Welcome Danger
About Welcome Danger
Botany student Harold Bledsoe, son of San Francisco's former police captain, is called in to help with a crime wave in Chinatown. On the way he meets Billie Lee, whose brother needs a doctor in the city, when her car breaks down and she pulls the carburetor. At headquarters Harold fingerprints the respectable John Thorne and is sent after a masked boss called the Dragon, using Thorne's print as if it were the Dragon's. In a flower shop he breaks up an attempt to kill Dr. Gow. The police laugh until Harold finds Gow bound in a closet in Thorne's study. Thorne is arrested, and Billie accepts Harold's proposal.
Cast & crew
More about Welcome Danger
Clyde Bruckman directed the release version. Malcolm St. Clair is uncredited on the silent start. Ted Wilde began the silent version, fell ill, and was replaced; he died of a stroke two months after the October 12, 1929 premiere. Paul Gerard Smith, Felix Adler, Lex Neal, and Bruckman wrote it. Henry O. Kohler and Walter Lundin photographed it. Bernard W. Burton and Carl Himm edited it. Paramount released it. A sound version runs 115 minutes. A silent version runs 165 minutes.
Themes
Background
Paramount released it in October 1929, when theaters were still playing both sound and silent prints of the same comedy.
Making
Lloyd started it as a silent film. After previews ran long, Bruckman threw out about half and reshot that half with dialogue. The rest was dubbed. Noah Young's looped lines are the ones that sit badly.
Audiences
Hearing Lloyd talk made it his biggest gross since The Freshman (1925). The production cost cut the profit well below those earlier features.
Look
Henry O. Kohler and Walter Lundin photographed both the silent material and the talkie reshoots.
Technique
About half the silent footage was discarded and reshot with sound. The rest was post-dubbed.
Music
Dialogue and effects on the 115-minute release. A silent version was also issued.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as Welcome Danger.webm.
Notes
- Barbara Kent plays Billie Lee. Noah Young plays Officer Patrick Clancy. Charles Middleton plays John Thorne.
- It is Lloyd's first talking picture.
- A photo-booth stop in Colorado double-exposes Harold with Billie before they meet.
- The silent version was cut down from about 16 reels before the sound revision.
Scenes
- Billie pulls the carburetor at the roadside and Harold meets her.
- Harold matches the print on his forehead to John Thorne and later finds Dr. Gow in the closet.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (Welcome Danger.webm)
