Where Danger Lives

“When we’re not together, I feel like I’m suspended in midair with nothing underneath but the end of the world.” Despite this line coming from a suicidal maniac who just pretended her husband was her father, Dr. Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) proceeds to run away with her. (Mitchum characters tend to like the crazy ladies.) The sultry, doe-eyed Faith Domergue plays the unstable Margo, whose much older and jealous husband Frederick (Claude Rains) assaults both Margo and Cameron through particularly brutal means — yanking her earring, swinging a fireplace poker — but ultimately ends up dead. Cameron suffers a concussion in the melee (Mitchum appears to have fun performing his intricately choreographed fade-out on the staircase) and foggily agrees to head south of the border with Margo to escape prosecution. This is where the film’s middle section establishes an extraordinary blend of noir and almost screwball comedy: the small Arizona town where Cameron is arrested for having a clean-shaven face and then forced into marrying Margo feels like it might be a dream in Cameron’s concussed mind, but it’s not. Where Danger Lives is imperfect, but it’s a fun ride.