Where Danger Lives (1950)

A young doctor (Robert Mitchum) seems to have everything to look forward to including a promising career and a lovely fiancee (Maureen O'Sullivan). Then he meets a suicidal patient (Faith Domergue), falls head over heels and a ticket to Hell. This tightly drawn piece of deviltry takes the basic noir plot and director John Farrow, ably abetted by the great cinematographer Nicholas Musuraca (CAT PEOPLE), and turns it into a nightmarish ordeal for both its naive protagonist and the viewer. The screenplay by Charles Bennett plays out like a darker, more twisted version of the "couple on the run" scripts he turned out for Hitchcock like THE 39 STEPS and YOUNG AND INNOCENT. Mitchum plays against type, not the tough guy here but an upstanding everyday Joe who finds himself overwhelmed by a psychotic seductress. Domergue might have been Howard Hughes' latest protegee but she's really very good here, attractive but edgy and dangerous. With Claude Rains who makes the most of his brief role, Jack Kelly, Ray Teal, Sherry Jackson and Jack Kruschen.