Appointment with Danger (1951)

One of the lesser-known films noir, Appointment with Danger is decidedly uneven, but when it's kicked into high gear, it's quite memorable. It's a shame that the stretches of the film between its highs don't have more vitality and spark to them; they're not bad, mind you, but they come across as routine. That feeling of "routine-ness" is more in the execution, for Danger has a number of elements that are somewhat different for the genre and which had greater potential than was realized. For example, having a nun as the crucial witness had not been done to death in the genre, and the decision to make the protagonist a member of the postal police was original. If these were missed opportunities, we're quite fortunate that director Lewis Allen and screenwriters Richard L. Breen and Warren B. Duff were in better form for the sequences that stand out -- especially the squash game and the murder of Henry Morgan. The former is an outstanding sequence in which Alan Ladd's seething anger is allowed to boil over, resulting in an exciting game in which the ball becomes almost a weapon of death. In the latter, Jack Webb's cold blooded killing, with a pair of bronzed baby shoes that themselves are filled with meaning, is shockingly brutal yet thrilling. Ladd does well in the lead role, although his laidback style will not engage all viewers. Phyllis Calvert is excellent as the nun, and Jan Sterling gets in some memorable moments as the moll. The most interesting casting, however, is future Dragnet co-stars Webb and Morgan as the villains, with Webb's patented deadpan style proving chilling and disturbingly psychopathic. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide