Monday, June 18, 2018

Movie review - "I Live on Danger" (1943) *1/2

Chester Morris' second film for Pine Thomas has him as a radio reporter (which gives it novelty) covering various events. He investigates a ship's fire and winds up blaming a man who is innocent... because it was a frame up. He falls for the boy's sister (Jean Parker).

The quality of the support cast is high but this isn't very good. The handling from director Sam White is poor - slack and inconsistent.The movie starts out as a jaunty mystery - then it gets all serious when Morris goes to cover a fire, and there's crying children and mothers and it feels like a different movie. The scenes with Parker are heavy and emotive rather than sparring and the whole thing just slows right down.

There are three writers credited and I wonder if that's part of the problem. The movie feels as though it lacks a cohesive vision. It doesn't even have the normal Pine-Thomas virtues of pace and action. The acting is pretty decent.

No comments: