Dangerous Cargo *** (1954, Jack Watling, Susan Stephen, Karel Stepanek, Terence Alexander) – Classic Movie Review 13,261

The likeable 1954 British second feature crime thriller film Dangerous Cargo is inspired by an attempted robbery at Heathrow Airport in 1952, and stars Jack Watling, Susan Stephen, Karel Stepanek, and Terence Alexander. 

‘This operation tonight will be remembered for all time as the most daring in the history of crime.’: crime kingpin Pliny (Karel Stepanek).

Director John Harlow’s likeable and entertaining 1954 British black and white second feature crime thriller film Dangerous Cargo stars Jack Watling, Susan Stephen, Karel Stepanek, and Terence Alexander.

Jack Watling plays a London airport security guard officer Tim Matthews, who is tricked by his dodgy ex-wartime buddy Harry (Terence Alexander), whose boss is nasty crime kingpin Pliny (Karel Stepanek), into getting into a large dog race gambling debt and spilling the beans of the date and location on an upcoming shipment of gold bullion delivery at the airport so he and his gang can steal it.

But Alexander and Stepanek have reckoned without the wiles of Watling’s canny wife Janie (Susan Stephen), who sets out to save her husband by telling the police, who, persuaded of Watling’s honesty, let the robbery go ahead to try to catch the crooks red-handed.

This predictable, rather creaky but busy and diverting little thriller gets a boost from its fast pace and short running time, as well as from the sprightly acting of the lead actors and its nifty supporting players. At the centre of it, Jack Watling and Susan Stephen are excellent together as the couple ensnared into trouble but surviving through their love for, and commitment to each other. Watling is a very convincing all-too-nice guy hero, easily exploited despite, or maybe because of, his honesty and good nature.

Richard Pearson is good as Watling’s loyal buddy and co-worker Noel, Terence Alexander is splendidly shifty as the disloyal Harry, an unmarried man with a dodgy moustache, John Le Mesurier is struggling with his ‘foreign’ accent and mannerisms as Pliny’s henchman Luigi, and Ballard Berkeley has a nice lot to do as kindly head of airport security Findley.

Note also especially in the cast John Longden as head copper Worthington, Arthur Rigby cast against type as menacing bad guy Feathers, Genine Graham as Harry’s dame Diana, and Arthur Mullard (very briefly) as one of the undercover policemen.

Time has given the film an extra layer of allure, and it certainly has plenty of points of nostalgia interest as an okay example of a typical Brit B crime film of its era. Note also that the two main villains are ‘foreign’, and the third one a local turncoat. All the other locals are true Brits, paragons of honesty. Note also that Susan Stephen’s character doesn’t trust a man of a certain age who isn’t married. The film has a full cargo of suspicion of ‘otherness’.

The story is inspired by the real events of the attempted robbery at London Airport [Heathrow Airport] in 1952 and written by Daily Express crime reporter Percy Hoskins, so the backgrounds must be true and the incidents convincing, while the screenplay by the film’s producer Stanley Haynes is workmanlike.

It is made by ACT Films [Association of Cinematograph Technicians] for release by Monarch Film Corporation for ACT Films.

The cast are Jack Watling as Tim Matthews, Susan Stephen as Janie Matthews, Karel Stepanek as Pliny, Richard Pearson as Noel, Terence Alexander as Harry, John Le Mesurier as Luigi, Ballard Berkeley as Findley, Genine Graham as Diana, John Longden as Worthington, Trevor Reid as Watson, Arthur Rigby as Feathers, John H Watson as Tomkins, Tom Clegg as thug, Jim Morris as thug, Tom Bowman as Undercover Policeman and Arthur Mullard as Undercover Policeman.

Dangerous Cargo is directed by John Harlow, runs 62 minutes, is made by ACT Films [Association of Cinematograph Technicians], is released by Monarch Film Corporation, is written by Stanley Haynes, is shot in black and white by Lionel Banes, is produced by Stanley Haynes, and is designed by Don Russell.

Stock music is used, some of it not especially appropriate, and there is no music credit.

It is shot at Walton Studios, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England.

Release date: 21 June 1954.

This is set at a London airport, though there is plenty of sign of BOAC logos around the place. Heathrow Airport was called London Airport until 1966.

Susan Stephen (16 July 1931 – 21 April 2000)

Susan Stephen appeared in more than 20 films including The Red Beret (1953), The House Across the Lake (1954), For Better, for Worse (1954), Pacific Destiny (1956) and Carry On Nurse (1959).

She was married for to Nicolas Roeg from 1957 to 1977, and they had four sons: Luc, Waldo, Sholto and Nico. In the 1960s she concentrated on her family and her last role was in the 1962 comedy Three Spare Wives.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 13,261

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