- Actors: Michael Rennie, Carl Betz, Max Showalter
- Format: Black & White, Colour, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
- Language English
- Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
- Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
- Number of discs: 1
- Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
- Studio: 20th Century Fox
- DVD Release Date: 11 Mar 2008
- Run Time: 75 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B0010KHOSU
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 71,777 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
This is a short, taut film noir from 20th Century Fox that is inexplicably little known today.
A newly-wed honeymooning bride (Jeanne Craine) boards an Atlantic liner from New York with her husband. He promptly disappears, and the rest of the film, which is based on a John Dickson Carr radio play, concerns her search for him as the crew and especially the ship's doctor (Michael Rennie) struggle to make sense of her predicament even to the extent of questioning her sanity.
The plot is not over-complicated, but its enigmatic quality holds the viewer's attention and does not outstay its welcome at 75 minutes. But the storyline is just one element of a classy package here. This was made in 1953 just when the arrival of TV was starting to take its toll on US cinema audiences. The Fox bosses, wanting to save costs by recycling once-used sets, in this case the seaboard "Titanic" and also "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" which was partly set on the ocean wave, were looking for a suitable B-movie candidate and alighted on Dangerous Crossing.
Despite being filmed entirely in the studio in 19 days for $500,000, the sets look and are expensive, and there's no feeling that it's studio bound thanks to careful use of seascape back projection, some involving shots of the ship that clearly stood in for The Titanic, and also the same fog effects. I would imagine the music was put together too from material from other movies.
The acting is uniformly interesting. The 28-year old Jeanne Craine is excellent, conveying fear, bewilderment but also commendable stubbornness; and she looks great in her ballgown. Michael Rennie, a couple of years on from The Day the Earth Stood Still, is a sympathetic second fiddle, never competing to steal a scene from the female lead as many male co-stars would have done.
Apart from the individual qualities I've tried to convey above, this film has considerable interest for people wanting to appreciate how a studio, by careful use of its human and material resources and by exercising imagination, could put together a first-rate second picture that even 50 years later has lots of impact.
The region 1 disc print quality and sound are good. It comes with trailer-cum-brief introduction, plus full and reasonably interesting audio commentary by a film historian, though it mainly focuses on the fortunes and practices of 20th Century Fox at this time rather than offering insights into this particular film.
A newly-wed honeymooning bride (Jeanne Craine) boards an Atlantic liner from New York with her husband. He promptly disappears, and the rest of the film, which is based on a John Dickson Carr radio play, concerns her search for him as the crew and especially the ship's doctor (Michael Rennie) struggle to make sense of her predicament even to the extent of questioning her sanity.
The plot is not over-complicated, but its enigmatic quality holds the viewer's attention and does not outstay its welcome at 75 minutes. But the storyline is just one element of a classy package here. This was made in 1953 just when the arrival of TV was starting to take its toll on US cinema audiences. The Fox bosses, wanting to save costs by recycling once-used sets, in this case the seaboard "Titanic" and also "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" which was partly set on the ocean wave, were looking for a suitable B-movie candidate and alighted on Dangerous Crossing.
Despite being filmed entirely in the studio in 19 days for $500,000, the sets look and are expensive, and there's no feeling that it's studio bound thanks to careful use of seascape back projection, some involving shots of the ship that clearly stood in for The Titanic, and also the same fog effects. I would imagine the music was put together too from material from other movies.
The acting is uniformly interesting. The 28-year old Jeanne Craine is excellent, conveying fear, bewilderment but also commendable stubbornness; and she looks great in her ballgown. Michael Rennie, a couple of years on from The Day the Earth Stood Still, is a sympathetic second fiddle, never competing to steal a scene from the female lead as many male co-stars would have done.
Apart from the individual qualities I've tried to convey above, this film has considerable interest for people wanting to appreciate how a studio, by careful use of its human and material resources and by exercising imagination, could put together a first-rate second picture that even 50 years later has lots of impact.
The region 1 disc print quality and sound are good. It comes with trailer-cum-brief introduction, plus full and reasonably interesting audio commentary by a film historian, though it mainly focuses on the fortunes and practices of 20th Century Fox at this time rather than offering insights into this particular film.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ruth (Jeanne Crain) and John (Carl Betz) board a ship for their honeymoon. However, within 15 minutes of sailing, John has disappeared. Not only has he disappeared but there has never been any trace of him and there are no witnesses that have seen the couple together. The room that they originally booked into is now empty and only Ruth's suitcases seem to be located on board - in a different room! So begins the mystery. The film follows Ruth's attempts to locate her husband while we are introduced to a suspicious cast of characters. No-one believes her story and even the confidante that she finds in Dr Paul Manning (Michael Rennie) has his doubts. She receives a phone call in her cabin from John saying that they are both in danger.......
The film gets you involved from the beginning and you know that something sinister is occurring. The various characters are introduced to us - eg, stewardess Anna (Mary Anderson), single traveller Kay (Marjorie Hoshelle), steward Jim (Casey Adams) and a foreign passenger with a walking stick (Karl Ludwig Lindt) - and we are never quite sure what is in the back of their minds. Even Dr manning is not above suspicion. The fog horn that continually sounds adds to the tension in the night scenes and it is a well acted film by all.
The film gets you involved from the beginning and you know that something sinister is occurring. The various characters are introduced to us - eg, stewardess Anna (Mary Anderson), single traveller Kay (Marjorie Hoshelle), steward Jim (Casey Adams) and a foreign passenger with a walking stick (Karl Ludwig Lindt) - and we are never quite sure what is in the back of their minds. Even Dr manning is not above suspicion. The fog horn that continually sounds adds to the tension in the night scenes and it is a well acted film by all.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
"I'll meet you in 15 minutes in the main deck bar. We'll drink a toast to us." When the young, wealthy and nervous Ruth Stanton (Jeanne Crain) hears this from her impetuously-wedded new husband just after boarding a transatlantic steamer for their honeymoon, be prepared for the disappearing spouse gambit (or disappearing brother or best friend). The disappearance may take place on a train, in a Paris hotel or on a cruise ship, but we know that the young woman will soon think she must be mad...yet, in this case, she knows she had a husband. Why does everyone she meets, from fellow passengers to the stewards and third officers, deny ever having seen the man. It looks like sedation and confinement is in the works for Ruth, but then kindly Paul Manning (Michael Rennie), the ship's doctor, thinks that...just maybe...Ruth Stanton might be telling the truth.
And off we go on a voyage filled with nighttime fog, dark passage ways, muffled struggles, disbelief and, as we early on surmise, an unscrupulous plot designed to bring a young woman to madness.
Dangerous Crossing benefits from the old warhorse of a plot, from the creepy look of the film and, if you like transatlantic ships, the pleasurable goings on of those who dress for dinner in the grand salon. Michael Rennie is tall, calm and reassuring. Jeanne Crain, however, is from Hollywood's Loretta Young School of Acting, which includes Gene Tierney, Donna Reed, Ann Blythe and, sometimes, Anne Baxter. That is, the actresses must always be well groomed, immaculately made up, dressed casually to the nines and, in general, be able to mix restrained hysteria with well-bred graciousness.
We know what's going on early in the movie, but still, getting to the last words is an easy way to spend 75 minutes.
"Everything he said and did was like a terrible nightmare. Only worse because it was real," Ruth says to Paul.
"Ruth, listen to me. You've got to put it out of your mind, the whole thing. It was a nightmare, but your eyes are open now. It's over, Ruth, all over. You've got tomorrow to think of...and lots of tomorrows after that..."
"I know you're right, Paul."
The movie looks just fine. For those who enjoy commentary tracks, there's one by Aubrey Solomon, identified as a film historian.
And off we go on a voyage filled with nighttime fog, dark passage ways, muffled struggles, disbelief and, as we early on surmise, an unscrupulous plot designed to bring a young woman to madness.
Dangerous Crossing benefits from the old warhorse of a plot, from the creepy look of the film and, if you like transatlantic ships, the pleasurable goings on of those who dress for dinner in the grand salon. Michael Rennie is tall, calm and reassuring. Jeanne Crain, however, is from Hollywood's Loretta Young School of Acting, which includes Gene Tierney, Donna Reed, Ann Blythe and, sometimes, Anne Baxter. That is, the actresses must always be well groomed, immaculately made up, dressed casually to the nines and, in general, be able to mix restrained hysteria with well-bred graciousness.
We know what's going on early in the movie, but still, getting to the last words is an easy way to spend 75 minutes.
"Everything he said and did was like a terrible nightmare. Only worse because it was real," Ruth says to Paul.
"Ruth, listen to me. You've got to put it out of your mind, the whole thing. It was a nightmare, but your eyes are open now. It's over, Ruth, all over. You've got tomorrow to think of...and lots of tomorrows after that..."
"I know you're right, Paul."
The movie looks just fine. For those who enjoy commentary tracks, there's one by Aubrey Solomon, identified as a film historian.
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