Dangerous Crossing
Tags: plot twist

Plot synopsis:
Attractive newlywed Ruth (Stanton) Bowman (Jeanne Crain) joyously starts a honeymoon cruise to Europe with her husband John (Carl Betz), only to have him go missing shortly after they check into their room on board. Compounding her confusion, Ruth finds that she is registered solo under her maiden name in a different cabin and that none of the crew members who could have seen her husband on the ship remember him. These include the ship's purser, (Gayne Whitman), stewardess Anna Quinn (Mary Anderson), and second officer Jim Logan (Max Showalter). When she talks to the captain (Willis Bouchey), he notices that Ruth isn't even wearing a wedding ring, and the crew begins to suggest that she is mentally unbalanced.
That night, John calls Ruth with a cryptic warning not to trust anyone. A divorcee traveling solo (Marjorie Hoshelle) and the stewardess take an interest in Ruth. And Dr. Manning (Michael Rennie) spends time with her, assuming a clinical demeanor and getting her to open up about the recent death of her father, a wealthy steel executive.
Ruth decides to put on an act and agrees that she's been foolish, but mysterious things continue to happen. Ruth and Dr. Manning get closer, and a man who walks with a cane seems to stalk her.
Then the stewardess is revealed as conspiring with someone (by phone) to make Ruth seem unstable. Dr. Manning confronts Ruth over the fact that her marriage was either secret or non-existent. She explains that John wanted it to be quick and quiet and talks about an uncle who might scheme to get her inheritance.
John calls again and asks to meet Ruth on deck but runs into the fog when he hears others approach. When Ruth escapes from the ship crew chasing her, ending up in the dance room where she is trapped and making a scene of despair, the captain demands that she be locked in her cabin. She is sedated and a strict nurse prevents her from demanding anything.
Then John is revealed to be Barlowe, the third mate, under Dr. Manning's care all along for a claimed illness. When he learns Ruth has been locked in, he asks the stewardess to enable her escape. When they meet again, John attempts to throw Ruth overboard (mentioning the money of the inheritance he would get as a motive) but is stopped by Dr. Manning, who has followed her. It is John who goes overboard in the fight.
Later, Dr. Manning comforts Ruth, and the captain apologizes in the name of all who didn't believe her and explains that the stewardess confessed.

Review: This movie is a nice, tense little b/w thriller, set aboard a transatlantic passenger liner headed to England.
Jeanne Crain plays a new bride; her husband immediately goes missing after boarding the ship in New York, leaving her in a state of panic as she can not convince the ship's crew or passengers that he even exists.
Jeanne Crain portrays the sheltered, distressed young woman with an ideal sensitivity, and Britsh actor Michael Rennie is especially effective as the ship's doctor who treats her with thoughtful compassion.
"Husbands can get lost so easily," someone tells Jeanne Crain's character in the 1953 Fox thriller "Dangerous Crossing," and boy, do those words ever prove prophetic!
When her husband (Carl Betz, who most baby boomers will recognize as Dr. Alex Stone from the old "Donna Reed Show") disappears from the ship before they even leave the NYC harbor, Ruth becomes distraught...especially since no one on board, including the ship's doctor (sympathetically played by Michael Rennie), will believe the story that her husband ever existed!
While not precisely a film noir, "Dangerous Crossing" certainly does have its noirish aspects, and the scene in which Ruth searches the boat for her husband at night, in a dense mist, the only background sound being the intermittent blare of the ship's foghorn, is one that all fans of the genre should just love.
She is given any number of stunning close-ups by veteran cinematographer Joseph Lashelle, who years before had lensed that classiest of film noirs, 1944's "Laura." In one of the DVD's surprisingly copious collection of extras, it is revealed that the picture took only 19 days to produce, at a cost of only $500,000; a remarkably efficient production, resulting in a 75-minute film with no excess flab and a sure-handed way of delivering shudders and suspense.
All menace and subterfuge as we begin to feel that Jeanne Crain's character is surely going to break down despite the restrained and reassuring Michael Rennie, who doesn't even get a kiss.
This taut atmospheric mystery-at-sea gets great performances by Jeanne Crain, Michael Rennie, Max Showalter, and Carl Betz.
Before I even saw the first scene of this very good mystery I was pretty sure that I would like it because it was adapted from a story by John Dickson Carr.
Since this is a Carr story the husband, naturally, disappears and most of the rest of the movie finds Ms. Crane trying to convince the ships' crew that her husband did indeed board the ship with her and has vanished.
But, as the movie unfolds, the ships' doctor, played by Michael Rennie, begins to think that there may be truth to her story.
"Dangerous Crossing" is based on a story (actually a radio play) by John Dickson Carr, the master of the locked room mystery.
Moments after Jeanne Crain as a new bride boards a luxury liner on her honeymoon, the groom vanishes.
Even Michael Rennie as the sympathetic ship's doctor (who's clearly smitten by her) suspects that her missing husband is a figment of her imagination.
I however enjoyed it very much.The lovely, vivacious Jeanne Crain plays, Ruth Stanton, now Ruth Bowman after a whirlwind courtship with Carl Betz set off for Europe on a luxury passenger liner for their honeymoon.I love these old gem's which are not too long, full of thrills and mystery but at the same time, not too taxing on the brain.Quick synopsis, Mr Bowman vanishes shortly after the ship sets sail and seemingly nobody is aware of his existence.
Ruth, spends most of the film helped considerably by the ship's doctor, played admirably by Michael Rennie, searching for clues to his whereabouts.Anyway without giving anything away the film reaches a very satisfactory conclusion.
A great example of B director James M Newman at his short lived feature film peak (1949-1953).Newman (1909-) had a steady Hollywood career being an assistant director on 17 mostly mainstream musicals and dramas whilst in his twenties.These included Americana such as "Another Language" (1933); musicals such as "Going Hollywood" (1933) and "Rose Marie (1936); comedy such as "Riptide" (1934)and classic dramas "Dinner at Eight" (1933) and "David Copperfield" (1935) for which he was nominated for an Oscar in the short lived category of Best Assistant Director.However, it was directing shorts in the "Crime Does Not Pay" series where Newman really cut his teeth in the noir game.His "Buyer Beware" installment from 1940 is pretty well the best short noir from the period.Checkout the hugely underrated B noir "Abandoned" (1949) where Newman elicits an incredible performance from a young Raymond Burr.Also worth seeking are the horse-racing drama "The Great Dan Patch" (1949) and the crime noir "711 Ocean Drive" (1950)starring Edmond O'Brien."Dangerous Crossing" is up there with the best of the low budget B noir classics.
Dangerous Crossing blends two hoary plot lines:  the one where somebody suddenly disappears and whose very existence comes into question; and the one where a young woman marries a stranger about whom, to later chagrin, she knows absolutely nothing.Newlyweds Jeanne Crain and Carl Betz board an ocean liner for a honeymoon cruise to Europe.
Crain, reacting with swooning spells and hysterical outbursts, comes under the doting care of ship's doctor Michael Rennie, who's forever "prescribing" her things like shuffleboard or Champagne.
Costarring Carl Betz, from The Donna Reed Show, as Jeanne's husband and Michael Rennie as the ship's doctor, it concerns newlyweds who go on a cruise for a honeymoon.
A tour de force by Jeanne Crain, as she is practically going out of her mind with worry.(This was remade in the early 90s as a Lindsay Wagner TV-movie, which was called Treacherous Crossing.) Miss the original, and not only do you miss one good movie, but you miss seeing Jeanne Crain, one of the sweetest and most beautiful stars ever in films, who rightly held a place in not only GIs', but all mens' hearts and second only to Betty Grable in receiving the most fan mail.Jeanne Crain, you are not forgotten..
Ruth (Jeanne Crain) and John (Carl Betz) board a ship for their honeymoon.
It reminded me also of the original radio play for "Sorry Wrong Number." (Not of the movie based on it, which is not very good.) Jeanne Crain, in many changes of fabulous gowns, furs, and jewels, thinks she is boarding an ocean liner with her new husband.
Newman has directed a superb mystery thriller based upon John Dickson Carr's intriguing tale of a newlywed husband who goes missing on board an ocean liner in the middle of his honeymoon.
Michael Rennie is comforting as the ship's doctor, the only person on board who believes her story.
After a whirlwind romance of only four weeks Ruth Stanton has married her dream man John Bowman and is about to set sail on a luxury liner for her honeymoon.
Dangerous Crossing is one of the latest releases in the Fox Noir series, with b movie specialist Newman at the helm it's a pacey 76 mins and although its not, it plays much more like an espionage film, where nobody can be trusted aboard the fog bound liner.
I like this movie-although as a Carr fan who went to the same high school (in the same town) as Mr. Carr I actually like the book that is was adapted to better.I just discovered that Carl Betz that is in this movie was from Pittsburgh -or as we call it here in southwest Pennsylvania-THE BURGH.I found that interesting.Hmmm 10 lines?,should I whistle a tune?Seriously-John Carr was a true master of the "locked room mystery".Am I mistaken-or was this movie remade a few years ago starring Lindsey Wagner?I didn't find the plot to be thin-or one-dimensional at all,and I thoroughly enjoyed Jeanne's work here as well.I guess the set for both movies made for a great film both times out-The Titanic and Dangerous Crossing....Gentlemen prefer Blondes-also filmed on this set-was pretty good entertainment as well..
Wealthy young bride on ocean liner leaving New York City disrupts the lives of everyone on-board ship with curious story of a missing husband whom nobody recalls seeing.
Crain (with Donna Reed's hair) isn't a smart heroine; she's stubbornly unstable--fainting, screaming, and at one point causing stoic ocean-medic Michael Rennie to give her a firm slap.
Where Crain would have been less effective is after Eve is found out - that's where Baxter's rightness for the role kicked in.All that being said, Crain is the star of "Dangerous Crossing." She plays a woman on a honeymoon cruise who can't seem to find her husband.
It's actually a very good, suspenseful movie, and if you've seen Fox's "Titanic," you'll recognize the ship.Carl Betz of "The Donna Reed Show" plays the missing husband.
A sea-going version of Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, only it's the new husband (Carl Betz of The Donna Reed Show fame) of luxury-liner honeymooner Jeanne Crain who turns up missing.
This story starts off with a newly married couple who are going on a cruise liner and Ruth Stanton Bowman, (Jeanne Crain) is the bride who is very happy until her husband disappears and there is no record of him being aboard the ship.
There is a haunting sound of a ship's fog horn going on constantly giving the film a very mysterious effect.
This isn't one of them."Dangerous Crossing" is based on a radio play by the popular mystery writer John Dickson Carr, and was probably made for no better reason than to help amortize the "Titanic" sets.The script is lame and amateurish, with dialog suggesting a first draft from people who've never written a screenplay.
No one bothered to tell the writer that this was a movie, where you can actually //see// the actors, the better ones of which are capable of conveying emotion without dialog.This is a model film -- of how not to write, how not to act, and how not to direct.
I could only award this film 4/10 as I found it very irritating on several counts, (despite unfettered praise from nearly all your other reviewers).Perhaps the screenwriter, Leo Townsend, should be blamed as he made the character of Ruth (Jeanne Crain) needy, neurotic, paranoid, melodramatic and rather wet.I brightened up when Dr Paul Manning (Michael Rennie) slapped her face to bring her to her senses at one stage.Also irritating was the stock footage of "The Queen Mary" posing as an American cruise liner, the producer should have picked a less recognisable vessel as it grated on me to hear American crew accents on a British liner!
I disliked how Jeanne Crain's character kept drawing attention to herself and monopolising nearly all the time of the ship's doctor.When did Dr Paul Manning find time for his other patients?Jeanne Crain's character in this film continued to give women a bad name, being pathetic, standing on the sidelines while the "baddie" grappled with the "goodie" by the ship's rail at the denouement.The evil stewardess' character was insufficiently dramatised.Ruth obviously should have lived with her fiancée much longer to learn about his true character.As a previous reviewer stated "Marry in haste - Repent at leisure".The director/producer must also take a large part of the blame for this "B" picture..
Jeanne Crain plays Ruth Stanton, only now she's Ruth Bowman because she just married John Bowman who she barely knows.
Jeanne Crain's hysterical overacting gets on one's nerves 10 minutes into the film and never lets go.
Crain plays a newlywed who boards a luxury liner with her husband of less than 24 hours Betz.
If the film has any significant faults, it is that a) it makes it clear that Anderson has seen Betz and so there is never any doubt that she's lying (the others can honestly say they don't recall him) and that b) the villain would rather do away with Crain and end up with an accomplice rather than settle for what he/she has, which appears to be pretty good!
As the ship doctor who is sympathetic to her plight, Michael Rennie naturally falls for her in this rather taut thriller.The picture is interesting because more people appear who seem to be part of the plot to drive Crain crazy.
It is very atmospheric in some scenes, especially the night shots on board.Before I even saw the first scene of this very good mystery I was pretty sure that I would like it because it was adapted from a story by John Dickson Carr.
I don't attribute either of these annoyances to Jeanne Crain (who in my view can do almost no wrong), but rather to director Joseph Newman...and perhaps to the time of the film -- 1953 -- when women were supposed to be helpless without a husband and every woman wanted a mink coat (at least they all did on "Queen For A Day"!).Aside from those two annoyances, I very much liked this film, and that it was filmed on the same sets as "Titanic" (Clifton Webb and Barbara Stanwyck), which was made the same year.Now, in regard to the plot, if you read message boards on IMDb about this film, dismiss them.
Admittedly, there are a couple of places where just one or two more lines of dialog could have made things clearer.Jeanne Crain is as lovely here as ever...and just as good an actress...I just wish the director hadn't wanted her to be quite as hysterical (although that gets her locked in her cabin, which is essential to the story).
Yvonne Peattie as Miss Bridges Though not perfect, this is darned good film noir mystery, and I recommend it for any one who likes the genre, and especially for fans of Jeanne Crain..
I know that a few other similar films have been released--so clearly "Dangerous Crossing" won't get points for originality.In the case of "Dangerous Crossing", a brand-new wife (Jeanne Crain) soon is separated from her husband (Carl Betz) on a cruise ship.
I thought he was very effective.I think the movie works as a mystery and as a film noir with an unusual homme fatale.
The attractive Crain plays Ruth Bowman, a blushing bride so proud of her new husband John(Carl Betz).
The only person on board who feels Ruth's ordeal is real and not imagined is the ship's physician, Dr. Paul Manning(Michael Rennie), who might have some deeper feelings for his newest patient.
The atmosphere steadily becomes more threatening and the presence of a number of rather suspicious-looking individuals soon fuels a profound sense of paranoia that continues to grow until the story's denouement finally provides some important explanations for what's transpired.Newly-married Ruth Bowman (Jeanne Crain) and her husband John (Carl Betz) seem in good spirits at the start of their honeymoon on the ocean liner "S.S.Monrovia" as John carries Ruth over the threshold of their cabin B-16.
After the stewardess who was arranging flowers in their room leaves, John tells Ruth that he's going to leave some cash with the Purser for safekeeping and arranges to meet her in the ship's main-deck bar in 15 minutes.
At this point, she becomes very confused and distressed and so the ship's doctor is called.The good natured Dr Paul Manning (Michael Rennie) makes some enquiries and everyone he speaks to, including the stewardess Anna Quinn (Mary Anderson), deny having seen John.
This only increases her anguish and the presence of a sinister-looking elderly gentleman with a cane, a steward whose manner is rather strange and a wealthy divorcee who tells her that "husbands can get lost so easily", only add to her discomfort and her reliance on Dr Manning to solve the mystery of what's happened to John and also to discover the reason for his disappearance."Dangerous Crossing" is well-paced, skilfully directed and claustrophobic and the whole production is held together by the radiant Jeanne Crain who's at the centre of everything that happens.
No!", and collapse into the arms of kindly (not to say saintly) Michael Rennie, the ship's doctor who half believes her crazy story about her missing husband.Rennie.
This is strictly a programmer made (apparently) to make use of the still standing TITANIC sets that serve as a luxury ship backdrop to a John Dickson Carr mystery about a husband who vanishes aboard ship.JEANNE CRAIN gives a decidedly one-dimensional performance as the distraught woman who cannot get anyone to believe that her husband actually existed (shades of "The Lady Vanishes", the great Hitchcock film).
Perhaps this is just another example of the expediency with which this little programmer was made.MICHAEL RENNIE does a good job as the ship's doctor who gives Crain all of the support she needs in moments of crisis.
Jeanne Crain plays Ruth Stanton Bowman who just got married a day before and is off on her honeymoon with John Bowman (played by Carl Betz, known for his stint on TV's 'Donna Reed Show' a few years later).
It appears that Ruth is off her rocker but the captain goes by the book and orders a search of the ship with negative results.The tension in the plot keeps rising as Ruth receives a mysterious call from John who warns her that both of them are in great danger and he'll have to contact her later.
So she begins pretending that her story about coming on board with her husband, is simply a figment of her imagination (an idea suggested to her by Dr. Manning).Ruth's paranoia is exacerbated when she encounters various fellow passengers and crew members all who seem quite menacing in her eyes.
Now, I hope you finally get it." Most of the performances in 'Dangerous Crossing' are quite good but I did feel Jeanne Crain could have kept some of those histrionics under wrap.
That's what the passengers of this cruise ship must constantly have said in watching the chicly dressed Jeanne Crain every time she had a panic attack while searching for her missing new husband who vanished right before the ship sailed.