"Channel 65.3 presents... Miserable, Miserable Movie!"The only "dangerous crossing" is from the sidewalk into the theater. (Don't do it!) It must not have occurred to Fox that if you wanted to get people back into the theaters, you should make good movies. This isn't one of them."Dangerous Crossing" is based on a radio play by the popular mystery writer John Dickson Carr, and was probably made for no better reason than to help amortize the "Titanic" sets.The script is lame and amateurish, with dialog suggesting a first draft from people who've never written a screenplay. As clichéd as it is, it never gets really bad enough to evoke laughter until the last ten minutes.The plot -- such as it is -- is so contrived that it's not merely implausible, but beyond unbelievable.The acting never rises above the competent, but even a "just competent" Michael Rennie adds a touch of class. Jeanne Crain has never impressed me; here she oscillates between scared/upset and faux-slutty.Joseph Newman was a strictly journeyman director. * His direction is largely perfunctory. He makes no effort to build and maintain the sense of paranoia needed, and he even includes voice-overs from the radio play for Ms Craine, so we know exactly what she's thinking. No one bothered to tell the writer that this was a movie, where you can actually //see// the actors, the better ones of which are capable of conveying emotion without dialog.This is a model film -- of how not to write, how not to act, and how not to direct. Anyone considering a career in the motion picture industry should view it, simply as an object lesson.* If it weren't for "This Island Earth", he would likely be forgotten.

"Dangerous Crossing" is based on a story (actually a radio play) by John Dickson Carr, the master of the locked room mystery. But there's no locked room and the mystery is more in the vein of Cornell Woolrich, arguably the "father" of film noir. As in some of Woolrich's best tales, the story begins with a sudden twist of fate. Moments after Jeanne Crain as a new bride boards a luxury liner on her honeymoon, the groom vanishes. No one has seen him. Their stateroom is listed as unoccupied. Even Michael Rennie as the sympathetic ship's doctor (who's clearly smitten by her) suspects that her missing husband is a figment of her imagination. Still, there are some very odd people skulking the boat's fog-shrouded decks -- and when the answer comes, it's ingenious. Thankfully, the movie was made in the early 1950s so there was no problem bringing it in at a swift 75 minutes. Today, it would be padded out to the requisite two hours and the suspense would escape like air from a punctured tire. Credit Joseph Newman with smart direction (including an opening dockside scene worthy of Michael Curtiz,) making maximum use of the sets Fox built to serve as the Titanic. In short, a thoroughly entertaining grade B thriller.

Click on the DVD special features and you'll learn a few interesting things about 'Dangerous Crossing'. First off, it only took 19 days to film; and it cost about $500,000 which was less than half of what Twentieth Century Fox was paying for their 'A' blockbusters such as 'Titanic', which also was released around the same time in 1953. Speaking of 'Titanic', a good number of the sets from that film were used in 'Crossing' along with a pool set from 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes', another 'A' feature, also released in 1953. By using the sets from those other more expensive films, this was a big reason why the producers of 'Dangerous Crossing' were able to have the film made on the cheap as well as shoot it on such a short schedule.'Dangerous Crossing' is a taut, little mystery with an ocean cruise as its setting. Jeanne Crain plays Ruth Stanton Bowman who just got married a day before and is off on her honeymoon with John Bowman (played by Carl Betz, known for his stint on TV's 'Donna Reed Show' a few years later). Once the couple boards the ship and settles into their cabin, the story takes a real spooky twist, reminiscent of a Twilight Zone episode. John disappears and the crew has no record of him being on the passenger manifest. Ruth starts to panic and the ship's captain orders the ship's physician, Paul Manning (played by the erudite Michael Rennie), to basically keep tabs on her. It appears that Ruth is off her rocker but the captain goes by the book and orders a search of the ship with negative results.The tension in the plot keeps rising as Ruth receives a mysterious call from John who warns her that both of them are in great danger and he'll have to contact her later. The call makes Ruth even more frantic as she basically begins running around the ship conducting her own investigation. At a certain point, Ruth realizes that if she continues to act hysterically and fails to contain her anger, the doctor will be forced by the captain to confine her to her quarters. So she begins pretending that her story about coming on board with her husband, is simply a figment of her imagination (an idea suggested to her by Dr. Manning).Ruth's paranoia is exacerbated when she encounters various fellow passengers and crew members all who seem quite menacing in her eyes. One passenger in particular sends her into a tailspin and that's this older German gentleman who walks with a limp and carries a cane. Of course he's just there (like most of the other crew and passengers) to throw the audience off the scent.After Dr. Manning shows Ruth a telegram from the Bureau of Investigation on the mainland that her personal physician and housekeeper know nothing about her getting married, Ruth confesses that she kept the marriage a secret. It seems she had a reason to fear someone might be after her and her new husband: right before her father died, he left her the family business—cutting out the father's half-brother who threatened the father in the event that he planned to disinherit him.Ruth experiences her 'dark moment the soul' when she encounters John on the deck and he runs away from her. In an excellent scene, she runs into the dining room and in a fit of paranoia, faints after she believes the crew members are all coming after her. The ship's captain immediately confines her to her quarters and her fears of being branded a lunatic have come true. Soon we learn that she hasn't been crazy after all. In the climactic scene, one of the ship's officers (who has been feigning illness and has been on sick leave) turns out to have impersonated Ruth's husband. Since Ruth has been confined to quarters and the ship will dock the next day, 'Bowman' attempts to strangle Ruth and throw her overboard, to make it look like she committed suicide. Manning intercepts Ruth's would-be killer and he ends up getting caught in a rope and falls overboard.Up until the ending, 'Dangerous Crossing' is a highly entertaining mystery which keeps the audience continually guessing as to the outcome. The outcome however has one main problem. If 'Bowman' had been successful, he couldn't have claimed Ruth's inheritance since it would have shed light on his whole plot to kill her. It appears that 'Bowman' was really working with Ruth's father's half-brother who probably had paid 'Bowman' to do Ruth in. So it would have been much better if 'Bowman' mentioned this to Ruth as he's about to strangle her—he could have said something to the effect, 'Remember that uncle of yours—well, he and I had a little deal. Now, I hope you finally get it." Most of the performances in 'Dangerous Crossing' are quite good but I did feel Jeanne Crain could have kept some of those histrionics under wrap. I'm referring especially to all those fainting spells every time she ends up receiving some kind of bad news. Also I found Dr. Manning to be remarkably patient (as well as Captain Peters) in dealing with the oftentimes hysterical Ruth. I know the staff of a cruise ship must be patient and courteous to the passengers, but would crew members today be as patient with someone like Ruth, who had a continual problem in controlling her anger? 'Dangerous Crossing' is a surprisingly well-made 'B' film noir. Particularly impressive is the cinematography in which a multitude of close-ups are utilized to a most efficacious effect.

This story starts off with a newly married couple who are going on a cruise liner and Ruth Stanton Bowman, (Jeanne Crain) is the bride who is very happy until her husband disappears and there is no record of him being aboard the ship. This horrible news to the bride caused her to go crazy driving the entire crew to go around in circles to try and help Ruth. There is a haunting sound of a ship's fog horn going on constantly giving the film a very mysterious effect. Michael Rennie and Jeanne Crain gave outstanding performances along with many other famous veteran actors. You will have a hard time trying to figure out how the film will end, except the Fog Horns finally stopped.