For someone who grew up in the Fifties watching Dragnet as a kid, viewing this film in the Nineties was strange: the cop-heroes of that TV show, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan, are now villains in this film!

Webb played the tougher of the two characters, by far, and was effective in that role. Meanwhile, Alan Ladd played his normal good guy-tough guy role. Another odd thing about this movie is that Ladd was an agent for the U.S. Post Office, an organization - at least back then before people went "postal" - one doesn't normally think need policemen.

But, as it was explained in the film, it was needed and the movie goes quickly from a corny-hokey start into a tough film noir. Phyllis Calvert adds a soft touch to the proceedings as a nun who humanizes Ladd, and helps him with the case.

In all, I'm making this sound perhaps more interesting than it was, because it was okay but nothing super. Still, I'd like to see it get a DVD treatment some day and I'd consider buying it.