Dangerously They Live (1941)

There's a good chance the film will make you laugh out loud, but if it doesn't, there's an even better chance it will make you openly sob.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This is a "spies among us" movie of World War ii with a fairly outrageous plot concerning a woman played by Nancey Coleman who may or may not be an amnesia victim who comes under the care of a young intern, John Garfield. She's been in a rather grisly taxi wreck. She has no cuts, bruises apparent, but can't remember who she is. Moroni Olsen shows up and claims to be her Father. Whenever Moroni Olsen appears in a film, you can be sure something is up. Raymond Massey is called in as a suspiciously too affable specialist. There are Nazis at work here. We know because when we are in their clubhouse behind a delicatessen, there are swastikas on the wall. Usually a dead give-away. There is a creepy mansion with a creepy staff and the butler wears a pistol under his frock coat. Robert Florey, a French director, who was never quite given his due in the studio days adds some European touches here and there, including a funny shot of a dead body rising on a silent butler. Mr. Florey does menace well.

I was very pleased to finally see this film again after many years. I can never understand why other people complain about the storyline or some of the individual actors in the film or any other irrelevant aspect of the film without properly recognizing its significance. This film was released in 1941 at a time when world peace was being seriously threatened by some of the most evil forces then known to mankind. It was a means of conveying to as many as possible the evils of Nazism at a time when people in America were arguing, loudly by the way, that the country should remain neutral as far as the rest of the world was concerned. How people can, today, quibble about the acting abilities or weaknesses of the story line is beyond me. This was 1941 and films such as this were designed, first and foremost, to make the then-current world situation a reality for those people who didn't seem to know, or even care, about what was happening around them. In that respect, it succeeds magnificently. And how ironic that it should star John Garfield who was so hounded by the treacherous McCarthy era that he died at the unforgivable age of 39!!! Nancy Coleman, who later became the mother of twins, lived across the street from me for many years. One might, perhaps, want to think about just where our world would be today if not for the efforts of all those responsible for this unappreciated film from 1941.

Alfred Hitchcok is not my favorite director by any means but imagine what he could have done with this! The plot holds much potential for suspense. John Garfield is as almost always excellent and Raymond Massey is scarily cast against type. Nancy Coleman is not a very impressive leading lady but the supporting cast is large and very capable.Yes it starts to sag fairly early. There are too many coincidences. And an important subject is trivialized by its being made into little more, in the end, than a love story.It's fun to watch for Garfield, Massey, and the character performers. But it's not awfully good.

A somewhat awkward spy mystery with a predictable plot about World War Two dangers. The mystery is whether or not Jane Graystone (Nancy Coleman) has amnesia. The best acting is done by Raymond Massey as Dr. Ingersoll, a good doctor turned evil. He is head of a spy ring attempting to get information from amnesiac Jane, coded information related to allied activities. Will she tell? Can she remember? Moroni Olson (as Mr. Goodwin) is convincing as an accomplice to Massey. The role played by John Garfield (as Dr. Lewis) is nothing short of disastrous. He seems so badly miscast that the casting has to be ranked as one of the worst in film history. It is unfortunate that so talented an actor is stuffed into a role which not befitting his talents. The movie is worth one look, despite being a half spy and half gangster film, and despite containing a parade of stereotyped characters. It's easy to forget this one, amnesia is not necessary.