Where Danger Lives - Plot

Plot

Dr. Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) tends to an attempted suicide victim named Margo (Faith Domergue) brought to San Francisco General Hospital. She later checks out, but sends him a telegram telling him her address in case he wants to hear her story. To his surprise, he finds she lives in a mansion. He breaks a date with his nurse girlfriend, Julie (Maureen O'Sullivan), because he is worried Margo may try to commit suicide again.

As time goes on, he falls in love with Margo. However, when she tells Jeff that she is flying to Nassau with her aged father the next day, he shows up unannounced and boldly tells Frederick Lannington (Claude Rains) that he is in love with the man's "daughter". Lannington, however, informs him that Margo is his wife and that she married him for his money. Stunned, Jeff leaves despite Margo's pleas. When he hears her scream, he returns and finds her holding an earring ripped from her ear. Lannington starts beating Jeff with a fireplace poker; in the ensuing struggle, Lannington strikes his head on the floor and is knocked unconscious. Dazed, Jeff goes to the bathroom; when he returns, he finds the old man dead.

Jeff wants to call the police, but Margo insists they would believe it was murder. She persuades him to run away with her (Jeff's judgment is impaired by his injuries). They first try to use the airline tickets, but hurry away when they spot policemen at the ticket desk. They decide to drive to Mexico instead, taking the precaution of trading in Margo's convertible for a pickup truck provided by larcenous used car salesman "Honest Hal". At a stop, Jeff diagnoses his continuing headaches and mental fog as a concussion, warning Margo that it will lead to first paralysis of the extremities, perhaps even one side of his body, followed by a coma within 24 to 48 hours.

In Roseville, Arizona, they are taken to the sheriff, but it is only because Jeff is not wearing a beard for the "Wild West Whiskers Week". After Margo explains they are on their way to Mexico to get married, the police chief (Charles Kemper) tells them that marriages are a Postville specialty and insists they get wed there that very night. While Jeff is out of the bedroom of their honeymoon suite, Margo listens to the news on the radio; she becomes enraged when the broadcast discloses she had been undergoing psychiatric treatment. Later, after the couple sneak away, the police chief identifies Margo from a photo and alerts the border patrol. It is revealed that Lannington was smothered to death with a pillow.

In a border town, the fugitives sell Margo's $9000 bracelet to a pawnbroker for $1000. When the man sees that they are anxious to avoid the police, he sends them to theatre owner Milo DeLong (Philip Van Zandt), who offers to smuggle them into Mexico ... for $1000. As they wait, Jeff's left side becomes paralyzed. Then he finally realizes that Margo is mentally unstable and that she killed her husband. He decides not to go to Mexico; when he tries to stop Margo from leaving, she knocks him down, then smothers him. Fortunately, he was only rendered unconscious. He drags himself downstairs and out to the border crossing. When Margo sees him coming, she pulls a pistol out of her purse and starts shooting at him. The police return fire, fatally wounding her. Before she dies, she absolves Jeff of any blame.

While recovering, Jeff asks his doctor if he can send a flower to someone. The doctor steps out into the hall and sends Julie in to see him.