Where Danger Lives

Plot synopsis:
Dr. Jeff Cameron (Mitchum) saves an attempted suicide victim (Domergue) brought to San Francisco General Hospital. She checks out, but sends a telegram telling him her name, Margo, and address. To his surprise, he finds she lives in a mansion. He breaks a date with his nurse girlfriend, Julie (Maureen O'Sullivan), because he is worried Margo may try to commit suicide again.
Jeff falls in love with Margo and they begin seeing one another. Told she is flying to Nassau with her aged father the next day, a tipsy Jeff shows up unannounced and boldly tells Frederick Lannington (Rains) that he is in love with the man's daughter. Lannington informs him that Margo is his wife. A stunned Jeff leaves despite Margo's pleas. When he hears a scream, he returns and finds her holding an earring ripped from her ear. Lannington starts beating Jeff with a fireplace poker; in the ensuing struggle, Lannington strikes his head on the floor and is knocked unconscious. Dazed, Jeff goes to the bathroom; when he returns, he finds the old man dead.
Jeff wants to call the police, but Margo insists they would believe it was murder. Capitalizing on the fact that Jeff's judgment is impaired by his injuries, she persuades him to run away with her. They first try to use the airline tickets, but spot policemen at the ticket desk. They decide to drive to Mexico instead, taking the precaution of trading in Margo's convertible for a pickup truck provided by larcenous used car salesman "Honest Hal." Jeff diagnoses his continuing headaches and mental fog as a concussion, warning Margo that it will lead to first paralysis of the extremities, followed by a coma within 24 to 48 hours.
In Postville, Arizona, they are taken to the sheriff, but only because Jeff is not wearing a beard for the town's "Wild West Whiskers Week." After Margo explains they are on their way to Mexico to get married, the police chief (Charles Kemper) tells them that marriages are a Postville specialty and insists they get wed there. In their honeymoon suite, Margo hears a radio broadcast about them that discloses she had been undergoing psychiatric treatment. After the couple sneaks away, the police chief identifies Margo from a photo and alerts the border patrol. It is revealed that Lannington was smothered to death with a pillow.
In a border town, the fugitives sell Margo's $9,000 bracelet to a pawnbroker for $1,000. Seeing they are anxious to avoid the police, he sends them to theatre owner Milo DeLong (Philip Van Zandt), who offers to smuggle them into Mexico for $1,000. As they wait, Jeff's left side becomes paralyzed. Then he finally realizes that Margo is mentally unstable and that she killed her husband. He decides not to go to Mexico; when he tries to stop Margo from leaving, she knocks him down, then smothers him. Fortunately, he was only rendered unconscious. He drags himself downstairs and out to the border crossing. When Margo sees him coming, she pulls a pistol out of her purse and starts shooting at him. The police return fire, fatally wounding her. Before she dies, she absolves Jeff of any blame.
While recovering, Jeff asks his doctor if he can send flowers to someone. The doctor steps out into the hall and sends Julie in to see him.

Tags: insanity, violence, murder, romantic

Review:
Look at me now'John Farrow's film is one of a small number of interesting noir thrillers the director helmed during the late 40's and early 50's.
This is followed shortly afterwards by the head blow by her outraged husband (played by Claude Rains in his most typically urbane, menacing style), which creates a more profound effect on his mental capabilities.This is a film dominated by Margo and Jeff on the road, and their crazed relationship to each other.
In between times, Farrow is able to enjoy himself with the surreal episode of the beards festival, (a peculiarly bizarre moment even in the extreme experiences of noir) which works well in the context of the runaway's own mental disorientation.The most powerful scene in the film is the penultimate confrontation of Jeff and Margo in the border hotel.
Robert Mitchum is such a sensible, caring and well-adjusted doctor in the beginning of WHERE DANGER LIVES that it seems incomprehensible that he would stumble into the trap that Faith Domergue sets for him.
And this, despite the husband's strong warning.As improbable as the story is, it has a certain fascination due to the film noir quality of the story-telling with Mitchum and Domergue on the run after the husband's death.
In San Francisco, Dr. Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) is ready to date his girlfriend, the nurse Julie Dorn (Maureen O'Sullivan), when they are summoned to the emergency room to attend a suicidal.
He drinks a lot and completely drunken, Cameron goes to her house to meet her father Frederick Lannington (Claude Rains) to tell that he wants to marry Margo.
What will Cameron do?"Where Danger Lives" is a film-noir with a great femme fatale but a weak lead character.
And Robert Mitchum once again demonstrates his star quality as Domergue's dazed and confused lover, tumbling downstairs in his own stunt and staggering like a flesh-eating zombie toward the inevitable denouement at the Mexican border.The movie starts slowly with Mitchum strutting his stuff as a doctor in a hospital.
There is a convincing fight scene with Rains, which leaves Mitchum seriously concussed and at the mercy of Domergue, who persuades him to flee with her to Mexico.
It's here where they get married and eventually, we learn what really happened to the woman's husband...Shot well in black and white, this movie is fast paced and very atmospheric throughout, helped by the music score.Joining the great Robert Mitchum (Night of the Hunter, Cape Fear) in the cast are Faith Domergue (This Island Earth, It Came From Beneath the Sea), Claude Rains (The Wolf Man, The Invisible Man) and Maureen O'Sullivan (Jane from some of the Weismuller Tarzan movies).See this if you get the chance.
All fans of Robert Mitchem,(Dr. Jeff Cameron)"Cape Fear" '62, must see this great classic film, with Claude Rains (Frederic Lannington) "The Invisible Man"'33, who fight over a mixed up gal, Faith Domerque (Margo Lannington),"It Came from Beneath the Sea",'55.
Likewise, director John Farrow effectively taps the outlandish, hallucinatory traits in this customary noir plot: Mitchum spends the last half of the film barreling down the dirt roads of southern California with a concussion, fainting cyclically and awakening enclosed by some of the murkiest landscape the U.S. has to present.Yes, Mitchum is cast against type as a stable professional, but actually, I think Faith Domergue is equally if not more accountable for the lack of artifice in Mitchum's performance than he is.
It is a pretty pedestrian film which borders on tedious too often, and is more of a psychological melodrama rather than a straightforward film noir.I always liked Robert Mitchum but he's trapped in a thankless part here - It's very unlike him to be buffaloed by a pretty skirt and his persona never lent itself to roles as cerebral as a doctor.
A little more of Claude Rains could have helped matters but he got killed off in his only scene early on.No telling what this movie was when first released - a weak 'A' or a better-than-average 'B'- but, as is, it's a passable effort by a director who has some pretty good films to his credit.
Ignore the weighty "analysis" by the film noir experts--this movie, despite Robert Mitchum's best efforts to keep a straight face, is laughably bad.
The film starts with Mitchum telling stories to young patients, a likable and caring doctor.
In support Hughes gave her RKO's number one leading man, Robert Mitchum and a good cast in support.Mitchum plays a doctor here who falls big time for Domergue the minute she gives him a come all glance.
Add to that Mitchum has an untreated concussion which also slows them up a bit.Where Danger Lives is a decent noir film from the studio that made noir a fashionable genre.
Director John Farrow's wife Maureen O'Sullivan has a brief part as a good girl Mitchum deserts for Domergue.
Getting mixed up with spider woman Margo (Domergue) was a dumb move away from his hospital practice and loving nurse Julie.
Still, there is Mitchum, there is (briefly) Claude Rains and of course for a film based on such a daft idea, it has to turn out to be just that bit different..
It stars Robert Mitchum, Faith Domergue, Claude Rains and Maureen O'Sullivan.
Upon tending to attempted suicide victim Margo Lannington (Domergue), Dr. Jeff Cameron (Mitchum) falls in love with her and quickly finds his life spiralling out of control.
In Where Danger Lives, he's married to the insane Faith Domergue, and he dies after the first fifteen minutes of the movie!Robert Mitchum, a well-adjusted, handsome doctor, get sucked into Faith's web and has an affair.
Do you think the rest of the movie will be smooth sailing for the couple?The bad news about Where Danger Lives is Faith Domergue.
Robert Mitchum, Claude Rains and Faith Domergue are superb.
Domergue and Mitchum lives in dangerous ground after a series of mistakes end up a dead end...this unusual noir has some holes but has action and suspense enough to forget a minor bugs...the last part of the picture near the Mexican border the plot has a high point and burn than never...the supporting cast are quite good mainly Claude Rains and Maureen o'Sullivan maybe a little older for this role,"Our" Irwin Allen was associate producer.Resume: First watch: 2017 / How many: 1 / Source: DVD / Rating: 8.
Legendary actor Robert Mitchum (1917-1997) is perhaps best known for his work in the film noir genre, including classics like Out of the Past (1947) and The Night of the Hunter (1955).
The 1950 road movie Where Danger Lives, directed by John Farrow, is not bad either, even though it does not fully reach the atmosphere and tension of the very best noirs out there.The plot follows the traditional noir pattern (a man reluctantly facing increasing adversities and paranoia under a woman's influence) rather faithfully.
A well-liked but not very well-off doctor named Jeff Cameron (Mitchum) helps to save the life of a beautiful female patient named Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue) after her suicide attempt.
After an unfortunate accident, Jeff finds himself and Margo heading towards Mexico while on the run from the law and a crippling head injury slowly eating away his ability to think and act clearly.The plot itself provides no major surprises; instead, the special touch of the movie comes from the effect of Cameron's concussion which causes him to perceive everything more or less hazily.
The performance of Domergue as the femme fatale Margo is pretty good though; she shows decent range growing from worried to controlling and ultimately desperate, even though the big revelation regarding her past doesn't feel highly convincing.
Moral complexity, outlaws, dangerous women and desperate men were the trademarks of the genre, which can all be found is this commercial - mostly made for entertainment - film by John Farrow, who directed a few other film-noirs as well such as Calcutta (1947), The Big Clock (1948), Night Has A Thousand Eyes (1948) and His Kind of Woman (1951).The direction by Farrow is at times very conventional and he accidentally makes unintentional comedy in a few scenes.
The story gets going when Jeff Cameron, a doctor (an unusual role for Mitchum) sees a suicide patient at his department.
In Where Danger Lives Jeff (Mitchum) is running away from the law and the difficulty of stable life.To my mind Where Danger Lives was a very well made film-noir.
Robert Mitchum is a doctor called Jeff Cameron who falls for his patient.Faith Domergue plays the woman, Margo, who's been brought in after a suicide attempt.Soon he finds out she's married to a man she previously called her father.Frederick Lannington, played by Claude Rains, is a sadistic man.He ends up dead after he gets into a fight with the drunken Jeff.But did he do it?
She decides they run away together, all the way to Mexico.Where Danger Lives (1950) is a good film noir directed by John Farrow.The leading stars do a great job.Maureen O'Sullivan is terrific as Julie Dawn.This film noir has enough suspense to keep you interested.It brings some extra quality to the film with Mitchum's character having a brain concussion.
Mitchum is fine in a role similar to the one he played a couple of years later in "Angel Face." Domergue is OK as the mysterious woman he falls for.
John Farrow directed this melodramatic thriller that stars Robert Mitchum as Jeff Cameron, a well-liked doctor who one night treats an attempted suicide victim, who turns out to be an attractive but mysterious woman named Margo(played by Faith Domergue) He foolishly begins an affair with her, despite her being married to a man named Lannington(played by Claude Rains).
WHERE DANGER LIVES is another of the great classic Hollywood film noirs!
RKO head Howard Hughes' favourite star was Robert Mitchum and little wonder since all of his films were, by and large, very successful."Where Danger Lives" was no exception and alongside "Out of the Past" (aka.
Here in "Where Danger Lives" Mitchum heads a fine cast as a young doctor who unwittingly falls for one of his patients unaware she is somewhat psychotic ("I didn't fall for a woman - I fell for a patient").
He died in 1982 at the age of 94."Where Danger Lives" is a great movie and is one of the finest examples of the noir style of picture making.
As my wife said to me while watching this film: 'I'm not ever going to let you meet any women called Margo.' Everyone can agree that, faced with Faith Domergue as she was in 1950, any man would be powerless to help himself.
**SPOILERS** With his 15 hour tour at the San Francisco Hospital just ended Doctor Jeff Cameron, Robert Mitchum, was on his way home to get some very needed rest when he was summoned back to the emergency room to treat this unidentified young woman who was recovering from a suicide attempt.
It turns out later in the movie that the young woman, who gives Dr. Cameron the name Margo, Faith Domergu,is actually related to and living with multi-millionaire Fedrick Lannigton, Cladue Rains, in his spacious estate outside the city.Getting a telegram at the hospital to meet this mysterious Margo Dr. Cameron falls head over heels from the beautiful and alluring brunette and even goes so far as taking her out at a swanky restaurant that evening.
Jeff At first thinking that Fredrick is actually Margo's father, like she told him, a love-sick Cameron is about to ask for his "daughters" hand in marriage.
It's there where she has a secret bank account that's untraceable to her as Mrs. Lannigton, by under her maiden name, that can put her on easy street for the rest of her life.Robert Mitchums best film-noir movie since "Out of the Past" back in 1947 has playing Mitchum against type as the law abiding and conscientious Dr. Jeff Cameron instead of some anti-hero type who feels that the world and cards of life are stacked against him.
John Farrow must be best known for the noir he made the following year, His Kind of Woman which is really a delirious parody of the tough-guy genre, starring Robert Mitchum who also headlines this only slightly more serious example.
Here Mitchum plays a much straighter, more upright character than usual, young Dr. Jeff Cameron who (rather inexplicably) falls immediately in love or lust with the erratic Margo Lannington (Faith Domergue), who introduces herself as the daughter of a wealthy man (Claude Rains) after Mitchum treats her for attempted suicide.
He soon finds out that not all is at it seems with either Ms. Lannington or her "father" and soon the couple is on the run from the law, leaving behind both more stable if less exciting nurse who loves Jeff, and perhaps all chance of a normal life.The film jumps around, at times seemingly at random, between a more comedic travlogue storyline and the darker noirish tones as Cameron struggles with the effects of a concussion while trying to get himself and the increasingly mad and dangerous Margo to the border and into Mexico.
Film noir plots in which a fall guy gets framed by a femme fatale are not exactly rare but what distinguishes this movie from other similar ones is the way in which the victim's personal road to hell is depicted as a nightmare.
The disorientation and confusion that follow make his predicament increasingly worse as he experiences the kind of illogicality and loss of control that are common in dreams and feels himself being helplessly propelled towards an uncertain destiny.This sense of everything being off-kilter is also reflected elsewhere in the movie as the femme fatale is mentally unbalanced, the people that the couple meet when they're on the run are extremely eccentric and a whole series of wonderfully off-balance visual compositions are also featured.At the end of a long shift in a San Francisco hospital, hard-working Dr Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) attends to an attempted suicide case.
Their journey to the Mexican border proves to be difficult and hazardous as Jeff realises he's suffering from concussion and they also get swindled by a whole succession of unscrupulous people.Robert Mitchum and Claude Rains are so good in their roles that they easily outshine everyone else in the cast and make the whole production far better than it might otherwise have been.
When a young woman comes into the hospital following a suicide attempt, young (and rather foolish) Doctor Jeff Cameron takes an interest in her (perhaps he likes women who feel like they have nothing to live for?) and follows up, seeing her a few times.
I understand that the director, John Farrow, has done some admirable work and that Mitchum is a noir icon when he has a trench coat on, but both the director and the actor are undone by a poor script here.Briefly, Mitchum is a doctor in San Francisco who falls in love with a suicidal patient, Faith Domergue.
Domergue takes Mitchum home to meet her rich father, Claude Raines, who turns out to be her husband.
That would be Maureen O'Sullivan, far too canny to let a doctor escape potential husbandhood just because he appears to have committed murder and run off with another girl.As I said, I know Mitchum was a noir icon, but I never had the impression he could act until later in his career when, in fact, he became quite good in some genre movies like "Farewell, My Lovely" and "Cape Fear." And he was sometimes even better in original films like "Night of the Hunter." Here, he simply seems to be sleepwalking and, for a doctor, pretty slow to catch on.
Robert Mitchum provides his usual tough guy performance here despite the fact that the character he plays, Dr. Jeff Cameron, is a bit more of an unwilling victim than, say, his famous character in "Out of the Past." This is more of a traditional "noir" suspense film where the good guy's own motives are only loosely connected to the con being pulled by the traditional "femme fatale" character embodied here by Faith Domergue's sultry, neurotic performance as Margo Lannington.
We've also been supplied a "good girl", performed by Maureen O'Sullivan with her usual straightforward style.For me the only moment in the movie that was really impressive was the one with Claude Rains as Margo's husband.
Mitchum plays a too-good-to-be-true doctor--his favorite duty is telling stories to sick children--about to leave fiancée Maureen O'Sullivan to pursue Faith Domergue, a sultry rich girl who's loonier than all of Toontown.
Soon the pair are on the run from having killed her husband Claude Rains, who, despite third billing, is on screen for all of six minutes, and Mitchum is suffering from a concussion which, he tells Domergue, will slowly paralyze and kill him, or maybe not.
Although Claude Rains has a great cameo role - and that's really all it is, just the one scene, but how powerful he makes it - the film is really carried by Robert Mitchum and Faith Domergue.
The woman is sly, cunning, mentally disturbed and a liar all in one.Fascinated by her, he soon forgets about Nurse Maureen O'Sullivan and is introduced to the man he thinks is his father, Claude Rains who turns out to be her elderly husband.Striking Rains in self defense, Mitchum leaves the room where unknown to him, our femme fatale finishes him via smothering.
It's not long before Dr. Jeff (Robert Mitchum) and Margo are on the lam heading by car to Mexico.
WHERE DANGER LIVES stars Robert Mithum as Dr. Jeff Cameron.
Victim,Margo Lannington(Faith Domergue),of a suicide attempt is brought to a San Francisco hospital.
The spell has been caste and Jeff arrives at Margo's mansion with no warning and professes his love for her to who he thinks is her father, Frederick Lannington(Claude Rains)...this elderly man is not her father, it is her husband.