Dangerous to Know

1938

Crime / Drama

3
IMDb Rating 6.4/10 10 337 337

suicide gangster handcuffs ambition birthday party murder

Plot summary

Racketeer Steve Recka, art patron and political power-maker, rules his town and Madame Lan Ying, his beautiful friend and hostess (read:mistress), with an iron hand. He meets Margaret Van Kase, a socialite not impressed by his power nor his wealth, having no money herself, and Steve makes frantic efforts to win her and turns away from the loyal Lin Yang.

Director

Robert Florey Photo
Robert Florey

Top cast

Pierre Watkin Photo
Pierre Watkin as Sen. Carson
Harry Myers Photo
Harry Myers as Guest at Party
Evelyn Keyes Photo
Evelyn Keyes as Undetermined Secondary Role
Ellen Drew Photo
Ellen Drew as Secretary
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
645.82 MB
1280*972
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 10 min
Seeds 1
1.17 GB
1422*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
24 fps
1 hr 10 min
Seeds 1

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by searchanddestroy-1

A film noir without any gunshots....

For me, this not a real, genuine, authentic film noir. A noir drama, yes, involving gangsters yes, but not a rough, tough crime drama as Robert Florey and Louis King used us to in the late thirties and early forties, starring Anthony Quinn, Lloyd Nolan, J Caroll Naish and Akim Tamiroff. Fast paced gangsters yarns for Paramount Pictures or Warner Bros. This one is excellent, but it is a romance, well acted and not long at all. Akim Tamiroff is awesome in a predictable scheme and character, and Tony Quinn as the stupid goon too. This is not my favourite, among the batch of those B movies directed by Bob Florey and Louis King, but it is good, saving a terrific twist, ironic ending.
Reviewed by JohnHowardReid 4 / 10

Disappointing Florey-Wallace-Wong

I had high expectations for Dangerous To Know (released 11 March 1938). With a screenplay co-written by Horace McCoy, based on an Edgar Wallace play, and directed by the usually reliable Robert Florey, I anticipated a real treat. Unfortunately, the writers have obviously built up the central role, here played by hammily over-accented Akim Tamiroff. Worse still, Florey has chosen to set this "B" movie up as a TV drama, persistently using a staggering number of close-ups to little effect. A close-up is even squandered on Hedda Hopper, would you believe? This procedure would be more tolerable if Ted Sparkuhl's photography shone with velvety noir lighting. Alas, Sparkuhl supplies little atmosphere and doesn't flatter the players at all. Villainous Akim Tamiroff doesn't look like a ruthless gangster so much as a comically dwarfish little man with an expensive but highly incompetent tailor, while the normally super-exotic Miss Wong appears as neither a sinuous nor beautiful siren, but is presented rather as if she were portraying a bland, moderately articulate, but disinterested dress-shop manageress in a second-class neighborhood. The only player to emerge with any real credit from this premature TV drama is Tamiroff's chief henchman, Anthony Quinn (whose part is fortunately much larger than his bottom-of-the-bill credit might indicate). Quinn at least bristles with a reasonable amount of charisma, but still manages the difficult feat of portraying a savvy lieutenant whom the script requires to be both cunningly useful yet on the dumb side of bright.
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