clanciai Review of Dangerously They Live

Dangerously They Live (1941)

John Garfield as a doctor under the charge of psychiatrist Raymond Massey

[9/10 · 29 February 2020]

The interesting thing about this film is the plot, which should have interested Hitchcock, who would have been able to make a masterpiece of it on par with "Foreign Correspondent". The story twists about with constant surprises and unexpected turns, while from the beginning you are taken for a ride in a mystery: a girl in a taxi car crash wakes up with total amnesia, but fortunately there is John Garfield in the ambulance as a doctor to take care of the case, and he is taken for a ride too, by Raymomnd Massey as an admired former teacher and chief psychiatrist, who is convincing enough as such but who, as always, is a very double nature. Unfortunately the direction does not take care of the enormous potential of this intrigue but rather casually just pushes on to make a rather superficial entertainment. It's fascinating, though, although the war is over since more than 75 years, and there is a lot of James Bond and Ian Fleming ingredients long before their time. John Garfield and Raymond Massey make the film and a perfect pair in this intrigue, which continues consistently to remain ambiguous to the ingenious end.