Danger Signal

The opening sequence shows a ton of promise, a few minutes of pure noir. From there on, it's strictly dullsville until the final act. Although Howe is a dynamite cinematographer, he doesn't get enough opportunities to show off his chops, and most of the film is flat and lifeless. Once the tension amps up, it gets slightly better, but no more so than a dozen other similar tales. And then there's a ridiculous (and thoroughly unexplained) climax, and a really corny coda.

We see a murder, and the murderer, in the opening scene, and the rest is watching him worm his way into a woman's life as we fear for her safety and wonder how he'll get his. It's a bit hokey at times, but the supporting cast is pretty enjoyable, and while I've seen this mix of bubbly light drama and sinister undertones done much better, I've also seen it done much worse. It takes a few interesting turns and pushes toward what should be a great ending, but doesn't quite make it.

It begins like a poor man's "Shadow of a Doubt," but it goes downhill from there. Howe's noir photography has its moments, Scott is excellent as the psychopathic perfumed parlor snake, and Emerson, Bennett and DeCamp are very good too, But the juveniles Erdman and Freeman are close to unendurable, the climax is unsatisfying, and the conclusion dishonestly cheery.

My dad met my mom because he was dating her roommate, but to drop a girl for her sister takes a certain edge that Zachary Scott most certainly appears to possess. He's so unscrupulous I started rooting for him, or maybe I was just rooting for the middle section to provide something a little more, like anything at all. It's a long middle bookended by great sequences.

Danger Signal (1945) sure had a great ending, but most of the build-up was a bore. More a psychological drama than anything else. At least it came to something to appreciate.