Dangerous Partners (1945)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Signe Hasso and John Warburton are survivors of a plane crash who somehow end up mugging the unconscious Edmund Gwenn, finding the key to his briefcase taped to his back and locate four wills and an order for dinner inside the case. The fact that they are able to tape the key back on Gwenn (who ultimately wakes up) and not be discovered shows the ridiculousness of the concept which takes most of the film's short running time to get to the point of what's going on. James Craig somehow gets involved in the picture and after Warburton ends up a murder victim, his grieving widow doesn't take much time in getting over him with Craig and on the path to solving the intrigue involving these wills.What it's all about, so late in the war, is so messed up and comes out of left field. Audrey Totter gets to warble a brief song and that old character actress Mabel Paige gets involved too as one of the benefactors of one of the wills. To see Gwenn, just on the brink of an Oscar for playing Santa Claus, playing a nefarious character, is intriguing in itself, but the whole set-up and denouncement just wreaks of too many implausibilities. Hasso and Craig share absolutely no chemistry and there's certainly no revelation of why Hasso and Warburton were rolling Gwenn in the first place.

I confess to having a hard time following "Dangerous Partners," a strange little B movie starring James Craig, Signe Hasso, and Edmund Gwenn, with a short appearance by Audrey Totter. Part of the problem for me was that the plot seemed to have no context. The film begins with the survivors of a plane crash, and two people trying to get inside a man's briefcase. It was like coming in at the middle, and I spent the rest of the time trying to figure out who was who trying to do what to whom and why. By the time I had it all straight, it didn't seem worth it.Anyway, the plot concerns four wills, each of which leave $1 million to the same man. People go around reciting a menu backwards, which is some sort of code for, you're one of us. A lawyer for one of the four who winds up dead joins forces with a woman interested in intercepting the millions, Hasso.Signe Hasso was an excellent actress who for some reason never rose above B movie leads or small parts in A films, and it's really a shame. Throughout her 65-year career, she consistently handed in good performances. Everything about her was interesting - her look, her voice, and her characterizations. Hollywood possibly didn't know what to do with her.

This was a tight, neat little thriller, better than most of its kind at the time. I guess you would call it a true noir, which the House on 92nd Street was not quite. It wasn't totally plausible, but it was close enough for what it was. The supporting cast was all good with what they had to do, especially lovable Edmund Gwenn in an against-type villainous role. I would like to comment on Signe Hasso. I fell in love with her in The House on 92nd Street, and saw this movie not long after that. She was a good actress, very unappreciated I felt, and never looked more gorgeous than she did in this film. I find even now that most people have never heard of her and am glad to find from various postings about her movies on this website that she had other fans. The last minute change of heart for her character in the movie, who had been well portrayed as a rather cold, scheming adventuress was a bit unrealistic, but that's Hollywood of old. All in all I liked the flick. James Craig was a hunk, sort of Clark Gable, but not quite.

A real curiosity piece is this little thriller mixing a pair of unethical thieves (James Craig, Signe Hasso) with some shady characters and adding a Nazi spy twist at the end. It's all very improbable but with something happening every moment it's hard to turn away.James Craig was at his handsomest but, unfortunately, this kind of film needed someone like Bogart to bring it alive. But Signe Hasso makes up for his bland performance by giving her all to the role of a woman who resorts to all sorts of tricks in her efforts to get her hands on some hefty amounts of money, even if it means double-crossing her partner in crime. And Edmund Gwenn is surprisingly effective as a bad guy, so far removed from his usual kindly old self. Audrey Totter hasn't much to do but does it well. Mabel Paige reminds us what a good character actress she was in good supporting roles.And watch for Stephen McNally in a small role as the pilot of a plane crash that starts the story rolling (billed as Horace McNally).An MGM B-picture that reminds us how interesting some of these little programmers could be. Enough plot twists to keep you watching until the end.