The Threat

Director Felix Feist and his attack dog Charles McGraw maintain 66 minutes of constant tension in The Threat, a fugitive noir in which Arnold “Red” Kruger (McGraw) escapes from Folsom Prison, kidnaps the detective (Michael O’Shea) and district attorney (Frank Conroy) who sent him there, and holes up in a sweltering mountain cabin until a plane arrives so he can skip the country. Two other hostages are along for the ride: nightclub singer Carol (Virginia Grey), who Red believes ratted on him to the police, and unsuspecting truck driver Joe Turner (Don McGuire), who’s been forced to haul the whole gang to their destination. McGraw’s plotting, volatile persona carries the film (note the menace he can project simply while drinking a beer in a rocking chair) and Feist provides a full plate of suspense (the border patrol, the filling station inspection) and violence (multiple rounds in the gut, pinning a man to the ground and smashing a chair over his head).