Appointment with Danger

Alan Ladd is a different kind of P.I. in this 1951 crime drama: a postal inspector, who nevertheless has a hard-boiled private-eye attitude. Obsessive, jaundiced veteran investigator Al Goddard (Ladd) is flinty towards colleagues and witnesses alike but is knocked off balance when the only person who saw the murder of a colleague turns out to be a determined and courageous nun named Sister Augustine (a sunny and sweet Phyllis Calvert), who has an unshakable commitment to the case and to the truth. In a pre-Dragnet pairing, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan (using the name Henry Morgan) play partners in crime Joe Regas and George Soderquist, respectively, while Paul Stewart is cool-headed gang leader Earl Boettiger, who has masterminded a major heist involving the postal service. Director Lewis Allen doesn't exactly deliver film noir in this routine blend of urban crime, wise-guy crooks, and snappily cynical lines (although it does feature Webb as a sadistic killer!). Jan Sterling injects a little energy into the mix as Dodie, a jazz fan who plays her dance records for Al when he goes undercover, but this is otherwise quite generic, and Ladd's terse, cold, wound-up performance is a pale echo of his earlier hard-bitten roles in This Gun for Hire and The Glass Key. Optional. (S. Axmaker)