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Appointment With Danger

Play trailer Poster for Appointment With Danger 1951 1h 29m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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Tomatometer 4 Reviews 32% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is a detective employed by the U.S. Postal Service to investigate a murder of another detective. Once Goddard arrives in Indiana, he locates the key witness, Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), a beautiful nun. Then he infiltrates the murderer's group by convincing the boss, Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), that he can be a useful thug. Goddard quickly learns of Boettiger's master plan, but, when the gang figures out his cover, he must save himself and Sister Augustine.
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Appointment With Danger

Critics Reviews

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Bob Thomas Associated Press 07/31/2019
Appointment With Danger is in the familiar groove of Alan Ladd vehicles. Go to Full Review
Bosley Crowther New York Times 02/10/2007
4/5
Appointment With Danger not only proves that crime does not pay but that it can be interesting to observe. Go to Full Review
Manny Farber The Nation 11/24/2020
Appointment with Danger is a fascinating textbook on the Average American Flop -- his speech, mien, sag, misanthropy, doubt. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 02/07/2007
C+
Routine hardboiled crime thriller about a postal heist and murder. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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James E 08/28/2024 A memorable film about a postal inspector. It is an excellent procedural story that holds your interested through out. Jack Webb was a stand out in this Alan Ladd film. A 4 star firm for sure. See more Steve D 06/22/2023 It is hard to care about any of it. See more 08/16/2018 Run-of-the-mill noir that sees Alan Ladd as a postal inspector (a.k.a cop) who is brought in to solve a colleague's murder but ends up stumbling onto a gang planning a heist (targeting a mail truck, of course). Ladd plays a tough guy who no one likes but his dealings with the key witness, a nun (Phyllis Calvert), soften him up a bit. Nevertheless, he's hard as nails when it comes to playing the dirty cop in order to get in thick with the gang led by Paul Stewart. Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (later of Dragnet) are on hand as a couple of not-so-bright hoodlums. The cinematography by John F. Seitz (who also shot Double Indemnity, Sunset Blvd, and The Lost Weekend) is better-than-average with some stark night shooting. Certainly not the place to start with film noir, but not bad. See more 03/16/2018 Watchable but forgettable film Noir starring Alan Ladd. It's ok, but it's a bit paint by numbers, and also difficult to understand the language which is very gangster and sometimes muffled See more 06/01/2014 "You've been chasing hoodlums for so long you don't know how to treat ordinary people. Warm up, will ya!?" "Sure, I'll fall in love for ya." "I don't think you could, because you don't know what a love affair is." "It's what goes on between a man and a .45 pistol that won't jam." "Let me tell you about you, Al. That badge and a few law books have turned you into a nut. You don't like anybody, you don't believe anybody, you don't trust anybody, you think everybody has a pitch." "Everybody has. You and I and that guy back there. We're all working for ourselves--a better job, a little more dough, a round of applause. One way or another everybody you meet is a pitch artist." A stiff/repressed/chaste (with the female lead an annoying nun rather than a femme fatale), midwestern film noir/police procedural/heist film, about the post office. It wants to appear to straddle good and evil, but there's no doubt it's on the side of "good". See more 11/20/2012 Appointment with Danger - Alan Ladd's last encounter with his beloved noir genre - is an erratic hit-and-miss showcase, which strikes as a picture both fairly suspenseful and too underdeveloped in its narrative structure. Though it has its pleasurable moments of ravishing intensity, Appointment with Danger is a rather forgettable flick that creates a disadvantage out of its overly routine approach to the subject. The film focuses on Al Goddard (Alan Ladd), a special investigator for the US post office, who is called in to investigate a mysterious murder of his fellow co-worker. What starts off as a rather superficial intrigue with a lovely nun in the middle of the whole action, soon turns into a deadly intrigue concerning a group of greedy, handy thugs and a huge sum of money. In order to reveal their plan, Goddard poses as a witty crook who also wants to put his hands on the cash. While trying to infiltrate the gang and discover what the scheme is about, he communicates with the police and takes care of the nun, who is now in grave danger, as she's the only suspect in the aforementioned murder case. During the last, most decisive moments of the intrigue something goes wrong, and Goddard is forced to rely only on his own cunning. The movie concludes with an intense and climatic shootout in a quiet industrial district. The most fascinating thing about this film is its cast. Apart from Alan Ladd as the protagonist, Lewis Allen cast Jack Webb and Harry Morgan as the ruthless murderers. The future stars of the TV series Dragnet bring a lot of joy to the cinephile's heart with their dark and nasty portrayals of two guileful schemers. Overal, Appointment with Danger might not be film noir finest example, yet it still aspires to be a reasonably thrilling picture, which makes a good use of its stellar cast and moody cinematography. Though unsuccessful, it will please all the genre fans. See more Read all reviews
Appointment With Danger

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Movie Info

Synopsis Al Goddard (Alan Ladd) is a detective employed by the U.S. Postal Service to investigate a murder of another detective. Once Goddard arrives in Indiana, he locates the key witness, Sister Augustine (Phyllis Calvert), a beautiful nun. Then he infiltrates the murderer's group by convincing the boss, Earl Boettiger (Paul Stewart), that he can be a useful thug. Goddard quickly learns of Boettiger's master plan, but, when the gang figures out his cover, he must save himself and Sister Augustine.
Director
Lewis Allen
Producer
Robert Fellows
Screenwriter
Richard L. Breen, Warren Duff
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 11, 2014
Runtime
1h 29m
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