The Threat (1949)

I love this movie so much

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Just perfect...

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The premise of "The Threat" - an escaped criminal seeking revenge on the cop and the district attorney that sent him to jail - is an irresistible one. It's leanly made (less than seventy minutes in length), with no real unnecessary scenes. The acting is pretty good as well, and there are a few genuinely tense moments.All the same, I thought the movie could have been better. There is one big part of the movie that could have been improved, and that is with the depiction of the cop and the district attorney. Once they are kidnapped, they are given almost NOTHING to do for the remainder of the picture. I was hoping for some kind of brewing psychological battle between them and the criminal who kidnapped them. The movie is still worth a look, but you'll see some great potential that simply wasn't realized.

As a general rule, the only people who are allowed to be good with guns in a movie belong to one of three categories: (1) policemen and other law enforcement officials, as well as prosecuting attorneys; (2) criminals and immoral women; and (3) military personnel, including veterans. But civilians who own guns usually just get themselves killed. If the civilian does not buy the gun himself, but simply gains possession of it somehow, he is allowed to use the gun effectively. But if he buys the gun himself, he is doomed. In short, movies tend to support the position of gun-control advocates, who argue that civilians are more likely to hurt themselves by owning a handgun. Those, on the other hand, who believe that it is a good idea for civilians to own a gun, who support the idea of the armed citizen, will often be exasperated by the way civilians are portrayed in movies as being incompetent with guns that they own. But this movie is the absolute worst of them all in this regard.Kluger, who was on death row in Folsom Prison, manages to escape. He had sworn revenge against the detective who arrested him and the prosecuting attorney who convicted him, and soon kidnaps them, along with Carol, the girlfriend of his partner Tony, because he suspects her of informing on him. Kluger and his two henchman, Nick and Lefty, pack up their captives and a lot of stuff, and put them in a moving van so they can drive to a place and meet up with Tony. That is where the civilian comes in. His name is Joe, and he owns the moving van, which he is forced to drive. And he owns a gun.Joe is supposed to drive the van with Lefty sitting in the cab with him. Everyone else is hidden in the van. Just before Lefty gets in the cab, Joe lowers his visor and grabs his gun. He could easily shoot Lefty and then take off running, but he chickens out and puts the gun back. Later, they come upon a roadblock, where there are several cops looking for Kluger. One of the cops opens the door of the cab to talk to Joe. All Joe would have to do is dive out of the cab and let the cops take care of Lefty, but he just sits there instead. Never mind that Kluger, known to be a vicious killer, is not going to let him live once he is no longer useful, and so Joe has nothing to lose by making a break for it, he is apparently too timid to risk it.When they stop at a filling station for gas, Joe retrieves his gun and hides it on his person while Lefty is dealing with a policeman. He should do something right then, but he doesn't. Eventually, they arrive at a cabin, where they wait for Tony. While everyone is asleep, Joe pulls out his gun. He should just start shooting, but he wakes everyone up instead. Oh well, at least he has the drop on them. He can get the detective and the prosecutor in the next room to take their guns away from the gangsters and all will be well. But Kluger starts walking toward Joe, talking to him in a soothing tone of voice, saying it was a mistake to pull out the gun. "Come on, give it here," Kluger says, as he gently reaches out his hand and takes the gun away from Joe without any resistance. "Now, isn't that better?" Kluger asks. Joe smiles and says, "Yeah." And then Kluger shoots him.Joe gets the award for being the biggest loser civilian with a handgun in cinematic history. Once the audience has been taught the lesson that it is a mistake for a civilian to buy a gun and try to use it to defend himself, the rest is just routine. The only people left are those who movies allow are capable of using a gun, and so it is just a matter of time before one of them gets his hands on a gun and uses it competently. As it turns out, Carol, who is qualified to use a gun on account of her being a cheap gangster's moll, picks up Kluger's pistol and points it at him. This time Kluger knows he is in trouble, because she is not a spineless civilian like Joe, whom he can coax the gun away from. He begs for mercy, but she puts two slugs in him, and it's all over.

***SPOILERS*** With convicted murderer Donald "Red" Kluger, Charles McGraw, busting out of Folson prison the lives of those involved with his capture and conviction Det. Ray Williams, Michael O'Shea, and D.A Baker McDonald, Frank Conroy, are in serious danger. Kluger swore that they'll pay for what they did to him and now he's to keep his promise. That's By kidnapping the two with the help of his fellow hoods Nick Damon & Lefty, Anthony Cruso & Frank Richards, and holding them as hostages in this rundown shack in the middle of the California Desert! Not only that Kluger kidnaps his former gun moll night club singer Ann Williams, Julie Bishop, who he feels ratted him out to the police as well as took off with the $100,000.00 in cash he hid in a bus locker in downtown L.A. Still on a roll Kluger hijacks a moving truck together with it's driver Joe Turner, Don McGuire, to make his getaway amid some dozen police and state trooper road blocks. This all within the first 15 minutes of the movie! What a busy guy this Kluger is!Now in the middle of nowhere in the hot and dry California Desert the Kluger gang wait for pilot Tony Anzo (Ben Weldon), Ann's former boyfriend, to land pick up and fly them to safety across the border into Mexico. It's in fact Tony who can clear up this confusion in Kluger's mind if Ann really took the cash he had hidden away and ratted him out to the police! Which makes you wonder on which side, the police or Kluger gang, that she's on!**SPOILERS** As you would have expected in that there's no honor among crooks in that it's in fact Kluuger and his gang who end up doing themselves in before the police show up. There's also Ann who's on Kluger's sh*t list and whom he treats like dirt during the entire movie who in the end is the one person who ends up blasting him with his own gun: The only one of the Kluger gang's guns that had live bullets in them.P.S The John Garfield looking tough guy actor Michael O'Shea fit perfectly in the part as detective Ray Williams in him coming from a long line of police family members, all his five brothers ended up being cops, himself. Not only that in the 1960's O'Shea became an undercover US Government CIA Agent which showed that what you saw of him on screen was in fact the real McCoy or better yet real O'Shea!

Charles McGraw (Kluger) is a psychopathetic bully who escapes from prison and has a meticulously planned route to an escape that includes kidnapping DA Frank Conroy (Barker) and detective Michael O'Shea (Williams) who were both involved in his arrest and who he has vowed to kill. He kidnaps these two with the help of Anthony Caruso (Nick) and Frank Richards (Lefty) and he also takes former girlfriend Virginia Grey (Carol) along for the ride as he suspects her of betraying him. An unwitting driver Don McGuire (Joe) joins the gang as McGraw leads this troupe to a pre-designated desert hideout to await his escape to Mexico.The cast are all good in this short thriller. McGraw is ruthless. Never trust a bad guy. Even the more humorous moments of the film are charged with tension, eg, thug Caruso asking about the time and handing his watch over to McGraw only to have it smashed with the response "Now you don't have to worry about the time". Funny....but this guy McGraw makes it scary.A nice surprise of a film.