HUBERT CORNFIELD'S FILM NOIR PROGRAMMER 'SUDDEN DANGER'

Title: Sudden Danger Year: 1955 Rating: ***1/2

All of Film Noir turned Neo Noir director Hubert Cornfield's thrillers start out with an illegal act followed by the characters dealing with the consequences... 

And this, being his first picture, marks the biggest difference in that it's a partial mystery... especially since you just know blind Tom Drake can't afford a cure... until his mother's apparent suicide provides him the exact amount for a top surgeon... isn't what the badgering cop Bill Elliott (the second of five movies) thinks he is: guilty of murder...

Let's forget the men: the best character is also the prettiest, and there are two contrasting dames including the outright bombshell Helene Stanton, oblivious moll of a sneaky rich guy... But it's Beverly Garland as the blind man's faithful girl-next-door girlfriend who steals the show, particularly in scenes where the cop, trying to wear her down while learning she's not as weak as she seems, gets worn out in the process, thus making SUDDEN DANGER stand above the typical poverty row programmer that, like our blind Wrong Man, deserves another look. 

Good girl Beverly Garland in SUDDEN DANGER

Semi bad girl Helene Stanton with wrong man Tom Drake in Sudden Danger

Tom Drake and Bill Elliott in SUDDEN DANGER

Sudden Danger title card with Allied Artists logo SUDDEN DANGER

Director Hubert Cornfield gets his due for SUDDEN DANGER

Some Foreign Poster artwork for SUDDEN DEATH