''Dangerous Mission'' is a 1954 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre. ...

starring Victor Mature, Piper Laurie,

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...

and William Bendix. The film was produced by

Irwin Allen Irwin Allen (born Irwin O. Cohen; June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was an American film and television producer and director, known for his work in science fiction, then later as the "Master of Disaster" for his work in the disaster film genr ...

, directed by

Louis King Louis King (June 28, 1898 – September 7, 1962) was an American actor and film director of westerns and adventure movies in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Early years King was born in 1898 in Christiansburg, Virginia. His name was also written ...

and released by

RKO Radio Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the "Big Five" film studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Kei ...

. It is remembered today mainly for its use of

3-D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of Stereoscopy#3D viewers, special glasses worn by viewers. 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in Amer ...

technology.

Plot

Louise Graham witnesses the murder of a New York City crime boss and flees the East to hide out in Glacier National Park, on the Montana-Canadian border. She is trailed there by two men, Matt Hallett and Paul Adams, one of whom is a federal agent charged with protecting her, the other a ruthless New York hit man who's been paid to silence her. A subplot involves a Blackfeet Indian girl, Mary Tiller, a brilliant award-winning scholar whose overriding worries center on her father, Katoonai, a fugitive from the White man's justice. However, Glacier Park's chief of rangers, Joe Parker, believes he is innocent. Mary has another problem. She's unknowingly fallen in love with the aforementioned hit man. All plotlines weave their way to one of the park's snow-covered mountains, a dangerous terrain where two of these characters meet their fate.

Cast

* Victor Mature as Matt Hallett * Piper Laurie as Louise Graham * William Bendix as Chief Ranger Joe Parker *

as Paul Adams * Betta St. John as Mary Tiller *

Dennis Weaver Billy Dennis Weaver (June 4, 1924 – February 24, 2006) was an American actor and president of the Screen Actors Guild, best known for his work in television and films from the early 1950s until just before his death in 2006. Weaver's two most ...

as The Ranger Clerk * Harry Cheshire as Mr. Elster * Steve Darrell as Katoonai Tiller *

Walter Reed Walter Reed (September 13, 1851 – November 23, 1902) was a United States Army, U.S. Army physician who in 1901 led the team that confirmed the theory of Cuban doctor Carlos Finlay that yellow fever is transmitted by a particular mosquito ...

as Ranger Dobson * Marlo Dwyer as Mrs. Elster

Production

The film was also known as ''Glacier'' and ''Rangers of the North''. Filming began in July 1953. The film is set in Glacier National Park,

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

and was largely filmed there.

Reception

Critical response

In a contemporary review for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', critic

Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though some ...

called the film "unnatural, uninteresting and drab" and wrote: "Since our great national parks are open to virtually anyone who cares to visit them, there probably is no way of preventing their occasionally being exploited and abused. And that is most certainly what has happened to Glacier Park in the R. K. O. film ... company of Hollywood people has the cheek to play a tale that hasn't the vitality or intelligence of a good comic-strip episode. It is a miserably dull and mixed-up fable about a hunt for a missing witness to a crime, with Vincent Price eventually emerging as some sort of villain, which is obvious all along." More recently, critic Dennis Schwartz has also reviewed the film negatively, writing: "An action movie made for 3D that starts off looking like a real corker but winds up looking as stale as month-old bread. Director Louis King ('' Frenchie''/''

Green Grass of Wyoming ''Green Grass of Wyoming'' is a 1948 American Western film directed by Louis King and starring Peggy Cummins, Charles Coburn and Robert Arthur. The screenplay, written by Martin Berkeley, is based on the third book in the popular, "My Friend ...

'') never steers it away from its awkwardness. Despite a fine cast (unfortunately they all give corpse-like performances), capable screenwriters Charles Bennett and W.R. Burnett, and veteran story writers Horace McCoy and James Edmiston, the film is at best bearable ... William Bendix plays a blustery park ranger chief who knew Mature from their days as marines. His mission, in this film, is to put out a

forest fire A wildfire, forest fire, or a bushfire is an unplanned and uncontrolled fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identified as a bushfire ( in Australia), dese ...

that has nothing to do with the plot, but looks swell on 3D. The film is noteworthy for the clumsy job Gene Palmer turned in as editor."Schwartz, Dennis
''"Ozus' World Movie Reviews'', film review, August 10, 2007. Last accessed: December 1, 2013.

References

External links

* * * * {{Irwin Allen 1954 films 1950s action thriller films 1954 3D films American action thriller films American 3D films Color film noir 1950s English-language films Films scored by Roy Webb Films produced by Irwin Allen Films set in Montana Films shot in Montana RKO Pictures films Films directed by Louis King 1950s American films English-language action thriller films