Dangerously They Live (Warner Bros.) (1941)

PUBLICITY—‘DANGEROUSLY THEY LIVE’ TIMELY NEW DRAMA TODAY AT STRAND Today’s new picture at the Strand Theatre is ‘Dangerously They Live,” starring John Garfield, Nancy Coleman and Raymond Massey in a story that fully lives up to its exciting title. The thrill-packed film tells about the extraordinary adventures of a pair of everyday young Americans who defy danger to track down Uncle Sam’s secret enemies. Besides the three starring players the cast includes such notables as Moroni Olsen, Lee Patrick, Esther Dale, Ben Welden and many others. “Dangerously They Live” tells the story of a pair of young Americans who foil the plot of an enemy spy ring and thus save a whole fleet of ships bound for Britain, from destruction by enemy submarines. The girl, who is employed by a British export company, is kidnapped by the spy ring, but is injured in a traffic accident. Taken to a hospital, she confides her plight to the interne who is taking care of her, and persuades him to help her. When a man appears and claims her as his daughter, she agrees to go home with him, knowing that it is the only way she can find out about the workings of the spy ring. The interne goes with her, and the two find themselves virtual prisoners on a big country estate. Various attempts are made to get the girl to give them the information they want. She does so at last, but gives them false information, even though she knows it will cost her life. The interne makes a daring escape from his captors, comes to her rescue, and together the two of them get information to the British forces at Halifax in time to have the enemy submarine flotilla blown to bits. Garfield and Miss Coleman play the young pair, Raymond Massey and Moroni Olsen, the leaders of the spy ring. Robert Florey directed the production, from the screenplay by Marion Parsonnet. ‘Dangerously They Live’ Is Thrill-Packed Action Hit (Prepared Review) As timely as the headlines on the pages of this newspaper is the completely absorbing drama which opened yesterday at the Strand Theatre. Called “Dangerously They Live,” it tells the story of two ordinary young Americans who bravely face danger in order to save their country from its would-be backstabbers. John Garfield, Nancy Coleman and Raymond Massey are starred in the picture, Garfield and Miss Coleman as the heroic young pair, and Massey as the eminently respectable ‘“front” for a large and powerful ring of Nazi secret agents. Also featured are Moroni Olsen, Lee Patrick, Esther Dale and many other excellent players. “Dangerously They Live” has an exciting story to tell, and tells it well, making every line of dialogue, every bit of exciting action, contribute directly to the unravelling of the clever plot. Briefly, it is the attempt of a highly organized Nazi spy ring to find out exactly when and where a fleet of ships leaving this country laden with cargo for England will meet the protective convoy. The spy ring is to convey this information to a submarine flotilla which is waiting to pounce. A pretty young secretary of the British Import Bureau leaves her office, en route for Halifax where she is to convey the information about the meeting place to the British naval authorities there. She is kidnapped by the spies, but she is hurt in a traffic accident and taken to a city hospital. There she tells her story to the young interne who attends her, and he promises his help, even though he rather doubts that she is telling the truth, since she is suffering a partial amnesia. An obviously wealthy man appears at the hospital, claiming that the girl is his daughter. He takes both the girl and the interne to his big estate in the Mat 204—30c SCORE AT STRAND—Nancy Coleman and John Garfield as young Americans who risk their lives to save Uncle Sam from his secret enemies in the Strand’s new hit, country, and calls in an eminent psychiatrist to handle the girl’s case. The two young people find themselves virtual prisoners, and at last the interne begins to believe the patient’s story. He manages to escape and go for help, but when he comes back the place has been cleared out and the only person there is the pyschiatrist who seems just as surprised as they are to find everybody gone. Together he and the interne go to the District Attorney but when they get there the pyschiatrist hints that the younger doctor is a mental case, and he is put in a detention ward. Meanwhile the girl has been taken to the secret radio broadcasting station where she is forced to give up the information about the position of the British ships. She gives the wrong information, however, and later, after her young man STAR BIOGRAPHIES Mat 106—15c JOHN GARFIELD came to Hollywood via New York’s famed Group Theatre... A native New Yorker, he was born in a tenement district . . Angelo Patri’s school . . . Patri encouraged the dramatic talent he saw in the lad, loaned him the money to study for the stage, and sent him out in the world with a disdain for money and the ambition to make good as an actor... It took time and there were plenty of lean stretches in his life until he got his first real acting job ... He hasn’t stopped since. . and “Golden Boy” were his two biggest stage hits . . clarion call with trepidation and a contract which said he could go back to New York and do a play any time he wanted to. success in “Four Daughters” and his popularity has continued to mount with each new picture, he has changed little from the eager youth who starved happily for his art before success came his way . . “Dangerously They Live,” opening at the Strand Friday. . educated at . “Having Wonderful Time” . He answered Hollywood’s . Although he was an immediate Latest of Garfield’s roles is in “Dangerously They Live.”’ has come to her rescue spectacularly, she is able to radio the British air base at Halifax the exact position of the enemy submarines. The final scene shows the bombing of the sub flotilla just as it comes to the surface to look for the British ships. Performances are _ brilliant throughout. Garfield is ideally cast as the young interne, and Nancy Coleman, a recent Hollywood recruit from Broadway’s Theatre Guild, shows herself to be a richly talented young person of whom we predict you will be seeing a great deal. Raymond Massey does one of his best portrayals as the pyschiatrist who is secretly working for the enemy. Robert Florey’s direction has maintained the tingling suspense and excitement of Marion Parsonnet’s screen play. Newest Symbol of Screen Villainy In the early days of movies every heavy wore a curled mustachio and a sneer. But that’s all gone by the board. Now the cads are carrying umbrellas, the symbol of appeasement. In Warner Bros. “Dangerously They Live,” Raymond Massey and Moroni Olsen, who play two Nazi agents against whom John Garfield pits himself, both carry umbrellas. Massey and Olson are fine looking gentlemen and don’t possess a sneer between them, but those umbrellas are a lot more convincing in the year 1942 than any mustache. NANCY COLEMAN FEMME LEAD IN STRAND HIT Red-haired Nancy Coleman, all five feet six of her, is the kind of lass who makes strongminded men forget what it was they were talking about. But for all her five years of acting she had yet to play a love-scene. And that includes all the variations thereof. No one had worshipped Nancy from afar. No one had tried to woo her, to sweep her off her feet, to hold her hand, or to steal a kiss. It all started with that first play she ever did, “Susan and God,” with Gertrude Lawrence. In it she played Susan’s daughter, a gangling, adolescent child with Harold Lloyd goggles and teeth-braces that reminded people of Brooklyn Bridge. Next she played Kay in “Stage Door” during a summer spent in touring the straw hat theatre circuit. Kay, to refresh your memory, is a dream of every young actress. It’s a meaty part, that of a girl frustrated in love, in career, hungry and broke, who decides to commit suicide. But still no love scenes. Plenty of boy friends in her off-stage life, but that is not what Nancy wanted. Nancy’s very next play, in which she gave the performance that won her a Warner Bros. contract, was “Liberty Jones,” a production of New York’s famed Theatre Guild. Nancy played the title role. The play was an allegory and the yet-unkissed Nancy played Miss Liberty. As everyone is aware by now, Miss Liberty grew rich, soft and comfortable. In fact, everything happened to Miss Liberty—except love. Nancy’s loveless career was interrupted by the siren calls of Hollywood. Came the dawn of a new day for our pretty young heroine. Nancy played the leading role in John Garfield’s new picture, “Dangerously They Live,” which is currently showing at the Strand Theatre. This is a real love story in which John falls in love with Nancy and saves her from the machinations of a group of Nazi spies seeking to gain important information about convoys moving across the Atlantic. The script calls for four, count ’em, four clinches, one look of awakened love, one walk in a garden at moonlight. It also calls for Johnny to save Nancy from the gang and manfully take her into his arms. In other words “Dangerously They Live” is full of love scenes. And Garfield, her film sweetheart has had plenty of experience making love on the screen. And Nancy was willing, able, and oh, so ready. * * * NANCY COLEMAN determined five years ago that she’d be an actress, and a good one... Now, at 23, she is well on her way to the top... She has played opposite Gertrude Lawrence . .. She has played the title role in a Theatre Guild production ... She has just finished her first screen role in which she stars with John Garfield and Raymond Massey . . . It’s “Dangerously They Live,” currently showing at the Strand . . .She left her native Everett, Wash., when her father died .. . Trying to find an acting job in San Francisco, she supported herself by running a elevator in a department store ... During a lunch hour she got an N.B.C. audition and a radio job . .. When she saved $1000, she went to New York, did the rounds of the producers office until she landed the daughter role in “Susan and God” ... Her next job was the Theatre Guild’s production of “Liberty Jones”... Although the play was not a big success, Nancy was... She signed a Warner Bros. contract after the curtain rang down opening night. Mat 105—15c ie RAYMOND MASSEY is one of Hollywood’s most cosmopolitan citizens .. . Americans think of him as English .. . Englishmen think of him as American ... Actually he is a Canadian, of a Toronto family that goes back to early American stock... His most famous stage roles, “Ethan Frome” and “Abe Lincoln in Illinois” were both typically American and so was his recent movie role of John Brown in “Santa Fe Trail”... Currently, he’s portraying an enemy spy in “Dangerously They Live’ ... Massey saw active service in World Warl... While he was in Siberia with the army of occupation during the final years of the war, he organized a minstrel troupe, and although he didn’t know it at the time, started on what was to be his life’s work—acting . .. After the war he studied at Oxford for a while . .. then came several hit plays in London .,. In 1923 he came to New York to star in a Broadway play and his career has le edd since alternated between the stage and screen. IN TIMELY DRAMA—Raymond Massey and Nancy Coleman in the —< Strand’s new picture, ‘‘Dangerously They Live,’ an action-packed Mat 104—15c drama of Fifth Column activities in our country.