Highly Dangerous (1950) Director: Roy Ward Baker. Screenwriter: Eric Ambler
Entomologist Frances Gray (Margaret Lockwood) is asked by her boss Rawlins (Michael Hordern) and Mr. Hedgerley (Norton Wayne) from the Secretariat of the Imperial General Staff if she could go to an obscure Iron Curtain country to investigate the possibility that a scientist called Kassen has succeeded in breeding insecticide-resistant fruitflies that could be used as vectors for germ warfare against the West.
She refuses point-blank: she’s just about to go on her hols to Torquay. Hedgerley hitches a lift from her to the station, and en route she plays the night episode of the radio serial Frank Conway, Secret Agent. It is her duty to do so nightly, so that she can tell the story to her nephew Alan (Lance Secretan) before he goes to bed. That night, affected by her listening to the drama, she phones Hedgerley and agrees that, yes, she’ll do it. She’ll pretend to be a tourist agent while in reality trying to get hold of some insect samples.
When next we meet her she’s on the final stages of her journey behind the Iron Curtain, her flimsy cover being that she’s no longer Frances Gray but Frances Conway (Frank Conway—geddit?). Although she doesn’t realize it, her cabin companion is Commandant Anton Razinski, the sinister Chief of the State Police (Marius Goring). From this point onward Razinski will dog footsteps she didn’t even know she’d taken.
The movie’s standout performance is Goring’s. This may be because Goring could often be a bit of a ham; one of the most frightening personae that tyrants and their powerful minions can adopt is that of the ham—think Stalin. Here is Razinski trying to warn Frances and Bill off the bug farm:
Razinski: “You see, Miss Conway, I told you, there is nothing beautiful in Paritsa province. Nothing but pine trees.” Frances: “And soldiers.” Razinski: “And soldiers, yes. This is a military training area. That is why we have these barriers and precautions. A few months ago some people were shot accidentally in the woods. It was terrible.” Frances: “What people?” Razinski: “Tourists.”
mariusgoring.com
excerpt from John Grant’s film blog Noirish
