Dangerous to Know *** (1938, Akim Tamiroff, Anna May Wong, Gail Patrick, Lloyd Nolan, Harvey Stephens, Anthony Quinn) – Classic Movie Review 12,442

‘No woman ever survived his love!’ Paramount’s likeable and entertaining 1938 crime thriller film Dangerous to Know is based on Edgar Wallace’s play On the Spot, and stars Akim Tamiroff, Anna May Wong and Gail Patrick

‘No woman ever survived his love!’

Director Robert Florey’s 1938 Paramount Pictures black and white crime thriller film Dangerous to Know is based on Edgar Wallace’s play On the Spot, and stars Akim Tamiroff, Anna May Wong, Gail Patrick, Lloyd Nolan, Harvey Stephens, and Anthony Quinn.

Akim Tamiroff plays Chicago crook/ racketeer Stephen ‘Steve’ Recka, who learns ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’ when his Oriental mistress Madame Lan Ying (Anna May Wong) finds out he wants to marry posh socialite lady Margaret Van Kase (Gail Patrick).

Recka is also in a fury when he finds Margaret plans to wed penniless bond salesman Philip Easton (Harvey Stephens) and sets him up as a runaway thief when he is carrying a large assignment of bonds. Recka offers to clear Easton if Margaret will become his bride and that’s where Lan Ying comes in.

This commendably tight and likeable reworking of Edgar Wallace’s play On the Spot, inspired by the career of Al Capone, is given credence by the exuberant performances, particularly by Tamiroff and Wong, and by Robert Florey’s zesty handling.

Dangerous to Know is an entertaining B-movie but, amusing and effective though Tamiroff is, it would have been good to see Charles Laughton recreating his 1930 stage role.

The cast are Anna May Wong as Madame Lan Ying, Akim Tamiroff as Stephen Recka, Gail Patrick as Margaret Van Case, Lloyd Nolan as Inspector Brandon, Harvey Stephens as Phillip Easton, Anthony Quinn as Nicky Kusnoff, Roscoe Karns as Duncan, Porter Hall as Mayor Bradley, Barlowe Borland as Butler, Hedda Hopper as Mrs Carson, Hugh Sothern as Harvey Gregson, Edward Pawley as John Rance, Eddie Marr as Crouch, Harry Worth as Hanley, Robert Brister as Councilman Murkil, Pierre Watkin as Senator Carson, Garry Owen, John Hart, Stanley Blystone, Rita LaRoy, Hugh Sothern, Ellen Drew, Lynn Bailey, Grace Benham, Wade Botelier, Donald Brian, Harvey Clark, Gino Corrado, Sheila Darcy, Estelle Eterre, Perry Ivins, Evelyn Keyes, Jack Knoche, Andre Marsaudon, Joyce Matthews, Frank Melton, Ivan Miller, Hatty Myers, Rudolf Myzet, David Newell, Carol Parker, Margaret Randall, Suzanne Ridgeway, Cyril Ring, Ruth Rogers, Larry Steers, and Blanca Visher.

Dangerous to Know is directed by Robert Florey, runs 70 minutes, is made and released by Paramount Pictures, is written by William R Lipman and Horace McCoy, based on Edgar Wallace’s play On the Spot, is shot in black and white by Theodor Sparkuhl, is scored by John Leipold and Frederick Hollander, and is designed by Hans Dreier and John B Goodman.

The 1930 Chicago-set play On the Spot by British writer Edgar Wallace was inspired by his visit to the US and also by the Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre. He dictated the play manuscript in only four days and it became his greatest theatrical success.

It ran for 342 performances in London’s West End, where the lead role of a Capone-like gangster Tony Perelli was played by Charles Laughton, with Emlyn Williams as his henchman and Gillian Lind as Perelli’s Chinese mistress. It transferred to the US on October 29, 1930 and ran for 167 performances at the Forrest Theatre in New York. Anna May Wong starred and reprises her role in the film.

In 1931, Wallace novelised the play using the same title.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,442

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