BACKGROUND TO DANGER

US, 1943, 80 minutes, Black and white.
George Raft, Brenda Marshall, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Turhan Bey, Osa Massen.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.

Background to Danger is based on a novel by Eric Ambler, author of other war novels and films including Journey Into Fear and The Mask of Dimitrios.

This film is set in Turkey, with the Nazis trying to pressurise Turkey into siding with them and providing false maps of an attempted Soviet invasion. Sydney Greenstreet is the villain, a Nazi who is adept in propaganda. Peter Lorre and Brenda Marshall portray a Russian brother and sister who are after the document. The hero of the film is George Raft in a rather Humphrey Bogart-style role, the whole thing being reminiscent of Casablanca and other Warner Bros films of the period.

Raft is rather wooden compared with Humphrey Bogart and Brenda Marshall is not a strong screen presence. However, the film moves along, seems much lighter in tone and content as such films as Casablanca, but gives an indication of the interest of Warner Bros in propaganda war films at the time.

1. Popular war propaganda film? Warner Bros? The aftermath of Casablanca?

2. The Syrian and Turkish settings? Hollywood studio? Ankara and Istanbul? The musical score?

3. Joe Barton as hero? George Raft and his style? In Aleppo, his background, selling machinery? On the train? His meeting with Ana? Her giving him the documents? The journey, the sinister man following? Arrival in Ankara? His going to find her, her being murdered? The encounter with Colonel Robinson and his being abducted? Tortured? The rescue by Nikolai and his sister? The questions with Nikolai? The Nazis, the Russians? His going to the American authority, Hassan and the shop, the discussions about cigarettes? His encounter with Nikolai and the Russian group? Their escaping? His following to Istanbul? His tracking them down? The issue of the newspaper, the plans? With Colonel Robinson, the confrontation? With Nikolai, holding the gun to him, its being empty? The final confrontations, the smashing of the newspaper plates, the taking of the documents? The thwarting of the plan, Robinson’s arrest? His return to the US, to Egypt, with Tamara?

4. Colonel Robinson, the attempt on the German ambassador’s life, the failure, summoning the assassin to Berlin? His department, his propaganda, trying to alarm the Turks? Their neutrality? The fear of a Soviet invasion? His going to Ankara, to Istanbul? The taking of Joe Barton, getting the documents? The hold over the Roumanian editor? The completion of the plan, Joe thwarting him, his arrest, the return to Berlin?

5. Nikolai and Tamara, rescuing Joe, not to be trusted, wanting the documents? In Istanbul, taken by Robinson? The gun at Nikolai’s head? His later being shot?

6. Ana Remzi as a spy, on the train, putting Joe in her confidence, at the border? Her being murdered?

7. Hassan, his father, the front for the Americans? The American secret agents?

8. The popular ingredients – credible in hindsight? The action for an adventure story?