Highly Dangerous (1950)

Highly Dangerous is a British thriller film first released in 1950, directed by Roy Ward Baker.  The film stars Margaret Lockwood, Dane Clark, Marius Goring, Naunton Wayne and Wilfrid Hyde-White.  Our overall rating for this film is: good.


Leading entomologist Frances Gray is persuaded by the British government to undertake a spying mission in a tightly controlled European country.  She must ascertain whether the country is undertaking a programme of breeding insects for the purposes of biological warfare.   Shortly after her arrival, her contact is murdered and she is arrested by the authorities.  Under interrogation, she is given a truth drug, which has an unexpected side effect.  She begins to imagine that she is a radio adventure hero and, in no time at all, she coerces an American journalist into helping her break into a top secret research establishment...

Whilst the plot is perhaps a little too silly for its own good, Highly Dangerous manages to be an enjoyable parody of the Cold War spy thriller.  Margaret Lockwood is an effective choice for the part of an insect-lover who metamorphoses into a female Dick Barton, and she plays the tongue-in-cheek comedy for all its worth, without bringing it down to the level of farce.  The budgetary limitations are all too evident in the modest production standards, but this does not spoil the fun and adds to the film’s quintessentially British charm.   Director Roy Ward Baker and writer Eric Ambler would later achieve much greater success with their Titanic 1958 film A Night To Remember.

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