LeonLouisRicci A Few Shots with Shadows do not a Film-Noir make. But it adds a bit of Atmosphere to otherwise Mediocre Melodramas and Crime Procedurals.The Overrated and almost always Stiff Screen Persona of George Raft has Puzzled Modern Film Historians. Competent, but Never Compelling, Likable, or even Very Good He managed a Long and Inconsistent Career Playing, well, George Raft.Ella Raines, She of the Piercing Eyes, is the Dame in this Drama that is Mildly Interesting but hardly Essential Viewing. The Plot Plods at a Mundane Pace and it's Talky and Tepid most of the time. Pat O'Brien gives one of His Better Outings as an Ambiguous Bail Bondsman and Partner of Raft.The Ending is Wrapped in a Neat Little Bow and the Direction and Screenplay are Pedestrian. Worth a Watch, just don't Expect a Solid Film-Noir or anything approaching First Rate.

mark.waltz 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.

RanchoTuVu A career police detective turned bail bondsman (George Raft) meets his ex-flame (Ella Raines) (he knows it's her because of the scent of the perfume that's in her and her husband's hotel room which he and detective Jim Backus search) in a fairly intricate story about her husband (Bill Williams) whose arrested for suspicion of killing a cop and then bailed out by Raft, against the wishes of his partner (Pat O'Brien). Why he's bailed out and who actually comes up with sufficient money to get him out of jail make for interesting viewing. As well, Ella Raines hits some of her more sultry looking scenes in this movie, which may not be the best movie she's ever been in, but still percolates along more than acceptably, especially when the real killer emerges as the sharp little film heads out of LA and into a convenient canyon.

bkoganbing Although George Raft and Pat O'Brien share star billing in A Dangerous Profession, the film's action is mainly carried by Raft with O'Brien strictly in support. The two of them play bail bondsman, partners in a bail bond firm. But Raft has a professional and romantic past that get in the way here.Ella Raines with whom Raft had a fling while she was separated from husband Bill Williams comes to Raft for help with bail. Williams comes from a rich background, but his daddy squandered the family fortune and he's not up to a lifestyle change. Williams gets himself in with some crooks doing a little white collar crime and finds himself hung with a murder rap of the investigating detective.The plot starts out like a poor man's Casablanca with Raft like Bogart coming to the aid of his former love's husband whom he didn't know anything about. O'Brien who's not thinking with his hormones doesn't want the firm involved, but Raft insists. Later on Williams turns up dead himself and then Raft's old profession of police detective kicks in despite O'Brien warning him of an inherent conflict of interest.I wish we had seen a little more of Pat O'Brien, but A Dangerous Profession is a competently made noir film. Ella Raines does well as a combination of Lauren Bacall and Lizabeth Scott in her role as the woman that everyone can't resist. Jim Backus plays Raft's former partner as a cop and he's showing some versatility here that will surprise those who only know him as the inept Mr. Magoo and the rich Thurston Howell IV. One of the competently made noir films that Raft was doing in the later part of the Forties. His films would go considerably downhill shortly.