{{Short description|1951 film by Lewis Allen}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Use American English|date=January 2025}} {{Infobox film | name = Appointment with Danger | image = AppointmentwithdangerPoster.jpg | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = [[Lewis Allen (director)|Lewis Allen]] | producer = Robert Fellows | screenplay = [[Richard L. Breen]]<br/>[[Warren Duff]] | narrator = | starring = [[Alan Ladd]]<br/>[[Phyllis Calvert]] | music = [[Victor Young]] | cinematography = [[John F. Seitz]] | editing = [[LeRoy Stone]] | studio = Paramount Pictures | distributor = [[Paramount Pictures]] | released = {{Film date|1950|4|7|United Kingdom|1951|5|9|New York|ref1=<ref name=MG>"NEW FILMS IN LONDON" Our Film Critic. ''The Manchester Guardian'' 1 Apr 1950: 5.</ref>|ref2=<ref name="nytreview"/>}} | runtime = 90 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = $1,450,000 (US rentals)<ref>'The Top Box Office Hits of 1951', ''Variety'', January 2, 1952</ref> }} '''''Appointment with Danger''''' is a 1950 [[Paramount Pictures]] American [[crime]] [[film noir]] directed by [[Lewis Allen (director)|Lewis Allen]], written by [[Richard L. Breen]] and [[Warren Duff]] and starring [[Alan Ladd]], [[Phyllis Calvert]], [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]], [[Jan Sterling]] and [[Jack Webb]].<ref name="Silver 2010 29">{{cite book |title=Film Noir: The Encyclopedia |first=Alain |last=Silver |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0715638804 |page= 29|publisher=Overlook Duckworth }}</ref>
Filming began on the U.S. production in June 1949, the picture was released in Great Britain in April 1950, but did not debut in the USA until May 1951.
==Plot== In [[Gary, Indiana]], [[United States Postal Inspection Service|U.S. postal inspector]] Harry Gruber is murdered by two men, Joe Regas and George Soderquist. They dump the body in [[La Porte, Indiana|La Porte]] during a rainstorm, but when a nun named Sister Augustine walks past, Soderquist tries to distract her by helping to unfurl her umbrella and tells her that Gruber is drunk. Sister Augustine reports the incident to a nearby policeman.
Postal inspector Al Goddard is assigned to the case. He traces Sister Augustine to a convent in [[Fort Wayne, Indiana|Fort Wayne]] and convinces her to cooperate with the investigation, and she identifies Soderquist from a [[mug book]]. Goddard arranges for her to stay at a convent in Gary, hoping that she might identify Soderquist there in person.
Goddard spots Soderquist with another gang member, Paul Ferrar, but Soderquist escapes. Regas, whom Sister Augustine does not recognize, sees her and telephones Earl Boettiger, the head of the gang and owner of the hotel where Gruber was killed, warning him to hide Soderquist. Later, when Soderquist refuses an order to leave town, they kill him.
Goddard reasons that because Soderquist has not left town, the gang must still be planning something. The Gary postmaster suggests a likely target for theft: a money shipment that arrives regularly by train but must change to another train, involving a seven-minute truck ride between stations. Gruber had asked him about the truck's drivers, one of whom is Farrar, who Goddard recognizes.
Goddard, posing as a corrupt inspector, pressures Ferrar to allow him to meet the head of the gang. He asks Earl Boettiger to join the gang, promising to be a more reliable inside man than is Ferrar. The plan is to steal the money shipment, expected to be worth $1 million. Regas is still worried about Sister Augustine and unsuccessfully tries to stage a fatal accident on the convent grounds.
When Boettiger makes a last-minute change to the plan, Goddard has no choice but to phone the police from the gang's hotel. He is heard by Boettiger's mistress, hotel employee Dodie, but she protects him because she does not want to become an accessory to his murder and leaves town.
When the robbery begins, Regas neglects his part in the preparations to take Sister Augustine prisoner, and when the gang meets, she blurts Goddard's name, revealing his deception. He pleads for her life and buys time by starting a fight. As police arrive, a shootout ensues in an industrial district, ending in the death of all the gang members.
==Cast== * [[Alan Ladd]] as Al Goddard * [[Phyllis Calvert]] as Sister Augustine * [[Paul Stewart (actor)|Paul Stewart]] as Earl Boettiger * [[Jan Sterling]] as Dodie * [[Jack Webb]] as Joe Regas * [[Stacy Harris]] as Paul Ferrar * [[Harry Morgan]] as George Soderquist (credited as Henry Morgan) * [[David Bauer (actor)|David Bauer]] as David Goodman (as David Wolfe) * [[Dan Riss]] as Maury Ahearn * [[Geraldine Wall]] as Mother Ambrose * [[George J. Lewis]] as Leo Cronin * Paul Lees as Gene Gunner
==Background== The film was announced in July 1948 under the title of ''Postal Inspector'' and envisioned as a vehicle for Alan Ladd.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Schallert |first=Edwin |date=1948-07-14 |title=Roberts Busy Perusing New Novel by Wolfert |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |page=21}}</ref> [[Ardel Wray]] and Robert L. Richards wrote the script, and the film was intended to follow ''[[Chicago Deadline]]'' (1949).<ref>{{Cite news |author=Pryor |first=Thomas M. |date=1948-07-14 |title=Schary Returning to Metro Studios |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=26}}</ref> The production was delayed to allow Ladd to appear in ''[[Captain Carey, U.S.A.]]'' The film's title was changed to ''Dead Letter''.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Schallert |first=Edwin |date=1948-11-18 |title=Otto Preminger to Direct Tierney, Conte as Team; Barker Scouts Zoo Stars |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |page=9, Part III}}</ref> [[William Keighley]] was originally announced as the film's director, but he was replaced by [[Lewis Allen (director)|Lewis Allen]].<ref>{{Cite news |author=Brady |first=Thomas F. |date=1949-04-06 |title=Eleanor Parker in Bogart Movie |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=38}}</ref>
[[Phyllis Calvert]] was signed in April 1949.<ref>{{Cite news |author=Brady |first=Thomas F. |date=1949-04-12 |title=Fox Buys Rights to Kersch Novel |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=39}}</ref> According to her, the studio did not believe that she would accept the part, as she had declined several previous film offers.
After six weeks of script rewrites, filming began on June 16, 1949.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1949-05-05 |title=Of Local Origin |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=34}}</ref> The title was changed again to ''United States Mail''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1950-03-12 |title=New Screen Team |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=G2}}</ref>
The film features [[Jack Webb]] and [[Harry Morgan]] as villains, later paired as Los Angeles police detectives on the ''[[Dragnet (1967 TV series)|Dragnet]]'' television show. The film's cowriter [[Richard L. Breen]] had previously worked with Webb on the radio series ''[[Pat Novak for Hire]]'', and would write at least three scripts for ''Dragnet'', including the [[Dragnet (1954 film)|1954 theatrical film]] and the 1966 TV-movie pilot for the revival series.
==Reception== The film was released in the U.K. in April 1950<ref name=MG/> and debuted in the U.S. in May 1951, retitled as ''Appointment with Danger''.
In a contemporary review for ''[[The New York Times]]'', critic [[A. H. Weiler]] wrote: "'Appointment With Danger' lives up to its title as Ladd, checking on the murder of another postal inspector in Gary, Ind., finds a visiting nun who saw the criminals. Since the scenarists had no intention of fashioning a whodunit, they have succeeded in making their story a tense, hard-boiled exposé of a crime in the making as Ladd, using his witness, insinuates himself into the gang which has already killed and which is planning the robbery. ... 'Appointment With Danger' not only proves that crime does not pay but that it can be interesting to observe."<ref name="nytreview">{{cite news |last=Crowther |first=Bosley |date=1951-05-10 |title=The Screen: Three Films in Premieres Here |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=38}}</ref>
== Awards == The film was nominated for the [[Edgar Award]] for [[List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners|best mystery film]] of the year by the [[Mystery Writers of America]], but lost to ''[[5 Fingers|Five Fingers]]''.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1951-11-25 |title=Ladd's Picture Nominated for Mystery Award |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |page=G2}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|id=043292|title=Appointment with Danger}} * {{TCMDb title|id=67540|title=Appointment with Danger}} * [https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/43638/appointment-with-danger/ ''Appointment with Danger''] informational site at DVD Talk *{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20100823081303/http://www.noiroftheweek.com/2010/08/appointment-with-danger-1951.html ''Appointment with Danger'']}} at Noir of the Week * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110216031313/http://www.veoh.com/collection/s510907/watch/v320556bFncwnCS ''Appointment with Danger''] film clip at [[Veoh]] * {{YouTube|0XjZF-OJRp4|''Appointment with Danger'' film clip}} (Jack Webb & Harry Morgan)
{{Lewis Allen}}
[[Category:1950 films]] [[Category:1950 crime drama films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:American heist films]] [[Category:1950 English-language films]] [[Category:Film noir]] [[Category:Films scored by Victor Young]] [[Category:Films directed by Lewis Allen]] [[Category:Paramount Pictures films]] [[Category:American crime drama films]] [[Category:Films shot in Indiana]] [[Category:Films shot in Chicago]] [[Category:Films about the United States Postal Service]] [[Category:1950 American films]] [[Category:English-language crime drama films]]