BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Lawbolisted Powerful

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

alexanderdavies-99382 I'm not surprised John Garfield didn't enjoy making "Dangerously They Live." It is a poor film with a weak plot and no imagination in the script at all. Even the action scenes are below par. John Garfield and Jack Warner weren't seeing eye to eye at this point over the films the actor was told to do. The plot involves a rather neurotic hospital patient (Nancy Coleman) and a bunch of Nazis led by Raymond Massey. That is all there is to this film. I only glance at this nonsense to see John Garfield.

gerdeen-1 It's not Hitchcock quality, but this yarn about World War II espionage in New York is fast-paced fun. It lives up to its intriguing title.Nancy Coleman plays a beautiful British agent who's hiding a big secret and trying to keep one step ahead of the Nazis. When she briefly lands in a hospital, she fakes amnesia to fool her pursuers, then confides in a young intern (played by John Garfield). Though he likes her looks, he doesn't believe a word of her story, and the two find themselves in plenty of hot water before they finally turn into an effective team.I have read that Garfield resented having to make this movie. Maybe he preferred "serious" films to escapism, but maybe he just disliked the character he played. The young intern is really dimwitted. It takes clue after clue to convince him that the conspiracy is real. And even afterward, he keeps falling for the Nazis' tricks. He's constantly exclaiming, either with words or with his facial expression, "Gosh, now I get it!" Coleman's character is the bright one. Her spy is resourceful and tough (though more reckless than she ought to be).The villains are the real stars here. Raymond Massey is always terrific as a manipulative fiend, and Moroni Olsen keeps up with him as his fellow ringleader. When the two ruthless Nazis turn on the charm and pull the wool over decent people's eyes, you want to laugh and hiss at the same time. The contrast between their skillful charade and the transparent thuggery of their minions (played by such veteran heavies as John Harmon and Ben Welden) adds some comic relief.The end is fairly predictable and less clever than the beginning. (This is not Hitchcock, as noted before.) But unless you truly hate romantic spy films, "Dangerously They Live" will give you a few smiles.

Neil Doyle You can skip this one unless you're determined to see every Warner Bros. movie about spies and Nazis that the studio ever made. That's about the only reason for sitting through this turkey, despite a cast that includes such stalwarts as JOHN GARFIELD, RAYMOND MASSEY and NANCY COLEMAN, all of whom must have wished they were not floundering in a weak script.Garfield looks and acts like a hood, but he's supposed to be a respectable doctor taking care of a patient who claims to have amnesia. (The amnesia theme got quite a workout throughout the '40s as a convenient plot device). But here it turns out that the woman patient (Coleman) is only pretending to have amnesia because some Nazi spies are hot on her trail.When Garfield allows her to be taken to a private sanitarium where she will be taken care of by the seemingly helpful Raymond Massey, he soon discovers that the house she is sheltered in is really a place for her to be kept prisoner until she divulges some wartime secrets.There's a little suspense in all of this, but none of the performers seem to be in top form and Garfield seems ill at ease in his doctor role.Summing up: Not quality stuff. Has all the earmarks of a quickly produced potboiler.

lorenellroy Nancy Coleman plays an British agent based in Washington D.C during the Second World War who has some vital information about Allied convoys which German agents are keen to get their hot and sticky little hands on it and none too scrupulous about how they do it .They capture her but she escapes from their clutches only to be involved in an auto accident which leaves her concussed and with memory loss, Enter John Garfield as the intern in charge of her case .He facilitates her recovery but -suspecting many of the people who claim to know her are in fact Nazi agents -she continues to feign amnesia .She is taken into a private sanatorium by an eminent psychologist ( Raymond Massey ) who is a Nazi agent and which turns out to be a prison in all but name .All the servants and other help are "de facto" wardens and the last part of the movie deals with the attempt of Coleman and Garfield to escape and prevent the bad guys extracting the vital information from them Garfield was unenthusiastic about doing this movie -and agreed to do so only because he could not afford another suspension by the studio .It shows in a lacklustre performance and Raymond Massey has no problem stealing the acting honours in what is a proficient but minor Warner Brothers melodrama -watchable but not exceptional