Dan Duryea Movies
Hissable movie heavy Dan Duryea was handsome enough as a young man to secure leading roles in the student productions at White Plains High School. He majored in English at Cornell University, but kept active in theatre, succeeding Franchot Tone as president of Cornell's Dramatic Society. Bowing to his parents' wishes, Duryea sought out a more "practical" profession upon graduation, working for the N. W. Ayer advertising agency. After suffering a mild heart attack, Duryea was advised by his doctor to leave advertising and seek out employment in something he enjoyed doing. Thus, Duryea returned to acting in summer stock, then was cast in the 1935 Broadway hit Dead End. The first of his many bad-guy roles was Bob Ford, the "dirty little coward" who shot Jesse James, in the short-lived 1938 stage play Missouri Legend. Impressed by Duryea's slimy but somehow likeable perfidy in this play, Herman Shumlin cast the young actor as the snivelling Leo Hubbard in Lillian Hellman's The Little Foxes. This 1939 Broadway production was converted into a film by Sam Goldwyn in 1941, with many members of the original cast -- including Duryea -- making their Hollywood debuts. Duryea continued playing supporting roles in films until 1945's The Woman in the Window, in which he scored as Joan Bennett's sneering "bodyguard" (that's Hollywoodese for "pimp"). Thereafter, Duryea was given star billing, occasionally in sympathetic roles (White Tie and Tails [1946], Black Angel [1946]), but most often as a heavy. From 1952 through 1955, he starred as a roguish soldier of fortune in the syndicated TV series China Smith, and also topped the cast of a theatrical-movie spin-off of sorts, World for Ransom (1954), directed by Duryea's friend Robert Aldrich. One of the actor's last worthwhile roles in a big-budget picture was as a stuffy accountant who discovers within himself inner reserves of courage in Aldrich's Flight of the Phoenix (1965). In 1968, shortly before his death from a recurring heart ailment, Duryea was cast as Eddie Jacks in 67 episodes of TV's Peyton Place. Dan Duryea was the father of actor Peter Duryea, likewise a specialist in slimy villainy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Night Passage is so similar in spirit to the successful collaborations between star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann that it comes as a surprise that this film is directed by James Nielson. Stewart plays Grant McLaine, ex-railroad employee and the level-headed brother of firebrand gunslinger The Utica Kid (Audie Murphy). When Grant is entrusted to guard a train delivering $10,000, The Kid's gang holds up the train and steals the money. Grant takes off to hunt his felonious brother down and attempts to convince him to go straight. Unfortunately, The Kid refuses, and the brothers face off in a showdown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Audie Murphy, (more)
- 1957
Though Slaughter on Tenth Avenue's background music relies heavily on the Richard Rodgers composition of the same name, the film itself bears no relation to the ten-minute ballet for which Rodgers wrote the piece. Instead, this Albert Zugsmith-produced crime meller attempts to expose waterfront union racketeering. In trying to solves a murder on the docks, deputy DA Richard Egan runs up against the stevedores' code of silence. It also dawns on Egan that his own boss (Sam Levene) shows little interest in pursuing justice in this instance. The DA is finally able to mount a case, but at the crucial courtroom moment he may have to pull out due to lack of evidence--a lack engineered by crooked boss Walter Matthau, who has several local politicians in his pocket. A last-minute dockside battle enables Egan to bring the racketeers to justice. Slaughter on Tenth Avenue was based on New York district attorney William J. Keating's memoirs The Man Who Rocked the Boat. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Jan Sterling, (more)
- 1957
Professional burglar Nat Harbin (Dan Duryea) and his two associates, Baylock (Peter Capell) and Dohmer (Mickey Shaughnessy), set their sights on wealthy spiritualist Sister Sarah (Phoebe Mackay), who has inherited a fortune -- including a renowned emerald necklace -- from a Philadelphia financier. Using Nat's female ward, Gladden (Jayne Mansfield), to pose as an admirer and case the mansion where the woman lives, they set up what looks like a perfect break-in; even when Nat's car is spotted by a couple of cops, he bluffs his way through, gets the necklace, and makes the getaway. But the trio -- plus Gladden -- can't agree on how to dispose of the necklace, and soon their bickering becomes a lot less important than the fact that someone is on to what they've done -- a woman (Martha Vickers) is working on Nat, while a man (Stewart Bradley) is working on Gladden. Equally serious, the trio kills a New Jersey state trooper while on their way to warn her. And among the cops chasing them is one with larceny in his heart and murder on his mind. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Jayne Mansfield, (more)
Battle Hymn was inspired by the true story of American minister Dean Hess, played here with rare sensitivity by Rock Hudson. A bomber pilot during World War II, Hess inadvertently releases a bomb which destroys a German orphanage. Tortured by guilt, Hess relocates in Korea after the war to offer his services as a missionary. Combining the best elements of Christianity and Eastern spiritualism, Hess establishes a large home for orphans. The preacher's efforts are threatened when the Korean "police action" breaks out in 1950. Battle Hymn was one of several collaborations between Rock Hudson and director Douglas Sirk--though Sirk felt that Robert Stack would have been better suited to the role of Rev. Hess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Anna Kashfi, (more)
- 1955
Much of this gripping crime drama takes place in a remote New England farm house owned by the brother of a bank robber. The crook is mortally wounded during his last heist and suddenly shows up seeking shelter. The brother reluctantly harbors the fugitive and his henchmen. Time passes and the henchmen are anxious to move on; unfortunately, their leader is healing. He is also still in love with his brother's wife with whom he had an affair. More trouble ensues when it is revealed that the woman's son was fathered by the crook, not her husband. Meanwhile, a farmhand manages to escape. He tries to alert the cops and this causes the criminals to flee. To help them through the woods the robber takes the boy to guide him. The boy is devastated when his heretofore "decent" uncle shoots his father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cornel Wilde, Jean Wallace, (more)
- 1955
For full appreciation of the culture-clash drama Foxfire, it is crucial that the viewer accept Jeff Chandler as a Native American--not much of a stretch, since he'd previously been thoroughly convincing as Cochise in Broken Arrow. Chandler plays Jonathan Dartland, a half-breed Apache mining engineer working in his native Arizona. On a whim, Eastern socialite Amanda (Jane Russell) marries Jonathan. Disdaining "society", Dartland insists that the flighty Amanda remain in Arizona as a "typical" housewife. The rest of the film deals with the problematic period of adjustment for the seemingly mismatched couple. Foxfire earned a footnote in history as the film which was being screened on the Andrea Doria on the day that the ill-fated luxury liner went down. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Russell, Jeff Chandler, (more)
- 1955
During her brief stay at MGM, starlet Jarma Lewis received starring roles in two programmers. One of these was The Marauders, in which she appeared with Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn and Jeff Richards. The bulk of the film's drama is handled by Richards, cast as a homesteader who refuses to move despite the threats of land baron Harry Shannon. After Shannon's death, the persecution of Richards is supervised by Dan Duryea, an unhinged frustrated soldier who fancies himself a second Napoleon. The looney Duryea manages to kill James Anderson, weak-willed husband of Jarma Lewis, with the help of hired gun Keenan Wynn. But Richards stands his ground, winning Jarma in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Keenan Wynn, (more)
- 1954
Rails into Laramie is one of the more obscure Universal-International western programmers of the 1950s, but this is no reflection on its entertainment value. John Payne stars as "town tamer" Jefferson Harder, who intends to clean up the wide-open community of Laramie. Everyone knows that the outlaw gang headed by Jim Shanessy (Dan Duryea) is responsible for preventing the railroad from building a line into Laramie, but Shanessy always manages to intimidate the all-male juries into releasing him. He and saloon-hall gal Lou Carter (Mari Blanchard) want to keep the rails out of Laramie so that both can pursue their criminal activities unabated. But when Lou switches sides and aligns herself with Harder, it's the beginning of the end for the scurrilous Shanessy. The film's resolution is "borrowed" from the 1941 western The Lady From Cheyenne and works just as well here as it did in the earlier picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Payne, Mari Blanchard, (more)
- 1954
Independently produced by Allan Dowling Pictures, This is My Love was distributed in the U.S. by RKO Radio. The film stars Linda Darnell as Vida, a would-be writer, whose vivid imagination contrasts with the harsh realities of her middle-class household. Her sister Evelyn (Faith Domergue), married to the crippled and embittered Murray (Dan Duryea), is unable to escape into Vida's dream world, though she'd certainly like to do so. When Vida introduces her sweetheart Glenn (Rick Jason) to Evelyn, the latter immediate begins drawing up plans to steal the handsome hunk away from her sister. Not unexpectedly, things degenerate into deception, heartbreak and murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Darnell, Rick Jason, (more)
- 1954
Audie Murphy may have had top billing in Ride Clear of Diablo, but the film is bushwhacked and stolen by co-star Dan Duryea. As notorious gunslinger Whitey Kincaid, Duryea is hired by sinister forces to kill Murphy, who is out to avenge the murders of his father and brother. Instead, Kincaid befriends Murphy, and helps him track down his family's killers. Since Murphy is the star, it is he who exacts final vengeance, but the script makes clear that he couldn't have done this without the aid of the snide, smirking Kincaid. Ride Clear of Diablo's supporting cast includes singer Abbe Lane, who handles her "bad girl" role with class. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audie Murphy, Susan Cabot, (more)
- 1954
Steve Fisher, best known for I Wake Up Screaming, wrote the story and screenplay for the British melodrama Terror Street. Dan Duryea plays Bill Rogers, an American jet pilot, who comes to England to find out why he hasn't heard from his wife lately. Upon his arrival, he learns that his wife has been murdered, and that he's the prime suspect. With only 36 hours at his disposal, Rogers takes it upon himself to track down the actual killer. Such familiar British-movie faces as Erich Pohlmann and Kenneth Griffith share screen time with relative newcomers like Elsy Albin and Ann Gudrun. Running 83 minutes, Terror Street was originally released in England in an 80-minute version titled 36 Hours. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Ann Gudrun, (more)
Next to Slightly Scarlet, Silver Lode is the best of the many 1950s collaborations between producer Benedict Bogaeus and director Allan Dwan. Clearly inspired by High Noon, the story covers three hours in the lives of a group of westerners. As the townsfolk prepare for the Fourth of July celebration, stranger Dan Duryea rides into view, followed by three tough-looking hombres. Duryea claims to be as US marshal, and further claims that he has a warrant for the arrest of the town popular sheriff, John Payne. A few hours away from his marriage to Lizabeth Scott, Payne assumes that no one will believe the troublemaking Duryea, and that his spotless record will speak for itself. But since it is impossible to confirm or deny Duryea's allegations, the seeds of doubt are planted in the minds of the townspeople, and before long virtually all of Payne's "friends" have turned against him. It soon becomes clear to the movie audience that Duryea is lying, especially after he guns down one of his own men. But Duryea is able to pin the blame of the killing on Payne, and in a twinkling the sheriff is a hunted man. The only person willing to give Payne the benefit of the doubt is town trollop Dolores Moran (Mrs. Benedict Bogeaus), who hides the sheriff while telegrapher Frank Sully tries to find out if Duryea is telling the truth. Building slowly and methodically to a slam-bang climax, Silver Lode is an above-average psychological western--and, like many "guilt by supsicion" films of the 1950s, a thinly veiled attack on McCarthyism. Best line: when Duryea bursts into Dolores' boudoir to see if Payne is hiding under the bed, she moans "Oh, what is this? A French farce?" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lizabeth Scott, Dan Duryea, (more)
- 1954
World for Ransom is an unofficial extension of the popular 1950s TV series China Smith. Most of the Smith personnel, including star Dan Duryea, director Robert Aldrich and cinematographer Joseph Biroc, are on hand for this inexpensive but well-mounted melodrama. Duryea plays a mercenary adventurer who gets mixed up in a scheme by foreign spies (who wear baggy suits and speak with Slavic accents) to kidnap a nuclear scientist. Actually it isn't the whole world that's held for ransom--only the city of Singapore, which the spies threaten with nuclear annihilation. World for Ransom star Dan Duryea is solidly supported by old pros Gene Lockhart, Patric Knowles, Reginald Denny and Nigel Bruce. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Gene Lockhart, (more)
- 1953
Dan Duryea essays a rare sympathetic role in the Columbia programmer Sky Commandos. At first glance, however, Duryea seems to be the villain. Cast as a martinet air force officer, he drives his men mercilessly, earning the enmity of practically everyone under his command. But through a series of flashbacks, the audience learns that the officer is actually a sensitive, honorable man, who goes through hell whenever one of his "boys" is killed. In one of her last major film roles, Frances Gifford plays a savvy female war correspondent -- while in one of his first roles, Touch Connors (later known as Mike Connors) portrays Duryea's hotheaded co-pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Frances Gifford, (more)
- 1953
Thunder Bay was another inspired collaboration between star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann. Stewart plays an ex-GI named Steve, who has a hankering to drill for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Together with his army buddy Gambi (Dan Duryea, in a rare good-guy role), Steve attains the financial backing of irascible oil-company chieftain Kermit MacDonald (Jay C. Flippen) and the two head southward. Before they can even place their drills in the clamps, Steve and Gambi run afoul of local shrimp fishermen who consider the presence of oil speculators as a threat to their livelihoods. Things get dicey when Steve falls in love with Stella (Joanne Dru), the daughter of combative fisherman Dominique Rigaud (Antonio Moreno). Mob mentality threatens to overcome common sense until a clever -- and mutually beneficial -- compromise between the drillers and the fishermen is reached. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Joanne Dru, (more)
- 1951
Alcoholic Bill Cannon's (Dan Duryea) past sins catch up with him in Chicago Calling. Cannon's daughter Nancy (Melinda Plowman) is seriously injured in an accident while out of town, and his wife Mary (Mary Anderson) has promised to call him back as soon as she learns the result of Nancy's operation. Unfortunately, Cannon's phone service is cut off for nonpayment, forcing him to go begging for the $50 necessary to square his phone bill. Only through the kindness of waitress Peggy (Marsha Jones) and telephone engineer Jim (Ross Elliot) is Cannon able to make the crucial call to his wife. Alas, the operation has proved unsuccessful. Will the impact of this tragedy push Cannon over the brink, or will it inspire him to seek out a new lease on life? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Mary Anderson, (more)
- 1951
The real Al Jennings was a wizened little man who, after a largely unsuccessful career as a western outlaw, reformed to the extent of hitting the lecture circuit and even producing his own films. Jennings was still alive when Columbia's Al Jennings of Oklahoma was produced in 1951, so one can assume that he approved of the radical changes made in his life story and the casting of the better-looking Dan Duryea in the lead. The story begins with Al and his brother Frank (Dick Foran) trying to go straight, even though there's a $25,000 reward on their heads. Al's hopes for connubial bliss with Margo St. Clare (Gale Storm), who loves him despite his reputation, is shattered by the vengeful machinations of a railroad detective. Forced back into a life of crime, Jennings is captured and sentenced to life imprisonment--a sentence that, of course, was eventually modified. Al Jennings of Oklahoma is not one of the classic westerns, but it manages to hold one's attention throughout a plenitude of plot twists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Gale Storm, (more)
Lin McAdam (James Stewart) and his friend High-Spade (Millard Mitchell) arrive in Dodge City for a shooting contest, in which the prize is a perfectly manufactured Winchester repeating rifle, referred to as "One of a Thousand" -- a gun so fine that Winchester won't sell it. Lin runs across Dutch Henry Brown (Stephen McNally) in a saloon and the two would kill each other right there but for the fact that town marshal Wyatt Earp (Will Geer) has everyone's guns. Lin wins the rifle in an extraordinary marksmanship match-up with Brown, but the latter steals the prize from him and sets out across the desert. Thus begins a battle of wits and nerves, and a pursuit to the death. The roots and raw psychological dimensions of that chase are only exposed gradually, across a story arc that includes references to Custer's Last Stand, run-ins with marauding Indians, a heroic stand with a a shady but well-intentioned grifter (Charles Drake), and a meeting with murderous sociopath named Waco Johnny Dean (Dan Duryea), plus a romantic encounter with a young, golden-hearted frontier woman (Shelley Winters). All of these story lines eventually get drawn together neatly and gracefully by director Anthony Mann, who balances the violence of the events with a lyrical, almost poetic visual language. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Shelley Winters, (more)
- 1950
One Way Street stars James Mason in a variation of his Odd Man Out role. Mason plays Doc Matson, a gangland physician who has stolen $200,000 from powerful mob boss Wheeler (Dan Duryea). Forced to go on the lam, Matson takes Wheeler's girl Laura (Marta Toren) along. Knowing he is doomed from the start, the Doc dispenses reams of fatalistic philosophy, so much so that one wishes Laura would shout "Enough, already!" Finally finding a purpose in life tending to impoverished Mexican peasants, Doc decides to go back to LA and return both the money and Laura to Wheeler. Not surprisingly, the mobster isn't in the mood to forgive and forget. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Märta Torén, Dan Duryea, (more)
- 1950
Written by murder-mystery specialist Craig Rice, The Underworld Story concerns a corrupt newspaperman (Dan Duryea), who is in the pocket of a gangster (Howard da Silva). When he's fired by a big-city paper, the newsman buys an interest in a small-town weekly. It is while thus occupying that man reforms, devoting himself to clearing a black woman falsely accused of murder. Gale Storm co-stars as Duryea's assistant, who helps him expose an intricate and insidious conspiracy of silence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1949
Produced by Paramount's Pine-Thomas unit, Manhandled is a no-nonsense film noir with a well-chosen cast. Small-time hoodlum Karl Benson (Dan Duryea) uses and abuses several innocent people in his efforts to get ahead. Among Benson's victims is Merl Kramer (Dorothy Lamour), who doesn't find out about her boyfriend's perfidy until it's almost too late. Sterling Hayden co-stars as insurance investigator Joe Cooper, who likewise exploits poor Merl, albeit for a good cause: Cooper is on the trail of some missing jewels. A subplot involves a married couple (Irene Hervey and Alan Napier) and the wife's would-be lover (Phillip Reed). Manhandled's level of tension never lets up, not even in its final scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dorothy Lamour, Sterling Hayden, (more)
When Lizabeth Scott's Jane Greer husband Arthur Kennedy accidentally gets his mitts on $60,000 in stolen money, she insists that he keep the dough rather than turn it over to the authorities. Two-bit private eye Dan Duryea catches on to Scott's subterfuge, and demands that she turn the cash over to him. Scott persuades Duryea to split the money with her--then, determining that Kennedy might be too honest for everyone's own good, she murders her husband. To cover her tracks, Scott reports her husband as missing. This brings in yet another fly in the ointment: Don DeFore, the brother of Scott's first husband, who died under mysterious circumstances. The already knotted webs of intrigue become even more tangled before Scott's ironic comeuppance. Too Late for Tears was scripted by Roy Huggins, who later produced such TV detective series as The Rockford Files. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lizabeth Scott, Don DeFore, (more)
