Michael O'Shea

Virginia Grey

Charles McGraw

Julie Bishop

Frank Conroy

Robert Shayne

Anthony Caruso

Don McGuire

Frank Richards

Michael McHale

Norman Nesbitt

Lois Austin

Phillip Barnes

Gregg Barton

Barry Brooks

Devera Burton

Tom Daly

Edgar Dearing

Heenan Elliott

Terry Frost

Gil Frye

Jack Gargan

Chuck Hamilton

Sam Hayes

Linda Leighton

Carey Loftin

Stanley Mann

Allen Mathews

Walter Merrill

Ralph Montgomery

William J. O'Brien

Kevin O'Morrison

Kenneth Patterson

Allan Ray

Jason Robards Sr.

Carl Saxe

Bert Stevens

Bob Thom

Dale Van Sickel

Ben Welden

Danny Welton

Charles Woolf

Samuel E. Beetley

Harry J. Wild

Felix E. Feist

Dick Irving Hyland

Hugh King

Paul Sawtell

Albert S. D'Agostino

Darrell Silvera

Charles F. Pyke

C. Bakaleinikoff

Earl A. Wolcott

Clem Portman

Ernest Bachrach

William Stevens

Jim Kirley

Bill Phillips

Hazel Rogers

Lloyd Richards

James Almond

Charles Straumer

Richard Kinon

Crime

Thriller

The Threat

RKO Radio Pictures

United States of America

Arnold Kluger Escaped From Folsom Prison Tonight…
 
The Threat is directed by Felix E. Feist and written by Dick Irving Hyland and Hugh King. It stars Charles McGraw, Virginia Grey, Michael O’Shea, Julie Bishop. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Harry J. Wild.
 
Maniac criminal Red Kluger escapes from jail and sets off to kidnap the three people he holds responsible for his incarceration.
 
Compact at just over an hour in run time, The Threat is all about Charles McGraw impressing on everyone just what a great portrayer of hard cases he would become. Once the escape and set up of plot has been formed, pic basically confines itself to one cramped location as Kluger and his two henchmen hold four people hostage at their hideout, the fourth person being an unfortunate truck driver who has got in the way. The air of menace is palpable, the atmosphere hot and sweaty, and via torture, violence and mind games it builds to tough old climax, having got there without fuss or filler.
 
Nothing memorable visually, and some of the screenplay involves characters doing daft things, but it’s a gritty “B” noir well worth taking a look at. Especially for McGraw’s performance. 7/10

English