Margo: “You’re the kindest man I’ve ever met.”
Jeff Cameron: “I’m just a doctor.”
Imagine the scenario: a striking woman gets rolled into the hospital – an attempted suicide; a shapely mystery for a young doctor – with windswept hair and eyes that are as mesmerizing as a pool of slowly moving water. . . when he finally revives her, they look at each other. . . and time stops!
Take one quick glance at the poster for Where Danger Lives, a thrilling 1950 film noir written by Charles Bennett (a man known to work with Hitchcock quite often in his earlier days – think The 39 Steps and Foreign Correspondent) and directed by John Farrow (Around the World in 80 Days and father of Mia), and you’ll know. . . the pair are in for quite the tempestuous roller coaster ride of a love affair.
Especially considering the fact that doctor Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) is in a relationship with nurse Julie (Maureen O’Sullivan – a loving tribute for a role designed by Farrow for his wife, who nursed him back to health after he contracted typhus during World War 2), while wealthy socialite Margo (Faith Domergue) has a domineering father. . . I mean husband (cue the dramatized music by Roy Webb – Out of the Past; Notorious), played with brilliant poise, a droll sense of humour, and a certain charm, by Claude Rains.
A quick sidenote as to the love triangle between Cameron and the two girls in his life, the whole thing is summed up nicely (though also in a quite obvious way) by the two women liking different coloured roses – you can guess which one likes red and which one white!
Fleeing together after a frightful accident (Cameron believes he has killed the much older man after defending himself), they attempt to reach the Mexican border before the cops track them down. A long, varied path filled with bizarre happenstance, and luck, both bad and good (they travel through the desert finding many unusual communities along the way – including a locale celebrating wild west frontier day, where everyone needs facial hair and appropriate garb), they eventually make their way to a border town. . . but will it be their salvation, or the end of the road?
A film seeping with noir style, John Farrow and brilliant cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (Out of the Past; I Remember Mama) build a visually dynamic picture – the distinctive, harsh lighting growing more intensely evident as the movie ticks along. Perhaps the prime example of their style is the above mentioned border town, a neon-soaked hub, seeping with all-night bars and adult entertainment. Using off-kilter angles and other great noir traits, it is intriguing to note that, well before two of the modern masters of the long take, Brian De Palma and Quentin Tarantino (I know, I know – so many talented filmmakers could make this list), Farrow pushed the envelope in this regard – in a time when technology did not make it easy. Extending just over seven minutes, it is a late night sequence that plays on our nerves, the lack of editing ratcheting up the tension between the turbulent couple as a neon sign provides a lightening effect in the room. . . is it ominous that the lettering flashing across the street reads ‘Café Rosa Blanca’?
Another RKO picture (you may recall some talk earlier this Noirvember about the studio and its head, Howard Hughes – the studio’s noirs known for that distinctive hard lighting and more linear plots), this feature was a way for Hughes to highlight his biggest leading man, Mitchum (playing against his typical laconic type in this one – a wobbling, less than smooth sweet guy caught up in an ever-growing, lust-filled mess – having a concussion, it only adds to the film’s hallucinatory quality), and his new female interest – Domergue, taking on the character of a twisted femme (who we slowly learn may have more issues than we originally perceived) in only her second credited role, and first as a leading lady.
Dealing with those classic noir themes of corruption, insanity and sexual motivation, Where Danger Lives is a trip down memory lane, that is, if your memories are the stuff of nightmares. So, stop and smell the roses (you choose which colour), and you may just discover where danger lives.