Lebensgefährlich

Fairly daft but won't hurt you. Dane Clark is amiable, a more than competent actor and has an understated way that works with the rather poor chances of comedy he's handed. Margaret Lockwood looks good and don't knock her as an actress either, this isn't Macbeth. And remember this was 1950, don't compare it with present day overblown and infinitely less believable efforts. As another reviewer said "See it once.", I've seen it twice - and lived. I notice a minimum of 10 lines is required There isn't much more to say coupled with other reviewers opinions. I wouldn't make a special effort to see this film but there have been a lot worse. Ten lines? Good. Goodbye.

Margaret Lockwood is Frances Gray, a scientist who takes on a government assignment that is "Highly Dangerous" in this 1950 film also starring Dane Clark, Wilfred Hyde-White and Marius Goring.

Frances Gray works with bugs, so the government asks her to go to a country of opposing ideology and get a sample of bugs being used by them, possibly for germ warfare. At first, she says no, and then relents and travels to this unnamed country posing as a tour director checking out possible tour locations.

Her cover is blown immediately by the chief of police (a heavily disguised Goring) who is on the train with her, and shortly afterward, her contact is killed, and she is arrested, drugged and questioned. The head of the British consulate, tipped off by a newspaper reporter she met previously (Clark) secures her release.

The film starts out as a drama, but the mood lightens once she's out of prison. Under the influence of the drug she's been given, she plots a way to get into the lab based not on reality but on the antics of a radio spy on a program her nephew likes. The reporter knows it won't work, but when the first part of it actually does, he goes along.

Margaret Lockwood went through several phases during her career - this was her mid period, after the ingénue of "The Lady Vanishes" and before the older woman in "Cast a Dark Shadow." She does a good job and looks very attractive.

The stronger role was Clark's - he was being groomed as another John Garfield but never quite got there - he's very good, handling both the dramatic and the comic aspects well. Goring is a far cry from Victoria's husband in "The Red Shoes" -this seems an odd role for him, but he's excellent.

An odd film but, if taken for what it is, a good one.

.......sixteen years before Hitchcock's film was released .

And ,which was not derivative for the time , they reverse the genres : Margaret Lockwood is the scientist ,on a mission which is deemed "highly dangerous" ;the male lead being just an attentive escort ; it's typically "cold war" movie, depicting the Reds as villains ,but shrewd villains: "we know that torture won't make it ,for the prisoner can say anything to avoid sufferings ;so a simple injection will do". The truth drug is efficient ,in its own special way : Lockwood begins to be delirious and does some kind of self-criticism : without her nephew's radio serial -very popular in the fifties,few people had TV sets in Europa -, and the boy's hero ,agent Conway, she would perhaps have opted for her holiday in Torquay :hence the ironical passport!

No matter what the "Mcguffin " is: the most important thing is the feminist side of the movie,ahead of its time ;and Lockwood's portrait of a determined woman is convincing.

Frances Gray is a quiet and unassuming woman who also happens to be one of the top entomologists in the country. It is this that brings her to the attention of the Government, who are looking for some way of spying on a country in Eastern Europe and ascertaining rumours about a plot to wage germ warfare using insects as the carriers. Gray reluctantly accepts the task as a way of adding excitement to her life and soon finds herself in a country where she doesn't speak the language, sticks out like a sore thumb and isn't sure what she is doing.

After the first few minutes I had managed to stop snickering at the idea of Margaret Lockwood being the top entomologist in the UK and tried to get into the plot. Sadly the casting makes about the same amount of sense as the actual plot does and it never really flows or engages – when the action starts, it only comes as a result of a contrived twist about radio thrillers and some sort of hypnosis. It says something that this twist actually improves the film, but it is still only serviceable and never got to the point where I was really into it. The plot doesn't make a great deal of sense and it comes across as Highly Dull as opposed to Highly Dangerous.

The cast is strange. Lockwood is stiff but quite alluring but she overdoes the "innocent abroad" way too much and she doesn't develop much smarts along the way. If you think she is unconvincing as an entomologist then wait to see how unconvincing a spy she makes! Dane Clark is OK but feels like he is a marketing tool more than a smart bit of casting. He is likable and a better lead than Lockwood but he doesn't have much to do in terms of the actual plot. Goring is OK hamming it up behind a big mustache and cigar but he has too little screen time; support is good from reliables Hyde-White and Wayne.

Overall this is a very thin affair that will just about do if you are looking for something to laze in front of on a Saturday afternoon but god help you if you need more than that. The plot is uninspiring and doesn't make a lot of sense or ever really engaged me, relying on a silly twist to make things happen. The cast are OK but Lockwood is helpless in a flat role that is hard to get behind and the whole film is all a bit dull and certainly not as exciting as the title or subject matter suggest it could have been.

Frances (Margaret Lockwood) volunteers to go into an Eastern un-named country (with a peculiar un-named language that the actors have had to learn) as a spy to smuggle back insects that are being used in the development of germ warfare. When her contact Alf (Eugene Deckers) is murdered, she continues her mission with reporter Bill (Dane Clark). However, the Chief of Police, Razinski (Marius Goring) seems to pop up at every stage of her mission......

The problem with this film is that there is no real tension or feeling of danger. The lives of Frances and Bill are in danger and yet there is no suspense. They should have been more scared. Dane Clark is like-able but what have they done to Lockwood? She looks like Angela Rippon (English newsreader from the 1970's with terrible, frumpy hair). Lockwood's look is NOT good. Turning to the rest of the cast, they are all fine.

The plot is extremely daft with the inclusion of some nonsense about how Frances incorporates a radio show to determine her actions in order to get the job done. There are also numerous unreal situations, eg, the escape to the woods by Frances and Bill with a whole army unit combing the grounds for them. Basically, these two clowns would have been caught and shot. For the sake of the film, we have a different outcome. Overall, it's lightweight fluff but I'm not sure this was the intention.