Five Steps to Danger (1957)

Director: Henry S. Kesler

Starring: Sterling Hayden, Ruth Roman, Werner Klemperer

More info: IMDb

Tagline: They Carried a Hell-Bomb Horror From East Berlin Across Ten Thousand Miles---To a Secret U. S. Rocket Base!

Plot: When his car breaks down during a trip from Los Angeles to Texas John Emmett meets another motorist, Ann Nicholson, who offers him a lift. He learns that she is running away from her physician, Dr. Simmons, and the police, who want to question her about a murdered Central Intelligence Agent in Los Angeles. Anne, as it also turns out, is a native of Berlin, Germany. She had come into possession of a valuable secret formula for a 4000-mile-per-hour rocket, which is written on the reverse side of a small pocket mirror she carries. She wants to deliver this to a scientist in the United States. But, the scientist is an enemy agent as is her doctor and they, and the F.B.I are after her.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? It wouldn't be so bad but probably not. There's far too many movies I've yet to see.

Knowing that the AWESOME Sterling Hayden is in a picture is all it really takes to get my attention. I love his delivery and he almost always has great lines bursting from his yapper. FIVE STEPS is a standard short (81 minutes) B picture from the 50s but the big difference is that it stars Hayden. He makes everything better than it sometimes should be. Even when he's delivering sappy romantic dialogue it sounds badass.


For the most part it's a quick hour and twenty minutes but it does get a little funny going back and forth wondering if she's for real or not. Ruth Roman plays it a little bit on the cheesy side but that's OK. Sterling Hayden is there to make everything alright.