When Rocky Mulloy (Dick Powell) is sprung from prison after serving five years on a robbery charge, he returns to Los Angeles looking to settle things with the crooks who set him up. A shady, wounded war vet (Richard Erdman) and his cellmate’s gorgeous wife (Rhonda Fleming) help him play cat-and-mouse with the local gangster (William Conrad) out to get him. From these bare bones, scripter Bowers makes Cry Danger both a stellar sampling of film noir and a sly send-up of the genre. Parrish, making his directorial debut, fleshes out the lean-and-mean script with a wonderful array of L.A. locations, always coming up with unusual glimpses into now-lost areas of the City of Angels. A crackerjack crime film—short, smart, sassy, and full of surprises.

35mm restored print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by the Film Noir Foundation