hyped garbage

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

A Dangerous Profession is a dull bail bonds film-noir yarn. I didn't buy what was being sold.Another reviewer stated it reminded them of "The Big Sleep" and I couldn't agree more, this film also had me dozing off like that one. Though, Raines over Bacall any day for me.

The only thing missing here is Charlie Chan showing up at the end to tell the viewer what just happened. Actually it's not all that complicated, but you do have to pay attention because there's a bit of sleight of hand with character Roy Collins (Robert Gist), who's using the alias of Max Gibney doing a money hand-off to an attorney named Dawson (David Wolfe), who winds up having nothing to do with the murder mystery. Not exactly a maguffin, but a distraction nonetheless.The early going can be a little confusing so don't get up for a cup of coffee. Eventually it's revealed that former cop turned bail bondsman Vince Kane (George Raft) once had a thing for sultry Lucy Brackett (Ella Raines), and now finds himself in a vise between his partner Joe Farley (Pat O'Brien), police lieutenant Nick Ferrone (Jim Backus), and night club owner Jerry McKay (Roland Winters). Might as well mention Lucy's husband just got nailed for securities fraud and a two year old murder rap of another cop. Claude Brackett (Bill Williams) took the easy way out getting himself knocked off by one of the guys who framed him; it's Kane's job to try and figure it all out.Ella Raines has the perfect femme fatale persona going for her in this little noir mystery but somebody goofed with her hair, looking like she just came in out of the rain. Jim Backus offers up a much harder edge to his character than one might be used to seeing, and gets tough with Kane for putting up the extra bond money for Brackett, suspecting a collusion angle with Lucy. After everything gets sorted out in the frantic finale I was left with a single but giant question mark - why would Vince hand his gun over to McKay on the way to pick up Collins/Gibney?

"A Dangerous Profession" is a decent enough film...the sort mildly entertaining stuff that George Raft made in the post-war years. It begins with Vince (Raft) working as a bail bondsman along with his partner (Pat O'Brien). Apparently Vince used to be a cop but decided to change careers. Why he wanted a change soon becomes apparently when his old girlfriend, Lucy (Ella Raines) shows up to try to bail her stupid husband out of jail. This IS a surprise...as Vince hasn't heard from her since she disappeared some time ago...nor did he know she was married...and had been when he knew her! Of course it's a surprise but Vince is a dope...so he helps her and her dopier husband. But when the husband soon is murdered, things get really, really confusing. So what's next?This is a mildly interesting film but it suffers a bit from Raft's relatively dull screen persona as well as his being a bit too trusting to be realistic. The story also becomes a bit confusing and is, if you think about it, a bit like a reworking of "Casablanca"! Odd but worth seeing if you like old film noir movies.

A murder investigation, an enigmatic woman and a man who's obsessed with her, are three typical film noir components that are featured in this movie. A lot less typical however, is the fact that the story's main protagonist is a bail bondsman who gets caught up in a mystery that's linked to a robbery, a couple of murders and a character with more than one identity. During the course of his investigation, he has to take some significant risks and as someone who's only been in the bail bonding business for a relatively short time, discovers that his new profession is considerably more dangerous than he could ever have imagined.After arresting a man called Claude Brackett (Bill Williams) who he'd been pursuing for some time, LAPD Detective Lieutenant Nick Ferrone (Jim Backus) asks his old friend and ex-cop Vince Kane (George Raft) to go with him to search the man's apartment. Kane, who's now the junior partner in a bail bonding brokerage, is surprised when he becomes aware of a familiar fragrance in one of the rooms and sees some items of ladies' clothing and footwear that he also recognises. Before he leaves, he places one of his business cards in a conspicuous position.Shortly after, Kane is visited in his office by Brackett's wife Lucy (Ella Raines) and her lawyer who want his help to raise the $25,000 that's being demanded to get Brackett released on bail. Brackett's bail had been set at a high level because, as well as being suspected of being involved in a securities robbery, it's also possible that he killed a policeman who died at the crime scene. Lucy is one of Kane's old flames who disappeared from his life without any explanation and left him devastated. She says her husband's innocent but, as she's only able to raise $4,000 is seems unlikely that Kane can help. However, when another lawyer called Matthew Dawson (David Wolfe) calls by his office the next day and offers to put up an additional sum of $12,000, Kane agrees to help out. Senior partner Joe Farley (Pat O'Brien) is angry about Kane's decision to risk so much of the business' money to get Brackett released from police custody but things soon get worse when Brackett is found murdered and Kane feels compelled to investigate the circumstances that led to his violent death.A tension that's created by Kane and Lucy's past relationship and the fact that Kane obviously still has strong feelings for her, runs right through the movie and is intensified by Lucy's confusing actions and body language. This makes Kane distrust her assertions that she doesn't still love her husband and makes him dubious about her explanations of what was taking place in her life when they originally met. Ella Raines' skill in being this mysterious in so natural a way is impressive and makes Lucy more interesting than she would otherwise have been.Kane's success in identifying the villains at the heart of the mystery (through his conversation with a cigarette girl) and the actions that he takes to bring their activities to an end are carried out quite efficiently with some extra excitement being generated by the action scenes at the end of the movie. George Raft is convincing as a tough guy and does a good job overall.This movie has a strong cast, good momentum throughout and an especially good performance by Ella Raines. Its weakest point, however, is its dialogue which isn't as sharp or as witty as this type of crime drama requires.