# Dangerous Crossing (1953)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

DANGEROUS CROSSING (director: Joseph M. Newman; screenwriters: Leo Townsend/novel by John Dickson Carr; cinematographer: Joseph LaShelle; editor: William H. Reynolds; cast: Jeanne Crain (Ruth Bowman), Michael Rennie (Dr. Paul Manning), Carl Betz (John Bowman), Mary Anderson (Anna Quinn), Casey Adams (Jim Logan), Willis Bouchey (Capt. Peters), Karl Ludwig Lindt (Foreign Passenger), Marjorie Hoshelle (Kay Prentiss); Runtime: 75; 1953)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A good old-fashioned mystery yarn, from John Dickson Carr, but this time instead of the Lady Vanishes, it is the husband who does. Ruth Bowman (Jeanne Crain) has just gotten married a few hours ago and her husband John (Betz) has arranged for them to go on a honeymoon cruise aboard a luxury liner across the Atlantic.

He carries the blissful bride across the threshold to their room and the stewardess (Anderson) arranging the flowers, quickly excuses herself. John then tells his wife that he has to go to the purser in order to leave some money there for safe keeping and he will meet her in the dining room. But that is the last she sees him as he vanishes, along with their tickets and passport. Ruth is shaken up, and when she tries to explain this to the ship personnel, they don't believe her. She can't remember where she got married and has no proof of the marriage, and when they check the cabin she was supposed to be quartered in, they find that it is deserted and wasn't booked for the voyage. On top of that, no one on board the ship has seen the beautiful woman with her husband. Oddly enough, the one person who clearly saw her, the stewardess, denies seeing her. When she asks about her luggage, the steward traces it to her maiden name and a different cabin than the one she mentioned, with no luggage or mention of her husband.

The ship's doctor, Paul Manning (Rennie), is called in to calm her down and get the real story from her. He wants to believe her and acts very kindly, but thinks she is hallucinating. She tells him that her father died four months ago and she was very close to him, and had a nervous breakdown after his death. Feeling depressed and lonely she met John and he made her feel happy again, so they secretly got married after a short romance.

She can't believe John is not on the boat and after the captain (Bouchey) tells her he had the boat searched and there was no one on it, she still believes John is on it. She then receives a mystery call from John, as he tells her to trust no one, that both their lives are in danger, and that he will get back to her as soon as possible.

Ruth is hysterical, as the ship's crew think she is imagining things, though Paul sticks with her through thick and thin, though smelling something suspicious. He finally asks her who would benefit from the death of either her or her husband, and she tells him her father was a wealthy industrialist and in his will left her the company.

The story itself, if examined closely had many improbabilities, but the strength of the film is in the tension it creates within Crain and how she handles it. She never quite figures out, until it is almost too late, that her husband wants to kill her. She had a blind trust in him and it is hard for me to imagine another person in her situation acting as naively as she does. But even if I didn't find the plot to be always plausible, the relationship that developed between her and Rennie was credible.

This B&W melodrama was always suspenseful: there was the constant heavy fog that made things mysterious. Crain seemed so helplessly alone, highlighted by showing her sitting by herself at the dining table and feeling that she is losing her mind, that set the mood for the entire film and her vulnarability is what the viewer identifies with. This excellently paced B-film, is tersely directed and superbly acted. The film seemed to be thrust forward by the credibility of the characters playing parts that were incredible.

    REVIEWED ON 8/7/2000     GRADE: B-

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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