So much average

How sad is this?

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I first saw this movie on USA or Lifetime, I can't remember which. Eventually I bought it on VHS and transferred it to DVD. It's not a great movie, but anything with Cheryl Ladd is worth watching IMHO. She plays Mary, who moves to Portland, Oregon after her fiancé is murdered. She goes to cosmetology school during the day and works as a taxi dancer at night. Ed Marinaro plays the detective who is hired to find her. A killer is stalking her, and of course the detective is attracted to her. I mean, who wouldn't be? Cheryl Ladd has always always been a truly gorgeous woman, and in this movie she is particularly beautiful. The killer isn't that hard to spot, but it's still a fun movie to watch, with a great jazz score.

Lonely guy meets dancing babe who may or may not be a killer. There's the short of this bad made-for-TV flick. Back around 1998 I started a long TV-movie kick. None of these movies were actually good by real movie standards (limited acting, story, direction, artistry, technical skill etc.), but I got good feel for them. DANCING WITH DANGER was one of the movies I saw while on this particular train of viewings. It's bad, folks, really bad and that's when compared to other TV movies, which are inferior to real movies in almost every way.What DANCING WITH DANGER is trying for is a noir feel. You get the old-fashioned music, the 40s style location, and the lady in red. This could have been a great idea if the writer and director could have put their heads together to do something instead of just having the idea. It proves even worse to have a fake style than to have none at all.There are some truly pathetic scenes. In one scene, drama is attempted when our hero visits his ex-wife and asks her to dance with him (I'm being nice by even calling this an attempt at drama). The suspense is weak, but, like I said, this is a TV movie. The conclusion makes you sorry you bothered to watch the movie. In short: avoid.

They actually do a pretty good job of setting up a noir atmosphere, thanks in no small part to the music. Granted, the story/script is average TV slasher/mystery. Its all about atmoshpere and that music! Wish I could find the soundtrack.Try to watch it on a cold rainy day or night and see if you don't catch the mood and enjoy it!

The team just about manage to turn Portland Oregon into Dark City with burned out copper turned P.I. Marinaro involved with Taxi Dancer Ladd.Most interesting element is the Star Brite Club where Ladd plies her trade ("They choose me") and the customers do would be existentialist dialogue at the bar.The deployment of Ladd's mask like features and the forties noir atmosphere hint at director Cooper's origins in British art cinema but the film is only marginally more atmospheric than the usual TV slasher film.Competent performance and production.