Angela Lansbury had a successful film career long before she became television’s darling as Jessica Fletcher on the smash show “Murder She Wrote.”  Coming to America during the early 1940s to avoid World War II in London, Lansbury landed a film contract at the age of 17 at the Tiffany of Studios, MGM in Culver City. Studio boss Louis B. Mayer didn’t know what to do with the unusual-looking teen as she looked older than her years. Luckily, she was cast in the big hit movie gas Gaslight in 1944 with co-stars Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotton. Surprisingly, Lansbury was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar® for her very first role!

To prove she wasn’t just a fluke, she was nominated again for an Oscar® for The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945) and won the Golden Globe as Best Supporting Actress at age 22. Louis B. Mayer apparently wasn’t impressed with her talent and, consequently, cast her in supporting roles of no substance. Her other talents included singing and dancing, which she had trained for while a girl in England. Although she was terrific in whatever she was given, Mayer paid no attention and put her into some mediocre movies and drab parts.

By 1951 Lansbury was fed up with MGM, even though as a world-weary showgirl in The Harvey Girls she had out-shown the studio’s Number One star Judy Garland. She asked to be released from her contract, and Mayer was only too happy to boot her off the lot.

For several years after leaving MGM, Lansbury experienced some  desperate times. Nobody would hire her for a film. She frantically took jobs on TV and in small stage productions. She was rapidly becoming a “has-been.” Along came two saviors, independent B-movie producer Hank McCune and director Paul Guilfoyle. They had a script that would show off Lansbury’s acting chops.

She jumped at the chance to play a femme fatale and a glamorous doll at that. The picture would have a miniscule budget, probably less than what MGM would spend on the catering truck for the crew on one of their productions. But it was work, and it would show that Ms. Lansbury was well worth hiring with two Oscar® nominations to her credit.

A Life at Stake falls into the category of “film noir,” but it was a forgotten film for many years. Now it has been revived by The Film Detective Company in a new DVD release now available for purchase. The category of “B” films was just about to fade into obscurity, so the film got a scant release pattern in 1955.

It was producer Hank McCune who scrambled together a script that was partially inspired by the famed Barbara Stanwyck-Fred MacMurray- Edward G. Robinson film Double Indemnity from director Billy Wilder. Of course, it’s not a copy as that would lean toward plagiarism. But it inspired McCune to make Lansbury’s Doris character a scheming broad with bad intentions. You will love her!

Handsome young actor Keith Andes (1920-2005) plays a bankrupt architect who fits perfectly into Doris’ web of intrigue. She cons him into a shady deal to build houses for her real estate mogul husband’s company. Hubby Gus Hillman is played by veteran character actor Douglas Dumbrille (1889-1974). He is evil but so very charming and affable.

Pretending to be in love with Andes’ character of Edward Shaw, Lansbury shows she can be sexy, evil, likeable and bad! By getting Shaw to sign an insurance policy as part of the deal for work, Shaw realizes that Doris and Gus stand to earn a lot of money if he dies accidentally. The lightbulb goes off in a scared Shaw’s head, and he realizes he must extricate himself from Doris’ alluring clutches.

Imaginative camera work by Ted Allan and excellent night lighting by Charles Beckett lift the film out of the basement of ordinary “B” films to something special.

(Released by The Film Detective Company. Not rated by MPAA.)