Slightly Dangerous (1943)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Wesley Ruggles

Writers:

Ian McLellan Hunter (story) and
Aileen Hamilton (story) ...

Release Date:

April 1943 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Peggy is 21 and bored. She has just been awarded a certificate for starting work on time for 1000 days...

Plot Keywords:

Accident | Amnesia | New York | Beautiful Woman | Employment Dismissal

Cast

Lana Turner	...	Peggy Evans aka Carol Burden
Robert Young	...	Bob Stuart
Walter Brennan	...	Cornelius Burden
Dame May Whitty	...	Baba
Eugene Pallette	...	Durstin
Alan Mowbray	...	English Gentleman
Florence Bates	...	Mrs. Amanda Roanoke-Brooke
Howard Freeman	...	Mr. Quill
Millard Mitchell	...	Baldwin
Ward Bond	...	Jimmy
Pamela Blake	...	Mitzi
Ray Collins	...	Snodgrass
Paul Stanton	...	Stanhope
O.K. Ford	...	Music Lover

Also Known As:

Careless (USA) (working title)
Careless Cinderella (USA) (working title)
Nothing Ventured (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #9030) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Australia:G

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

Lana Turner reprised her role the same year on a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast alongside Victor Mature.

Quotes:

Bob Stuart: Well, uh, you see, she had amnesia when I met her. What's more, it recurred, you know, kept happening on and off. Why once I came home late at night. I got into bed, kissed her and she gave me a friendly smile and then said, "Who are you?" It was the friendly smile that burned me up.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Lana Turner... a Daughter's Memoir (2001) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Brunnhilde's Battle Cry

Anastasia Turner

Slightly Dangerous finds Lana Turner bored with life in small town Hotchkiss Falls and bored with her job as a soda jerk in a department store. She even does her job making a banana split blindfolded to the amusement of the customer, but new general manager Robert Young finds he's not amused. She's fired, but then so is he after she leaves a fake suicide note saying she's throwing herself in the river.

Instead she goes to New York and when she's hit by a falling ladder after she's heard talking to herself when she comes to, everyone thinks she's got amnesia. Instead using that she decides to become the long lost daughter of millionaire Walter Brennan who was lost at the age of 2 by nanny Dame May Witty while going to the circus.

It's interesting that none of the previous reviewers noted that this a reworking of the Anastasia legend. But that's a serious story involving a plot to deliberately defraud the exiled Romanovs.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I find a comedy based on a premise of fraud and extortion not all that funny. Yet even with a lousy starting point, Slightly Dangerous does holdup somewhat because of the incredible cast of name performers in this film like Ray Collins, Ward Bond, Eugene Palette, and Alan Mowbray besides those already mentioned.

And there's Lana Turner who just has to be Lana Turner to get me viewing a film. She's got that winsome quality throughout her films in the Forties that men and women found so appealing.

Anyway with a cast like this, chances are you'll find something enjoyable about Slightly Dangerous.