Cry Danger
        
Director: Robert Parrish
Year: 1951
Rating: 7.5
Noir runs through this film, like blood from a seeping bullet wound to the stomach. From the moment Rocky Malone gets off the train in Los Angeles in his neat suit and hat and walks down a long narrow tunnel with no other people in sight other than the two guys following him, it spells trouble and noir. Rocky is played by Dick Powell who made one of the great career changes ever when he played Philip Marlowe in the classic 1944 Murder, My Sweet. Gone was the soft face and crooning voice that had lifted him to stardom in the Warner Brothers musicals of the 1930s. By 1944 he realized he was getting too old for that soft-shoe big eyed romancing the innocent ingenue. His voice was now clipped and tough, spitting out dialogue like it cost more than a nickel. You only talk when you have to and not a word more. And it better be biting and as witty as barbed wire.

 

He has just gotten out of prison after five years for a robbery - that he didn't commit. His pal is still in the stir and he plans to find out who framed them and make them pay - one way or another. First, he meets up with the guy who corroborated his alibi - a marine (Richard Erdmann) who told the cops that he had been out drinking with Rocky that night. He was lying. He wants part of the money that was stolen but like a good luck piece Rocky brings him along. They go to stay at a trailer court where the wife of his pal lives. Nancy played by Rhonda Fleming. I usually prefer black and white for noir but not if Fleming is in it. She looks fine but in Technicolor her flaming red hair and pale skin is like the Fourth of July. She and Rocky had once been lovers but he lost her to his friend. He still loves her. He knows who really stole the money - Castro played by an oily William Conrad (Cannon), already plump but not yet a walking stomach.  A cop (Regis Toomey) is following him all the time - waiting for the money to make an appearance.

 

It is directed by Robert Parrish in his debut and he keeps the film moving and constantly tense. He uses the city nicely - old hotels, empty streets, friendly bars, off-beat characters, killers and the trailer court where the manager plays his fiddle and a blonde (June Porter) welcomes all the new men while sunning in her bathing suit and a for sale sign in her eyes. Not usually mentioned when talking about the best noir but this is right up there.