Home to Danger (1951)

Admirable film.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

HOME TO DANGER is one of Terence Fisher's most nondescript films as director. It's a low budget little thriller, set in and around a country house, that involves the death of a wealthy man and the reading of his will. His daughter inherits the estate and allows the owners of a small charity to live in the property with her, but somebody who is determined to get their hands on the wealth is willing to kill for it.It's predictable and cheap-looking stuff indeed, and the most notable thing about the production is Fisher's direction, which makes the film look more expensive and stylish than it is. Otherwise the story plods along a bit and the performances are anything but invigorating. Rona Anderson has done better work elsewhere, Guy Rolfe feels somehow extraneous as the heroic character shoehorned into the plot, and only a youthful Stanley Baker really shines as the simple-minded manservant. I also found it hard to warm to a bunch of characters who took obvious delight in the killing of wildlife. The use of stirring music at the climax brings to mind the James Bernard score of Fisher's Dracula.

A young woman, Barbara (Rona Anderson), arrives in England on hearing the news that her wealthy businessman father has died - apparently committing suicide. At a shooting party on her country estate, a man is found murdered on the marshes. Barbara and her boyfriend, Robert (Guy Rolfe), turn detective believing the death to be connected with that of her father's. They open the safe at her father's office and learn that it is being used as a link in a dope racket. It becomes clear that her father found this out and was murdered by his business partner, Wainwright (Francis Lister), who was part of the gang. But, Wainwright's accomplice, is aware that the couple are on his tail and they are confronted by him alone in the country house at night...Content wise, it is utterly formulaic British second feature stuff but under Terence Fisher's direction - an early film for him made about five years before he became a key creative figure in the British horror boom via Hammer - it is lifted from being a mediocre to a good film (for its kind). The scenes in and around Rona Anderson's country estate are especially effective with Reg Wyer's b/w lighting making them sinister and shivery. Rona Anderson and Guy Rolfe are cheerful and likable as the standard b-pic hero and heroine while Alan Wheatley is excellent as the head of the criminal gang working as the head of a widow and orphans charity as a cover. Look out for Stanley Baker too as a family servant who is determined to save Anderson from Wheatley's clutches. The film was produced by Lance Comfort who was a prolific second feature director throughout the 1950's and early 60's including such films as Eight O' Clock Walk, Tomorrow At Ten, Blind Corner and Pit Of Darkness.Home To Danger is now available on DVD on Renown Pictures coupled with Montgomery Tully's espionage drama Master Spy.

This is the type of thriller where the ends don't all join up.What we know for certain from the very beginning is that Alan Wheatley is the murderer,simply because this is the role that he plays in nearly every film.However what is not quite as clear is why he is doing in all and sundry.We have Stanley Baker in a very early role playing a servant who is prepared to go to any lengths to protect his mistress.However there are too many unanswered questions.Like what is funny old Peter Jones doing in a role of a hit-man.Why is Alan Wheatley the head of a children's charity and a drug dealer at the same time.I could raise many points like this but none have a satisfactory answer.Thankfully it only lasts just over an hour so not much chance of getting bored.

Well made little thriller with good performances. It's very well shot but has a few script problems (the villain has the heroine at gunpoint, doesn't shoot her, but shoots everyone around her..?). Still, very enjoyable and worth seeing. Director Terence Fisher does an admirable job.