Anton Diffring as Officer At Station Checkpoint (uncredited)
Production
Margaret Lockwood had not made a film in 18 months following Madness of the Heart, and had been focusing on stage work.[2]Earl St John wanted a comeback vehicle and commissioned Eric Ambler to write a film specifically as a vehicle for Lockwood. Ambler had recently specialised in melodramas, but Highly Dangerous was a comedy thriller in the vein of Lockwood's earlier hits, The Lady Vanishes and Night Train to Munich.[3] It was directed by Roy Ward Baker, who had served with Ambler during the war.[4]
"One thing about Eric is that he presents you with a script that is beautifully finished in every detail", said Baker.[5] He added " Eric had invented a language for the people the other side of the curtain which wasn’t Russian or anything else and the poor actors had to learn this stuff. He was playing a game with that."[6]
"I think Margaret Lockwood wanted to play a modern woman", recalled Baker. "It was actually Eric Ambler's first or second book, although the book had a different title and its main character was a man; Eric changed it to a woman to make it more interesting".[7]
The studio wanted a Hollywood leading man to play opposite Lockwood. Wendell Corey was originally sought[8] before the role was given to Dane Clark, who had recently left Warner Bros. "He was just delivering a stock leading man movie performance which was virtually nothing," said Baker. "He wasn’t very efficient. I think he fell in love with London. He also fell deeply in love with Jean Simmons which was unrequited. He was a pillock, I’m afraid. Marius Goring played the Belgravian heavy; he was very heavy, I'm afraid. I couldn't control him at all. It was a satisfactory run of the mill picture."[6]
There was location work done in Trieste. "I found it very difficult to make anything of that location," said Baker. "I was a bit disappointed and to tell the truth I didn't do it very
well. The reason I say that is that many years later... I realised I’d been trying to piece it together in a logical way, sticking to the topography of Trieste I’d done myself an injury because the audience doesn't give a damn."[6]
^"Ambler writes a thriller-comedy". Times Pictorial. Dublin, Ireland. 15 April 1950. p. 13.
^STEPHEN WATTS (20 May 1951). "SUCCESS IN THE SHADOW OF FAILURE: Roy Baker Makes Mark as Director at Scene of Faded British Hopes On His Own Quick Return Army Training". New York Times. p. X5.
^"IN THE FILM SPOTLIGHT". The Mirror. Vol. 27, no. 1457. Western Australia. 22 April 1950. p. 16. Retrieved 10 April 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
