Dangerously They Live (1941)

Pretty Good

Memorable, crazy movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I was very pleased to finally see this film again after many years. I can never understand why other people complain about the storyline or some of the individual actors in the film or any other irrelevant aspect of the film without properly recognizing its significance. This film was released in 1941 at a time when world peace was being seriously threatened by some of the most evil forces then known to mankind. It was a means of conveying to as many as possible the evils of Nazism at a time when people in America were arguing, loudly by the way, that the country should remain neutral as far as the rest of the world was concerned. How people can, today, quibble about the acting abilities or weaknesses of the story line is beyond me. This was 1941 and films such as this were designed, first and foremost, to make the then-current world situation a reality for those people who didn't seem to know, or even care, about what was happening around them. In that respect, it succeeds magnificently. And how ironic that it should star John Garfield who was so hounded by the treacherous McCarthy era that he died at the unforgivable age of 39!!! Nancy Coleman, who later became the mother of twins, lived across the street from me for many years. One might, perhaps, want to think about just where our world would be today if not for the efforts of all those responsible for this unappreciated film from 1941.

You can skip this one unless you're determined to see every Warner Bros. movie about spies and Nazis that the studio ever made. That's about the only reason for sitting through this turkey, despite a cast that includes such stalwarts as JOHN GARFIELD, RAYMOND MASSEY and NANCY COLEMAN, all of whom must have wished they were not floundering in a weak script.Garfield looks and acts like a hood, but he's supposed to be a respectable doctor taking care of a patient who claims to have amnesia. (The amnesia theme got quite a workout throughout the '40s as a convenient plot device). But here it turns out that the woman patient (Coleman) is only pretending to have amnesia because some Nazi spies are hot on her trail.When Garfield allows her to be taken to a private sanitarium where she will be taken care of by the seemingly helpful Raymond Massey, he soon discovers that the house she is sheltered in is really a place for her to be kept prisoner until she divulges some wartime secrets.There's a little suspense in all of this, but none of the performers seem to be in top form and Garfield seems ill at ease in his doctor role.Summing up: Not quality stuff. Has all the earmarks of a quickly produced potboiler.

I am usually pretty critical of films compared to the average contributor to IMDb, though this is a bit unusual because I apparently liked this movie a lot more than the average viewer. Although I admit that the movie in a few places was a bit rough (such as the whole idea of using Amnesia for a plot device and the sloppy use of stock footage towards the end of the movie), the film was a major improvement over the usual WWII American propaganda flick. My love for this genre and the fact that I always try to find and watch as many of these films as possible makes my perspective a little different than some viewers. Compared to other similar films, the German spies are actually a lot more believable and less stupid than usual. Plus, although the movie definitely starts off poorly and seems contrived, as the film progressed it got much, much better--and offered a lot of great twists and turns that actually surprised me (and this DOESN'T happen a lot with these WWII films). A lot of my being pleasantly surprised is because I initially hated the film when they introduced the whole Amnesia element (it's overused and rarely actually seen by doctors). But, when the Amnesia was only very temporary and Ms. Coleman PRETENDED to have no memory, that made it a little more believable. The film's conclusion is also great--featuring a wonderful confrontation. An excellent and underrated film that is lots of fun.

John Garfield is an intern who cares for a young accident victim in "Dangerously They Live," also starring Nancy Coleman, Raymond Massey, and Moroni Olson. This looks like a B movie and is certainly short enough to have been a second feature. This is what Warners put John Garfield in after he made a big splash in "Four Daughters?" Jack Warner must have been punishing him for something.The accident victim in this film, Jane Graystone, played by Coleman, is thought to have amnesia. She is actually a spy for the U.S., and the Nazis are after information she has about a convoy in New Zealand. Moroni Olson poses as her father, a Mr. Goodwin, but she tells Dr. Lewis (Garfield) the true story and asks for his help. Garfield is a little waylaid, however, when one of his teachers, Dr. Ingersoll (Raymond Massey) appears as a doctor on the case. He doesn't realize Ingersoll is part of the Nazi team. Ingersoll allows Dr. Lewis to come "home" with Jane - but home seems more like a prison.Massey turns in an excellent performance and is quite scary as Ingersoll. Coleman, who went on to have a career in television, is pretty, reminiscent of Barbara Rush or Piper Laurie in their youths. However, she's not as good an actress as either of those women. Garfield is appealing but this is not his kind of role. It would be a few more years before he would be given parts more suited to his abilities. Fortunately, he'd have about five years of excellent roles before the blacklist and his early death.Though the movie was made right before Pearl Harbor, the handwriting was on the wall for the U.S. The theme of Nazis in our midst was in several films of that time, including "All Through the Night."