Dangerous to Know | |
---|---|
Directed by | Robert Florey |
Screenplay by | William R. Lipman Horace McCoy |
Based on | On the Spot by Edgar Wallace |
Starring | Anna May Wong Akim Tamiroff Gail Patrick |
Cinematography | Theodor Sparkuhl |
Edited by | Arthur P. Schmidt |
Color process | Black and white |
Production company | Paramount Pictures |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 70 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Dangerous to Know is a 1938 American crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Anna May Wong, Akim Tamiroff and Gail Patrick. The picture is based on British crime writer Edgar Wallace's hit 1930 play, On the Spot, which had been inspired by the career of Al Capone. Anna May Wong reprised her stage role from the New York production in the movie. [1] The supporting cast features Lloyd Nolan and Anthony Quinn.
Stephen Recka, a gangster and former bootlegger, is now a powerful figure in city politics and business circles, with the mayor and local bank in his pocket. He aspires to climb socially. A city councillor who wants to become mayor has a plant in Recka's office, John Rance, but Recka finds out.
Recka's birthday party is organized by his friend and hostess, Madame Lan Ying, with attendees who want a share in his city-wide power. Margaret van Case, an impoverished member of the "town's first family" arrives and Recka charms her, making Lan Ying unhappy.
Recka meets with Rance at his apartment. Rance is forced to write a suicide note and then falls to his death from the window. Inspector Brandon, an honest and unbribeable police officer, is now pursuing Recka for eight murders, but with no evidence to convict him.
Recka makes the mayor change the city's development plans to avoid the district around Margaret's house, as part of his plan to ingratiate himself with her. He knows Margaret's boyfriend, Philip Easton, is a bond salesman, and he buys $20,000 of bonds from him and gradually starts to give him more and more business to win his trust. Recka pursues Margaret, but Lan Ying warns him that trying to get her and enter society is reaching too far for him.
Recka brings two out of town hoods to see Phil. They steal $218,000 in bonds from his bank and kidnap him so it appears he has stolen them. The police are tipped off, and find Phil apparently drunk and the bonds missing. Recka makes an offer to Margaret to fix things and Margaret realizes Phil has been framed. Recka says he will get Phil cleared if Margaret marries him and opens the doors of respectable society for him. She agrees but vows eternal contempt for him. Phil is freed on bail.
The out of towners double cross Recka and take the bonds, but are picked up by the police for speeding. Recka realizes Phil could identify them and must be silenced. He gets plane tickets for Margaret to go away with him, but he finds the bonds have been switched for newspaper, and knows Inspector Brandon must have them.
Lan Ying understands Recka's plans and that he intends to kill Phil, but his henchman is arrested before he can complete the hit. She also knows about the plane tickets. She warns Recka she will not be waiting if he returns, and says an emotional farewell to Recka, playing a record of "Thanks for the Memory". He is confused and lonely and admits she is a real friend and the only one he can trust.
Lan Ying commits suicide with a knife. Brandon arrests Recka, intending him to be convicted as the murderer of Lan Ying and thus pay for any other crimes for which he was never tried. Recka realizes too late that Lin Yang was the one thing he needed.
Margaret and Phil fly away to their honeymoon using the plane tickets.
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times called the film a "second-rate melodrama, hardly worthy of the talents of its generally capable cast." [2]
Topkapi is a 1964 American Technicolor heist film produced by Filmways Pictures and distributed by United Artists. The film was produced and directed by the émigré American film director Jules Dassin. The film is based on Eric Ambler's novel The Light of Day (1962), adapted as a screenplay by Monja Danischewsky.
Wong Liu Tsong, known professionally as Anna May Wong, was an American actress, considered the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood, as well as the first Chinese American actress to gain international recognition. Her varied career spanned silent film, sound film, television, stage, and radio.
Akim Mikhailovich Tamiroff was an Armenian-American actor of film, stage, and television. One of the premier character actors of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tamiroff developed a prolific career despite his thick accent, appearing in at least 80 motion pictures over a span of 37 years.
The General Died at Dawn is a 1936 American drama film that tells the story of a mercenary who meets a beautiful girl while trying to keep arms from getting to a vicious warlord in war-torn China. The movie was written by Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets and directed by Lewis Milestone.
Tortilla Flat is a 1942 American romantic comedy film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Spencer Tracy, Hedy Lamarr, John Garfield, Frank Morgan, Akim Tamiroff and Sheldon Leonard, based on the 1935 novel of the same name by John Steinbeck. Frank Morgan received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his poignant portrayal of The Pirate.
This Gun for Hire is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by Frank Tuttle and starring Veronica Lake, Robert Preston, Laird Cregar, and Alan Ladd. It is based on the 1936 novel A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene.
Can't Help Singing is a 1944 American musical western film directed by Frank Ryan and starring Deanna Durbin, Robert Paige, and Akim Tamiroff. Based on a story by John D. Klorer and Leo Townsend, the film is about a senator's daughter who follows her boyfriend West in the days of the California gold rush. Durbin's only Technicolor film, Can't Help Singing was produced by Felix Jackson and scored by Jerome Kern with lyrics by E. Y. Harburg.
Lord Jim is a 1965 British adventure film made for Columbia Pictures in Super Panavision. The picture was produced, written and directed by Richard Brooks, with Jules Buck and Peter O'Toole as associate producers. The film stars O'Toole, James Mason, Curd Jürgens, Eli Wallach, Jack Hawkins, Paul Lukas, and Daliah Lavi.
For Whom the Bell Tolls is a 1943 American epic war film produced and directed by Sam Wood and starring Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff, Katina Paxinou and Joseph Calleia. The screenwriter Dudley Nichols based his script on the 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls by American novelist Ernest Hemingway. The film is about an American International Brigades volunteer, Robert Jordan (Cooper), who is fighting in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists. During his desperate mission to blow up a strategically important bridge to protect Republican forces, Jordan falls in love with a young woman guerrilla fighter (Bergman).
Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 war film directed by Billy Wilder and starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. Set in World War II, it is one of a number of films based on Lajos Bíró's 1917 play Hotel Imperial: Színmű négy felvonásban, including the 1927 film Hotel Imperial. Erich von Stroheim portrays Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in a supporting performance.
Daughter of Shanghai is a 1937 American crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Anna May Wong, Charles Bickford and Buster Crabbe. Unusually for the time, East Asian American actors played the lead roles. It was also one of the first films in which Anthony Quinn appeared. In 2006, Daughter of Shanghai was included in the annual selection of 25 motion pictures to be added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
Chained is a 1934 American drama film directed by Clarence Brown and starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable with supporting performances by Otto Kruger, Stuart Erwin, Una O'Connor and Akim Tamiroff. The screenplay was written by John Lee Mahin, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich based upon a story by Edgar Selwyn. Ward Bond and Mickey Rooney appear briefly in uncredited roles.
New York Town is a 1941 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Vidor and starring Fred MacMurray, Mary Martin, Akim Tamiroff and Robert Preston. It was produced and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film was written by Lewis Meltzer and an uncredited Preston Sturges based on a story by Jo Swerling.
Men Against the Sky is a 1940 drama starring Richard Dix, Kent Taylor, Edmund Lowe and Wendy Barrie. Directed by Leslie Goodwins, it is based on a story by John Twist about the challenges of aircraft development and the dangers of test piloting in the period before World War II.
The Magnificent Fraud is a 1939 American crime film directed by Robert Florey and starring Akim Tamiroff, Lloyd Nolan, Mary Boland and Patricia Morison.
The Truth is a 1988 Hong Kong trial film directed by Taylor Wong and starring Andy Lau and Deanie Ip. This film is a sequel to the 1985 film The Unwritten Law. It is followed by another sequel, The Truth Final Episode, which was released the following year and is the last film of the film series.
Paris Honeymoon is a 1939 American musical film directed by Frank Tuttle and written by Frank Butler and Don Hartman. The film stars Bing Crosby, Franciska Gaal, Akim Tamiroff, Shirley Ross, Edward Everett Horton and Ben Blue. Filming took place in Hollywood from May 23 to July 1938 and the film was released on January 27, 1939, by Paramount Pictures.
The Way of All Flesh is a 1940 American drama film directed by Louis King and written by Lenore J. Coffee. The film stars Akim Tamiroff, Gladys George, William "Bill" Henry, Muriel Angelus, Berton Churchill and Roger Imhof. It was released on July 5, 1940 by Paramount Pictures.
Speed of Life is a 2016 Hong Kong police procedural television drama created and produced by TVB, starring Kenny Wong, Benjamin Yuen, Natalie Tong and Sisley Choi as the main leads. Filming took place from October 2014 till January 2015 on location in Hong Kong. The drama premiered January 18, 2016 on Hong Kong's Jade and HD Jade channels, airing Monday through Sunday during its 9:30-10:30 pm timeslot, concluding February 7, 2016 with a total of 20 episodes.
On the Spot is a 1930 Chicago-set play by the British writer Edgar Wallace. Wallace was inspired by a visit to the United States and, in particular, the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. Known as a prolific author, he reportedly dictated the manuscript for the play in just four days. It was his greatest theatrical success.