A Fifth Column Was Among Us

Dangerously They Live (1941) Takes An Early Shot At The Axis

John Garfield may have been a most badly used of major Warner stars. Note his ID in the ad at left as "Bad Boy" Garfield, the diminutive itself a slap in the face and assurance that employers would not take him serious. Year later Thank Your Lucky Stars was added evidence, as if needed, that WB was nowheresville for any effort to grow as an actor. And yet --- there would come Humoresque, Pride Of The Marines, Nobody Lives Forever, each a showcase for a more mature Garfield, and all excellent. He bailed perhaps unwisely, an early beneficiary of the DeHavilland decision that meant he wouldn't have to make up suspension time piled up over past seasons of protest. Garfield's persona was arguably ahead of its time, as if a postwar personality had arrived in town ahead of schedule. Too few moderns would recognize his contribution, or chose to recall him at all other than as another face on late, late shows. There was a TV variety hour I saw in the late 60's where a comic came out and mimicked Garfield: Yeah, yeah, sure, sure, kick the kid around, yeah, yeah, sure, sure. Within that nutshell was a legacy reduced to absurdity. I don't know that it's been put right since (any new bio unlikely, considering decades since Garfield died and so few of co-workers left).

The war might have, in fact did, fix some of his problems. Garfield couldn't serve, his bad heart foreclosing that, but he was a demon for entertaining troops, and a champion for the Hollywood Canteen second only to Bette Davis. You could say that the movie of Hollywood Canteen, where Garfield played himself, was the most sincere work he ever did. Air Force was outstanding, then Pride Of The Marines, a career high to then. Garfield's contribution stood out among male stars who did not actively serve. It surely wracked him to be 4-F. Dangerously They Live was a first war-themed vehicle he did. It was less comical than All Through The Night, where Bogart went through similar paces. In fact, the two pictures have much in common, being built around domestic espionage and ease with which Germans commit it. Were we warned by Hollywood or what? It's hard to severe-blame those senators who said movies were rushing us into battle. As with All Through The Night, there is a delicatessen which is a beehive for Nazi mischief, the sweet operating couple forced into collaboration with the Bund. A ride up their dumb waiter reveals a radio room with swastika flags hung prominent. It's like the FBI was fast asleep right up to Pearl Harbor.

Dangerously They Live plays not unlike a B, but upgraded by Robert Florey's expressive direction and support villainy by Raymond Massey, whose presence, according to some, was what pushed the show to top-of-bill level. The matter of German operatives moving in/out of hospitals, police headquarters, elsewhere to consummation of schemes, was flight of purest fantasy, but then again, how do we really know what inroads were dug by saboteurs on eve of war? Dangerously They Live was released in December 1941, and so got a first flush of business spun off declaration of hostility. Yes, figured viewers, here is what snakes were up to until finally we came to our senses and entered the fray. Initial war-themed films were happy recipients of money they'd not have scored otherwise. Dangerously They Live had a mere $293K in negative cost, and brought back a million in worldwide rentals. A new era of profit was on this war's horizon.

A Theatre Scene Dropped From Final Prints of Dangerously They Live

Again note the ad at top. It would have appeared within months, maybe weeks, of the Declarations. Many are parallel with how Across The Pacific, arriving later in 1942, was sold. Bogart socks the enemy on poster art just as John Garfield "Bops" a 5th columnist in Dangerously They Live, both subbing for all of us hot to get even. "Watch them get the U-Boat fleet! It's a pleasure to see!" is reference to a climactic orgy of miniature subs sunk in loving detail (Germans scream and drown) by allied flyers. Such segments were let-off of steam for patronage in 1942, this war, now that we were in it, proving no cinch in the actual fighting. Movies were an only way to enjoy victories that year. There was escape at theatres, and much reassurance, star personas an equal to whole battalions, or seascape of subs, put forth by the Axis. Did motion pictures help win this war? A better question might be --- could we have won without them? Dangerously They Live plays TCM and is available from Warner Archive.