Actor George Raft famously blew his chance to play "Rick" in CASABLANCA, opting for BACKGROUND TO DANGER instead. Raft is no Humphrey Bogart, and Brenda Marshall cannot hold a candle to Ingrid Bergman. Though Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are on hand to lend DANGER a few CASABLANCA touches, DANGER is far too wordy, and few--if any--of the words are memorable (with the exception of "Ana" reciting the first paragraph of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address). If you consider the script for CASABLANCA to be "a Lincoln," then the writer of DANGER churned out a James Buchanan or an Andrew Johnson (two "Corvair" presidents). It's hard to know for sure whom to impeach for DANGER's thin broth: Mr. Raft, screenwriter W.R. Burnett, director Raoul Walsh, or all of the above. The plot of DANGER is overwrought (if not ahead of its time); it would be more suitable for a James Bond flick set in the 1960s. No one wants to be entertained by SUBTLE Nazis--they MUST be callously brutal (as in SCHINDLER'S LIST) or paranoid (see MARATHON MAN).
Review of Background to Danger
