Cry Danger

Rocky Mulloy (Dick Powell) was sentenced to life in prison for a robbery and murder that he did not commit. He is released five years later when an "eyewitness", a one-legged ex-Marine named Delong (Richard Erdman), suddenly appears and provides a fake alibi. Delong is an opportunist who figures out that by freeing Rocky he can get a share of the missing $100,000 from the robbery. Rocky insists he was not involved and sets out to find out who framed him, hoping to free his friend Danny Morgan, still in prison for the same crime. Police Lt. Gus Cobb (Regis Toomey) has met Rocky when he arrived in Los Angeles and tells him that he will be under 24-hour surveillance.

Rocky and Delong go to find a place to stay in a trailer park. Morgan's wife Nancy (Rhonda Fleming), a former girlfriend of Rocky's, lives in the same trailer park. Delong meets Darlene (Jean Porter), a pretty girl who is sunning herself outside her trailer.

Rocky knows that bookie Louis Castro (William Conrad) is the mastermind behind the robbery and believes that he also the person who framed him and sent him to prison. He demands $50,000 at gunpoint. Castro only gives him $500 to bet on a longshot on a fixed horse race. The next day Rocky tries to find a witness who testified against him at his trial. He finds Mrs. Fletcher (Joan Banks) who tells him her husband has died two years earlier. She also tells him that at the time of the trial her husband inherited $5,000. Rocky see that her husband was bribed to testify against him and that his wife knows the truth.

Rocky then goes to collect his winnings from the fixed horse race from a bookie that Castro told him to visit. But after spending some of the money he finds out that the money is from a payroll robbery, and he has to give it back to the police. When the police can't find the bookie with whom Rocky says he placed the bet, he realizes that Castro has framed him again. He is nearly arrested until Castro is caught in a lie by the police. He claims he never met with Rocky which Lt. Cobb knows is false because he tailed Rocky to Castro's office the night before.

Later, two men shoot at Delong and his girlfriend Darlene near Rocky's rented trailer. They drive away to escape but there are more shots and they crash. Delong is injured and Darlene is killed. Nancy realizes the pair were mistaken for Rocky and her. Rocky then plays Russian roulette with Castro, with the gun pointed at the bookie's head, until Castro breaks down and reveals where the robbery money is hidden. He also claims that Rocky's friend Morgan participated in the robbery and committed the murder and that Nancy knows the truth has her husband's share. Rocky orders Castro to telephone Cobb and tell him he will make a full confession. Castro instead calls his henchmen, the ones who killed Darlene. However, Rocky is not fooled. He then calls Cobb himself, and the two killers walk into a police trap.

Then Rocky goes to see Nancy and tells her he could not find Castro. Nancy confesses she has the money. She says she loves him and begs him to run away with her and the loot. Rocky pretends to agree, but leaves her to find Lt. Cobb who is waiting outside Nancy's trailer and tells him where she has hidden the money.

• Dick Powell as Rocky Mulloy
• Rhonda Fleming as Nancy Morgan
• Richard Erdman as Delong
• William Conrad as Louie Castro
• Regis Toomey as Detective Lt. Gus Cobb
• Jean Porter as Darlene LaVonne
• Jay Adler as Williams, Trailer Park Manager
• Joan Banks as Alice Fletcher
• Hy Averback as Harry, Bookie

The film was shot in the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles. The "Crosley" Hotel, built as the Nugent, stood at 3rd and Grand. The Los Amigos bar was at 3rd and Olive. Clover Trailer Park was not in Bunker Hill, but was at 650-700 N. Hill Place in Chinatown. Also seen is "China City", a Chinese themed spinoff of LA's Olvera St,, no longer extant, 500 feet north of Olvera St on Alameda St.

When the film was first released, the staff at Variety magazine liked the film and said, "All the ingredients for a suspenseful melodrama are contained in Cry Danger...Robert Parrish, erstwhile film editor, makes a strong directorial bow.[3]

Time Out's modern on-line magazine review says: "it's the kind of movie in which, told to expect someone extra for dinner, delicious Fleming smiles 'OK, I'll put more water in the soup'. With excellent support players like a young, thin (for him) William Conrad and Jay Adler, this is a fast, crisp and laconic delight."[4]

A restored version of the film was released in 2011. The film was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, in coöperation with Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros., funded by the Film Noir Foundation.[5] The new print was made "from two 35mm acetate composite master positives."[5]

The restoration premiered at the UCLA Festival of Preservation on March 14, 2011[5] and was screened at other North American cities in 2011 including Vancouver.[6]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cry Danger.

• Cry Danger at IMDb
• Cry Danger at AllMovie
• Cry Danger at the TCM Movie Database
• Cry Danger film trailer on YouTube