Review of Dangerous Mission

Vincent Price was my reason for watching Dangerous Mission. Price himself is not bad, he is charismatic and wonderfully shifty though he has given performances that are somewhat less obvious. The film does look good with beautiful use of colour, Betta St John is a knockout and the climatic scene is fun in a way. These things aside, Dangerous Mission could have been far better, as far as Price's movies go it is a little better than Green Hell and The Story of Mankind but is still one of his weakest overall. The rest of the cast had potential but don't live up to it. Victor Mature is handsome but very wooden as well, while Piper Laurie is equally bland and William Bendix has literally nothing to do other than some of the film's worst lines. They are not helped by their cardboard-cutout characters, they are characters that we have seen many times before and in a much more likable way. The dialogue is inanely stupid, as said before Bendix's lines are the worst, while the film is unevenly paced complete with a really disjointed story, some scenes are abruptly ended which gives a very rushed feeling but the mostly flat set pieces like with the forest fire and the cable car give Dangerous Mission a certain dullness as well that really undermines the suspenseful and adventurous elements that you'd expect from a crime thriller. The song heard throughout becomes repetitive and eventually irrelevant. In conclusion, a film I really hoped I'd like but it was largely underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox