Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

MartinHafer Margaret Lockwood plays an expert entomologist who is approached by her government and asked to do a bit of spying. Apparently, an unfriendly nation (you assume it's in the Communist Bloc) might be working on some horrible biological warfare delivery system and they need an expert to check it out first hand. Now here is the first part that doesn't make much sense--they give this ordinary woman no training and just toss her into the country! How anyone expected her to succeed is beyond me. Not surprisingly, she's eventually caught and interrogated. They even use some sort of truth serum on her. Now here is where the odd twist occurs--the interrogation actually HELPS her, as she begins to believe she is a character from a radio spy program. Once she's released (because she gave them no information), she's told she has 24 hours to leave the nation--and she springs into action like a super-spy. Along for the ride is a confused American correspondent (Dane Clark). How it all comes out is something you'll just need to see for yourself.While I have noticed that many didn't care for the film, it isn't because the idea couldn't be worked out well. No, the problem is the pacing--which is dreadfully slow. Additionally, the film could have used an injection of humor and energy. Now this DID occur decades later, when the story idea was reworked into the delightful comedy "American Dreamer" (with JoBeth Williams)...now THAT'S a film worth seeing. Otherwise, "Highly Dangerous" is a slow time-passer that should have been so much better. After all, it IS an espionage film and that should be very interesting.

Spikeopath Well the plot entails that an Iron Curtain country is developing insects to use as weapons should the need arise. The British Intelligence Division enlists sweet entomologist Frances Gray to meet up with an agent over the boarder and thus bring back some samples. However things don't go according to plan, and she's forced to rely on the help of newspaper writer Bill Casey to not only get the samples, but to escape the country alive!.The premise, tho oddly appealing, isn't executed with any great conviction. Margaret Lockwood, Dane Clark and Marius Goring are not bad exactly, in fact Clark steals the picture, they just work in motion with the staid nature of the script, and sadly it's one of those films that one cheers when the ending comes, but not as a high point in the picture, more out of relief that it's over. In the films favour is that it is at least offering something different in the British spy caper genre, and the last quarter does contain enough drama to have made it worth your while, but only just mind. 4/10

blanche-2 Margaret Lockwood is Frances Gray, a scientist who takes on a government assignment that is "Highly Dangerous" in this 1950 film also starring Dane Clark, Wilfred Hyde-White and Marius Goring. Frances Gray works with bugs, so the government asks her to go to a country of opposing ideology and get a sample of bugs being used by them, possibly for germ warfare. At first, she says no, and then relents and travels to this unnamed country posing as a tour director checking out possible tour locations. Her cover is blown immediately by the chief of police (a heavily disguised Goring) who is on the train with her, and shortly afterward, her contact is killed, and she is arrested, drugged and questioned. The head of the British consulate, tipped off by a newspaper reporter she met previously (Clark) secures her release.The film starts out as a drama, but the mood lightens once she's out of prison. Under the influence of the drug she's been given, she plots a way to get into the lab based not on reality but on the antics of a radio spy on a program her nephew likes. The reporter knows it won't work, but when the first part of it actually does, he goes along.Margaret Lockwood went through several phases during her career - this was her mid period, after the ingénue of "The Lady Vanishes" and before the older woman in "Cast a Dark Shadow." She does a good job and looks very attractive. The stronger role was Clark's - he was being groomed as another John Garfield but never quite got there - he's very good, handling both the dramatic and the comic aspects well. Goring is a far cry from Victoria's husband in "The Red Shoes" -this seems an odd role for him, but he's excellent.An odd film but, if taken for what it is, a good one.

bob the moo Frances Gray is a quiet and unassuming woman who also happens to be one of the top entomologists in the country. It is this that brings her to the attention of the Government, who are looking for some way of spying on a country in Eastern Europe and ascertaining rumours about a plot to wage germ warfare using insects as the carriers. Gray reluctantly accepts the task as a way of adding excitement to her life and soon finds herself in a country where she doesn't speak the language, sticks out like a sore thumb and isn't sure what she is doing.After the first few minutes I had managed to stop snickering at the idea of Margaret Lockwood being the top entomologist in the UK and tried to get into the plot. Sadly the casting makes about the same amount of sense as the actual plot does and it never really flows or engages – when the action starts, it only comes as a result of a contrived twist about radio thrillers and some sort of hypnosis. It says something that this twist actually improves the film, but it is still only serviceable and never got to the point where I was really into it. The plot doesn't make a great deal of sense and it comes across as Highly Dull as opposed to Highly Dangerous.The cast is strange. Lockwood is stiff but quite alluring but she overdoes the "innocent abroad" way too much and she doesn't develop much smarts along the way. If you think she is unconvincing as an entomologist then wait to see how unconvincing a spy she makes! Dane Clark is OK but feels like he is a marketing tool more than a smart bit of casting. He is likable and a better lead than Lockwood but he doesn't have much to do in terms of the actual plot. Goring is OK hamming it up behind a big mustache and cigar but he has too little screen time; support is good from reliables Hyde-White and Wayne.Overall this is a very thin affair that will just about do if you are looking for something to laze in front of on a Saturday afternoon but god help you if you need more than that. The plot is uninspiring and doesn't make a lot of sense or ever really engaged me, relying on a silly twist to make things happen. The cast are OK but Lockwood is helpless in a flat role that is hard to get behind and the whole film is all a bit dull and certainly not as exciting as the title or subject matter suggest it could have been.