Dangerous Passage (1944)

Director:

William Berke

Writer:

Daniel Mainwaring (writer)

Release Date:

18 December 1944 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

STRANGE EVENTS! WEIRD HAPPENINGS! ABOARD A FREIGHTER FROM HONDURAS! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Joe Beck leaves Central America so that he can return to Texas and collect a large inheritance, but he picks a dangerous ship on which to travel.

Plot Keywords:

Inheritance | Papers | Crime Ring | Assault | Insurance Investigator

Cast

Robert Lowery	...	Joe Beck
Phyllis Brooks	...	Nita Paxton
Charles Arnt	...	Daniel Bergstrom
Jack La Rue	...	Mike Zomano
John Eldredge	...	Vaughn
Victor Kilian	...	Buck Harris, 1st Mate
Alec Craig	...	Dawson the Steward
William Edmunds	...	Captain Saul

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) | Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #10437) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Pine-Thomas Productions

Good Story, Otherwise Not Much Going For It

The good story setup keeps this action feature going, and makes it worth seeing even though the rest of it is not of particularly good quality. The cast is only adequate, and the production is low-budget in almost every respect. Some of it is covered over by the use of fog, dark passageways, and similar devices in many of the scenes, which gives it a little bit of atmosphere.

The story idea itself is a good one. It follows an American who is living in semi-exile in Central America when he receives news of a large inheritance back in Texas. As he returns to claim it, he finds himself in the middle of two hazardous situations, with one group planning to get him out of the way so that they can grab his inheritance, and part of the ship's crew wanting to get rid of him for reasons of their own. For much of the story, he's not sure whom, if anyone, he can trust.

It's the kind of story that can make a great movie with the right cast and director. Here, it has little help, although it's good enough to make the rest of the movie watchable. The cast is largely unexceptional, although Alec Craig provides a good characterization of the frightened ship's steward, and Phyllis Brooks is at least pleasant to look at. The shady lawyer character is rather obviously intended to be a low-budget version of Sydney Greenstreet's character in "The Maltese Falcon". He provides a few mildly amusing moments, while at other times he falls a bit flat.