DANGEROUSLY THEY LIVE (1942)

This wartime propaganda thriller is OK, but it feels like a rehash of 3 or 4 other movies of its kind with nothing new added to make it stand out. Actually, I had some fun imagining it as a Nurse Sara Keate movie (see MYSTERY HOUSE, my April 2 review), only instead of Ann Sheridan, we get John Garfield. The movie opens with Nancy Coleman, a British spy, heading off in a cab to deliver important information to her superiors. The cab driver, working for a ring of Nazis, attempts to kidnap her, but instead they get into an accident and she is taken to a hospital where she comes under the care of intern John Garfield. She has temporary amnesia, recovers quickly, but decides to keep up the act when one of the Nazis (Moroni Olsen) arrives at the hospital claiming to be her father. She agrees to go off to Olsen's estate, taking Garfield with her. She confides in Garfield and, though he is skeptical at first, he is soon convinced that they are in fact being held prisoner in the house until the Nazis can figure out if she's faking or not. A former teacher of Garfield's, notable psychiatrist Raymond Massey, is called in on the case--Coleman assumes he's a spy too, but Garfield can't believe it. Of course, Massey is too sinister looking *not* to be a spy, and soon Garfield and Coleman fear for their lives. The story builds nicely, although too much screen time is spent establishing the prisoner status of the two leads. There must have been a fair amount of pre-release editing; John Ridgely gets seventh billing but is only seen fleetingly in the first few minutes of the film. Another actor, Matthew Boulton, is given screen credit but never seen at all. The "old dark house" elements that might have given this movie more atmosphere are spoiled as the house is not nearly as old or dark as it should have been. Still, it's worth watching for Garfield and Massey, and to see how the amnesia plotline works out. Also with Lee Patrick as a nurse and Frank Reicher as a creepy butler. [TCM]