Is there anything more instantly noir than trains? Probably the only genre with a stronger association with that mode of transport is the western. 1951’s Cry Danger has its opening titles over various footage of trains in motion. It is a signal we are in noir territory, and the film that follows is one of the best I have seen in that genre.
Dick Powell seems to be the only passenger disembarking at L.A.’s Union Station. It is one example of the many great locations used here. So it is odd when it changes to rear-projection as two guys approach Powell in the parking lot. They could afford to shoot in Union Station, but not in a parking lot that could have been any lot anywhere?
One of those two guys who approaches Powell is the police detective who put him behind bars for allegedly masterminding a heist five years prior. Powell’s sentence was reduced from life to half a decade because of the testimony of Richard Erdman. That’s the other guy from the train station.
After the detective has his say and departs, Erdman introduces himself to Powell, a man who has never seen him before. This, despite the former testifying he was having a drink with the latter on the night of the heist. He only gave this false statement because he believes that, having been freed, Powell will feel compelled to split the money with him.
Powell has other plans. He may be on the trail of the money, but it is only to turn the loot and the real perpetrator over to the police. If successful, he believes it will free the other man convicted for the heist. I found that interesting, because the other guy only has six months left to serve but, hey, I’m sure I would be happy to have any amount of time shaved off my sentence if I was in prison.
Rhonda Fleming plays the wife of the guy left behind in prison. She’s residing in a pretty nice trailer. Powell and Erdman take a trailer in the same park. I don’t know which element had me more confused: that there used to be a trailer park in Los Angeles city limits, or that the two guys decide to cohabitate in a trailer until the money can be found.
Powell and Fleming are very good in this and there’s decent chemistry between them. But the real star of the show is Erdman, as a one-legged former Marine with a massive drinking problem. He gets to say some great dialog, such as, “I want the city to get me a replacement leg. Try to get it in knotty pine. I want it to match my furniture.” Also, when heading off to a bar with Jean Porter, “If I’m not back by Tuesday, drag the river.”
He some great rapport with Porter, the blonde-next-trailer he immediately hooks up with. As Fleming says of her, “When the Marines land, Darlene is always waiting for them.” There’s an amusing ongoing bit where she keeps lifting money from Erdman: “She turned out to be a part-time model and full-time pickpocket.” Later, they’re about to go to a bar when he just hands her a roll of bills: “You keep the money this time and I’ll see if I can steal it.” There’s even a memorable line, partly because of the shock value in it, when he casually says to her, “Run along, darling, before I fracture your spine.”
William Conrad is perfectly cast as the real mastermind of the heist. While he pretends to make amends to Powell, he has many plans in place to have him offed. Regis Toomey, as the policeman who put Powell in prison, is so unconcerned about who did the heist that he’s almost a second villain: “I hope one of you bumps off the other so I can clean up what’s left.” This, despite all evidence showing Conrad has to be behind the crime. As Powell tells Toomey: “You not only didn’t pick the right horse, you even picked the wrong track.”
I have singled out so many lines because the dialog is so great. Admittedly, nobody talks this cleverly in real life, but I can still wish they did. Such as this exchange when Powell and Erdman see the inside of the trailer they’ll be renting: “The place looks lived in.” “Yeah, but by what?” I also love this line Powell delivers to a bartender who thinks he’s one up on him after receiving a ten-spot: “That’s OK. I got that ten bucks from a typhoid carrier.”
Cry Danger is one of the best noirs I have seen, though it is unassuming compared to such masterpieces as Brute Force, White Heat or Night and the City. Unfortunately, it is in need of a better restoration than what is on the Olive Films release, which is the only blu-ray of the film to date. I only hope it will one day get a restoration and release from a distributor more deserving of it, such as the Criterion Collection.
Dir: Robert Parrish (though apparently in name only, with Dick Powell actually directing)
Starring Dick Powell, Rhonda Fleming, Richard Erdman
Watched on Olive Films blu-ray