Five Steps to Danger

Five Steps to Danger was adapted from thenovel The Steel Mirror by Donald Hamilton. When her scientist brother is killed in East Berlin, Ruth Roman finds herself in possession of a secret code, engraved on the back of a mirror. To prevent Ruth from delivering the secret information to the authorities, double agent Werner Klemperer has her committed to a mental institution. She finds an unlikely savior in the form of misanthropic drifter Sterling Hayden. Producer-director Henry S. Kesler also penned the numbingly complicated screenplay.