A Dangerous Profession (1949)

Very Cool!!!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The cast is excellent, George Raft is very focused and on the mark, giving a good star performance. The basic idea of the film is good, involving the bail-bond business and all of its inherent potential for mischief, with cops, ex-cops, criminals, etc. But you just wonder if maybe Ted Tetzlaff the director might have been in over his head, or maybe lost interest in this production. The direction is generally poor, with the movement of actors being staged with seeming indifference at times.Ella Raines is not showcased by the producers or director in a star manner and her acting is just not very good in this one. She seems a bit sluggish at times. Ms. Raines having done a brilliant job on a number of classic movies, you really wonder what is going on with her here. I know she lived a long life and graciously accepted some interviews; it would be interesting to know if she ever mentioned the causes of her flat efforts in this.Its too bad because Raft shows up in all the scenes, sharp and ready to go. He just isn't given much to work with.Unfortunately "A Dangerous Profession" is pretty much a time waster but is competent in every respect except for the lackluster direction, and the puzzling results by Ella Raines.

Bail bondsman George Raft gets in over his head when he bails out robbery suspect Bill Williams, the husband of an old girlfriend (Ella Raines). This puts him up against various factors on both sides of the law including a fellow former partner (Jim Backus, ultra-serious here) and officer Pat O'Brien. As he gets further involved in his ex-girlfriend's life and finds out information on Williams, the pieces of the puzzle get more puzzling, resulting in a murder.This is certainly watchable, if a sometimes dull film noir/mystery, the audience getting equally as confused as Raft as he tries to wrap everything up. The intro lesson on how the bondsman works is interesting, but perhaps a different case with more developed characters and less people involved in the first place. Still, lighting and shadows provide the right atmosphere, and Raft's detective work is appropriately seedy. One of the people whom Raft interviews slightly looks and very much sounds like Werner Klemperer of "Hogan's Heroes" even though he is not listed in the credits for this film.

A career police detective turned bail bondsman (George Raft) meets his ex-flame (Ella Raines) (he knows it's her because of the scent of the perfume that's in her and her husband's hotel room which he and detective Jim Backus search) in a fairly intricate story about her husband (Bill Williams) whose arrested for suspicion of killing a cop and then bailed out by Raft, against the wishes of his partner (Pat O'Brien). Why he's bailed out and who actually comes up with sufficient money to get him out of jail make for interesting viewing. As well, Ella Raines hits some of her more sultry looking scenes in this movie, which may not be the best movie she's ever been in, but still percolates along more than acceptably, especially when the real killer emerges as the sharp little film heads out of LA and into a convenient canyon.

Although George Raft and Pat O'Brien share star billing in A Dangerous Profession, the film's action is mainly carried by Raft with O'Brien strictly in support. The two of them play bail bondsman, partners in a bail bond firm. But Raft has a professional and romantic past that get in the way here.Ella Raines with whom Raft had a fling while she was separated from husband Bill Williams comes to Raft for help with bail. Williams comes from a rich background, but his daddy squandered the family fortune and he's not up to a lifestyle change. Williams gets himself in with some crooks doing a little white collar crime and finds himself hung with a murder rap of the investigating detective.The plot starts out like a poor man's Casablanca with Raft like Bogart coming to the aid of his former love's husband whom he didn't know anything about. O'Brien who's not thinking with his hormones doesn't want the firm involved, but Raft insists. Later on Williams turns up dead himself and then Raft's old profession of police detective kicks in despite O'Brien warning him of an inherent conflict of interest.I wish we had seen a little more of Pat O'Brien, but A Dangerous Profession is a competently made noir film. Ella Raines does well as a combination of Lauren Bacall and Lizabeth Scott in her role as the woman that everyone can't resist. Jim Backus plays Raft's former partner as a cop and he's showing some versatility here that will surprise those who only know him as the inept Mr. Magoo and the rich Thurston Howell IV. One of the competently made noir films that Raft was doing in the later part of the Forties. His films would go considerably downhill shortly.