source: Danger Tomorrow

Moviecut—Danger Tomorrow

Danger Tomorrow

Ok I didn't expect much from this film but it was surprisingly good. Had suspense and a good atmosphere, made better for being black & white. Good character actors helped it along.

Moving to a new house is always a daunting task, but for Zena Walker and her research scientist husband Robert Urquhart, it is made all the more intense by the nightmares Walker begins to have as soon as they move in, horrific visions concerning the fact that a murder allegedly took place there years before. Walker's fears aren't made any better by the fact that she seems to be a bit neurotic in the first place, but then again there's more to the story. Good support in this condensed little B programmer is provided by Lisa Daniely as a rather eccentric but sophisticated neighbor and Rupert Davies as Urquhart's employer. There's plenty of surprises tossed at the viewer along the way although the movie looks more like a television play than something made for the cinema. I found the conclusion great with its eerie insinuations of what would happen to one of the main characters.

There really isn't anything to redeem this. Lots of exposition, stagy performances, the oldest 'miserable delinquent' in the business, and a subplot about the domestic sphere vs academia. As fun as it sounds. Worse, the plot has more than a passing resemblance to Agatha Christie's Sleeping Murder, although this isn't credited. Read a book instead.

Doctor Robert Urquhart arrives to second Dr. Rupert Davies, preparatory to taking over the practice. His wife, Zena Walker, is trying to get the old, rambling house that comes with the practice in some sort of order. She is, however, upset by visions of a murder. She had had these visions when an adolescent, and they had been proven true; now she is concerned that her husband is a little too interested in his shapely lab assistant, Lisa Daniely. It's well directed and well performed for a cheap British second feature that would have its American debut on a syndicated show; however, my taste for mysteries that are grounded in reality, as well as the vague premonitions set my teeth on edge. The underwrittne characters didn't help.

This thriller is of a type that I am not fond of.When the murderer has been caught one of the other characters has to explain the plot and link everything up.There is very little tension generated through most of the film.Better just watch the trailer on the same disc.Zebra Walker and Robert Urqhuart do their best but cannot overcome a limp script that does not generate any fear.

DANGER TOMORROW is a slight, hour-long domestic drama with touches of the thriller and science fiction genres, but sadly there isn't enough of either of the latter to make this work. Robert Urquhart and Zena Walker play a happily married couple - he's a doctor - whose lives are turned upside down when she begins to see visions from tomorrow. All is very concerning, and even more so when she seemingly witnesses her own murder. There are some minor murder mystery moments here and a supporting role for a youthful Rupert Davies, but it only really gets going right at the climax and by then it's virtually all over.

This film was so obscure during the early seventies that David Pirie omitted it from his filmography in 'A Heritage of Horror' (1973) and Walt Lee listed it as one of the 'problems' in the section on blue paper at the back of Volume 1 of his 'Reference Guide to Fantastic Films' (although the same year Denis Gifford identified it generically as a Fantasy in 'The British Film Catalogue'). Scripted by actor Guy Deghy and explicitly organised around the date 5 October (!) 1960, a good cast - including a foxy lady named Annabel Maule (now 97 years old, apparently!) as Zena Walker's tippling sister-in-law - are aided by excellent photography (including some nice night-for-night exteriors) but hindered by a lousy score. (It's a sign of the times that it's considered a problem that the house where most of the action plays out is "a bit large...!")