Appointment With Danger (1951)

Appointment with Danger (1951) is an American crime film noir directed by Lewis Allen and written by Richard L. Breen and Warren Duff. The drama features Alan Ladd, Phyllis Calvert, Paul Stewart, among others.

The film tells of Al Goddard (Alan Ladd), a detective who works for the United States Postal Inspection Service. He's assigned to arrest two criminals who've allegedly murdered a U.S. postal detective.
Goddard must locate the witness to the murder, an attractive young nun named Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert). He poses as a crook, and gains the confidence of the killers' honcho Boettiger (Paul Stewart), who has worked out a plan to steal one million bucks from the post office.
Once they discover the deception, the villains take Goddard and witness Sister Augustine prisoner. This leads to a fight in an industrial district.

Alan Ladd as Al Goddard
Phyllis Calvert as Sister Augustine
Paul Stewart as Earl Boettiger
Jan Sterling as Dodie
Jack Webb as Joe Regas
Stacy Harris as Paul Ferrar
Harry Morgan as George Soderquist
David Wolfe as David Goodman
Dan Riss as Maury Ahearn
Geraldine Wall as Mother Ambrose
George J. Lewis as Leo Cronin
Paul Lees as Gene Gunner
Sid Tomack as Trainman
Murray Alper as Driver
[edit]Background

The film features both Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as villains. Both would later work on the Dragnet television show as fictional police detectives for the Los Angeles Police Department.
[edit]Critical reception

Bosley Crowther, film critic for The New York Times, liked the film, especially the screenplay which Alan Ladd took full advantage of. He wrote, "[I]t's fairly obvious that it's all familiar stuff to our hero, for he evinces as much emotion over these muscular goings-on as a postal clerk counting air mail stamps. But he is fortunate in having a vehicle, which is basically a cops-and-robbers tale, tautly written by scenarists Richard Breen and Warren Duff, who also have injected humor in the modern idiom into their dialogue. And he is fortunate too in having the support of principals who handle these lines and roles as to the manner born. As a result, Appointment With Danger lives up to its title as Ladd, checking on the murder of another postal inspector in Gary, Ind., finds a visiting nun who saw the criminals."[2]
The staff at Variety magazine gave the film a positive review, writing, "Ladd is right at home as the tightlipped, tough inspector assigned to the case. There is a neat contrasting byplay in the nun character done by Phyllis Calvert as co-star, which adds an offbeat note to the meller plot.[3]
[edit]


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05DNRewQVKE&feature=related