Stranded in a small California town after experiencing car trouble, vacationing John Emmett is spared the tedium of bus travel when he has a chance meeting with Ann Nicholson—who offers him a lift if he’ll agree to split the driving duties to Santa Fe. He soon learns that Ann is actually a patient recovering from a nervous breakdown, however, and a simple little road trip blossoms into a Cold War nightmare as the couple are ensnared in a web of mystery involving vital national security secrets!
Based on Donald Hamilton’s “The Steel Mirror” (serialized in The Saturday Evening Post in 1948), 5 Steps to Danger stars film noir icon Sterling Hayden (The Asphalt Jungle) as a Hitchcockian hero innocently up to his neck in intrigue and danger. Ruth Roman, no stranger to noir films herself (The Window), is Hayden’s love interest: a woman whose suspicious background makes her someone difficult to trust.
Directed by Henry Kessler, Danger also features several familiar classic TV faces among its supporting cast: Werner Klemperer, a two-time Emmy winner as Colonel Klink on Hogan’s Heroes, portrays a psychiatrist, and daytime drama doyenne Jeanne Cooper (The Young and the Restless) is Roman’s concerned nurse. Stir in uncredited contributions from Sidney Clute (Cagney & Lacey) and Ken Curtis (Gunsmoke), and you have in 5 Steps to Danger a crackling good suspense thriller that will keep you guessing to the very end!
For thoughts on Five Steps To Danger, please check out my piece on The Video Attic:
[youtube https://youtu.be/T1k_26UOHJw?t=470]
Video Quality
Five Steps To Danger makes its Blu-Ray debut thanks to ClassicFlix with a brand new 1080p master that is really quite fetching. The restoration of the original camera negative shows off an fantastic amount of depth and enhanced detail within the film’s composition. The sumptuous black-and-white photography shines in high definition with solid contrast and lovely natural grain intact. The white levels experience next to nothing in the way of blooming, and the natural film grain resolves well throughout most of the runtime. Black levels remain strong with no noticeable occurrence of black crush or compression artifacts. The clothing and the production design showcase a pleasing amount of detail and textures that is showcased well on screen. The track does experience a light amount of minor nicks and scratches, but these moments are fleeting with the biggest dips in quality showing up in the optical dissolves. ClassicFlix has once again delivered quality work with this one that should not be missed.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray comes with a solid DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track that handles everything that is thrown at it with relative ease. The film is mostly dialogue driven with some environmental sounds coming through from the time on the road. Dialogue and background noises are perfectly balanced with all the disparate elements so that fidelity is always maintained. This track does present some very brief moments of age related wear and tear, mostly when it comes to the score, but on the whole things remain stable and enjoyable. The music does not overpower the dialogue or other important information. There are optional English (SDH) subtitles included for the feature film. The folks at ClassicFlix have once again delivered a pleasant audio track.
Special Features
There are no special features provided on this disc.
Final Thoughts
Five Steps To Danger is a paranoia-fueled drama which never really leaves you in any doubt as to the loyalties of any of the characters, but it still remains an engaging viewing experience. The lead performance from Ruth Roman is enough to capture your attention, and her chemistry with Sterling Hayden is believable. The film may have had more staying power in cinematic history had some of the plot points been given a bit more depth, but as it stands the effort remains a worthwhile watch to get some brief kicks. ClassicFlix has released a Blu-Ray featuring a strong A/V presentation but nothing in the way of special features. This is not a high profile picture, but it is very much worth your time if you love Cold War-era thrillers. Recommended
Five Steps To Danger is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: ClassicFlix has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
