SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Dreadfully Boring

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A Dangerous Profession is a dull bail bonds film-noir yarn. I didn't buy what was being sold.Another reviewer stated it reminded them of "The Big Sleep" and I couldn't agree more, this film also had me dozing off like that one. Though, Raines over Bacall any day for me.

"A Dangerous Profession" is a decent enough film...the sort mildly entertaining stuff that George Raft made in the post-war years. It begins with Vince (Raft) working as a bail bondsman along with his partner (Pat O'Brien). Apparently Vince used to be a cop but decided to change careers. Why he wanted a change soon becomes apparently when his old girlfriend, Lucy (Ella Raines) shows up to try to bail her stupid husband out of jail. This IS a surprise...as Vince hasn't heard from her since she disappeared some time ago...nor did he know she was married...and had been when he knew her! Of course it's a surprise but Vince is a dope...so he helps her and her dopier husband. But when the husband soon is murdered, things get really, really confusing. So what's next?This is a mildly interesting film but it suffers a bit from Raft's relatively dull screen persona as well as his being a bit too trusting to be realistic. The story also becomes a bit confusing and is, if you think about it, a bit like a reworking of "Casablanca"! Odd but worth seeing if you like old film noir movies.

Bail bondsman George Raft gets in over his head when he bails out robbery suspect Bill Williams, the husband of an old girlfriend (Ella Raines). This puts him up against various factors on both sides of the law including a fellow former partner (Jim Backus, ultra-serious here) and officer Pat O'Brien. As he gets further involved in his ex-girlfriend's life and finds out information on Williams, the pieces of the puzzle get more puzzling, resulting in a murder.This is certainly watchable, if a sometimes dull film noir/mystery, the audience getting equally as confused as Raft as he tries to wrap everything up. The intro lesson on how the bondsman works is interesting, but perhaps a different case with more developed characters and less people involved in the first place. Still, lighting and shadows provide the right atmosphere, and Raft's detective work is appropriately seedy. One of the people whom Raft interviews slightly looks and very much sounds like Werner Klemperer of "Hogan's Heroes" even though he is not listed in the credits for this film.

I wouldn't exactly call this a noir, although it is a hardboiled detective yarn. It reminded me of The Big Sleep mainly because of its rambling story line. Raft is no Bogart and Ella Raines is no Bacall. His stiff delivery gets tiring after you realize he really doesn't have anything interesting to say. Her sultriness falls far short of what's required for the role of bad girl. And her hair is incredibly awful. The photography was above par. When the character of Lucy is introduced in the story, you just see the back of her hat. Then there's a close-up, and well, it's just Ella Raines. The script is a lot of yak, some of it's kinda good, but it's still mainly a yakfest. I gave-up after 55 minutes.