Dangerous Crossing (1953)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Joseph M. Newman

Writers:

Leo Townsend (screenplay)
John Dickson Carr (radio play "Cabin B-13")

Release Date:

August 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

A young bride is set to begin her honeymoon aboard a luxury liner. Her happiness does not last when she finds that her husband has disappeared...

Plot Keywords:

Ship | Conspiracy | Fistfight | Murder Plot | Foghorn

Cast

Jeanne Crain	...	Ruth Stanton Bowman
Michael Rennie	...	Dr. Paul Manning
Max Showalter	...	Jim Logan (as Casey Adams)
Carl Betz	...	John Bowman aka Third Officer Jack Barlowe
Mary Anderson	...	Anna Quinn
Marjorie Hoshelle	...	Kay Prentiss
Willis Bouchey	...	Capt. Peters
Yvonne Peattie	...	Miss Bridges

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Approved (PCA #16366) | Sweden:15

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Filmed on the same sets as Titanic (1953) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) and _ A Blueprint For Murder (1953)_

Movie Connections:

Remake of Midnight Warning (1932)

Soundtrack:

Give Me the Simple Life

Marry in haste, repent in leisure thriller

Dangerous Crossing blends two hoary plot lines: the one where somebody suddenly disappears and whose very existence comes into question; and the one where a young woman marries a stranger about whom, to later chagrin, she knows absolutely nothing.

Newlyweds Jeanne Crain and Carl Betz board an ocean liner for a honeymoon cruise to Europe. He then promptly vanishes. Crain, reacting with swooning spells and hysterical outbursts, comes under the doting care of ship's doctor Michael Rennie, who's forever "prescribing" her things like shuffleboard or Champagne. (His cheekbones, meanwhile, threaten to pop right through his skin.)

Just about everybody writes Crain off as delusional, maybe even suicidal. But we know the groom's still on board; he phones her up late at night. The reason they can't find him despite searching every nook and cranny is....

Dangerous Crossing has its nice touches: Joseph LaShelle's fog-shrouded cinematography gets the accompaniment of a fog horn booming out its doom-laden basso ostinato figure. But too much of the movie hangs on Crain. For a few years in the late 40s she hovered on the brink of major stardom but never quite got there; the fact that she can't quite bring off this (admittedly one-dimensional) role perhaps explains why.

But the film's crucial failing lies in not filling out the "back" story: Who are the newlyweds, how did they meet, what are their individual agendas? The few hints and asides thrown our way don't sufficiently set up the perfunctory ending -- it comes as kind of a cheat. There's nothing left when the movie wraps up but the old adage "Marry in haste, repent in leisure."