Dark Passage (Keepcase)
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Movie Reviews of Dark Passage (Keepcase)
Movie Review: Great actors, nice location shots, but the plot was a bit suspect.
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, I'm a huge Bogart fan and thoroughtly enjoy classic film noir movies and this flick had the potential of being another great Bogart classic. All the actors in this film including the supporting cast were recognizable and respectable actors and the movie was filmed on location in post-WWII San Francisco, and included some impressive scenic shots around the Golden Gate bridge. But the big problem with this film is that the script was just too utterly preposterous to take seriously.
In a nutshell, a convicted murderer escapes from prison, and a beautiful, wealthy woman voluntarily picks him up just as he's finishing up mugging some other driver who picked him up. After that she gets him on his feet with a nice new suit and a wad of money, just about everyone the escaped convict meets helps him out as though he was royalty. The improbable episodes continue even to the final scenes of the movie. One other problem is that the first half hour is filmed in "first person" making Bogart the camera and as a result the audience only sees and hears what Bogart sees and hears, but the viewers never see him until much later in the movie.
The DVD quality is overall extremely good. Some very short segments show signs of film wear while the vast majority of the film is clean and sharp. There is a very short bonus commentary about 10 minutes long that gives some interesting background insights about this film and there's also a clever Warner Brothers parody cartoon with Bugs Bunny and an animated version of Humphrey Bogart and some other 1940's celebrities.
Fortunately for me, I got this film in a Bogart/Becall four-pack which contained this film plus "To Have and Have Not", "The Big Sleep", and "Key Largo". All four films are individually packaged in the plastic keep cases, which are much better than the cardboard packages that these films were initially released in several years back. My set was only $30, so it was a great deal in my opinion, so I would strongly recommend buying this "Bogie & Bacall - The Signature Collection" 4-pack instead of buying these DVDs individually.
Movie: C
DVD Quality: A-
Movie Review: One of the most bizarre movies of the 1940s.
Summary: 3 Stars
I had always thought that "In a Lonely Place" was the strangest movie in Humphrey Bogart's filmography. After seeing Delmer Daves' "Dark Passage," however, I would have to say it's not only the most bizarre film in both Bogie's and Bacall's careers, but perhaps the weirdest film released by any major studio during the entire decade of the forties.
The film--based on a novel by David Goodis, whose work also inspired Truffaut's "Shoot the Piano Player"--concerns a man (Bogart), framed for his wife's murder, who escapes from San Quentin and roams San Francisco looking for anyone who can help him flee the country. At one point the man visits a disreputable plastic surgeon (Houseley Stevenson) to change his appearance. Throughout the film's first half, we never see the man's face; in the second half, he's Bogart. The only person he can trust is a beautiful stranger (Bacall) who helps him for reasons she keeps to herself.
In any case, "Dark Passage" is long on atmosphere and short on sense. The story takes bizarre leaps in logic, and most of the characters act as if they'd just escaped from an insane asylum. The film at times resembles a collaboration--minus the in-your-face raunchiness--between David Lynch and John Waters, both of whom could have taken inspiration from this (and probably did).
Possibly because we don't see Bogart on screen for such a long time, but only hear his voice, he and Bacall build up little chemistry in this film. By far the best performance comes from the wonderful, underrated Agnes Moorehead, in perhaps her only appearance as a femme fatale. Her scene with Bogart late in the film oozes a sexual tension that is totally missing from Bogart's scenes with Bacall. All the other supporting performances--particularly Stevenson as the doctor and Clifton Young as a weaselly blackmailer--can charitably be described as way over the top.
Movie Review: Totally unconvincing star thriller which succeeds because of its professionalism...
Summary: 3 Stars
Bogart's third teaming with Lauren Bacall was in "Dark Passage," a murder-mystery film which depended upon contrivances rather than good scripting to see it through...
The film opened with the use of a subjective camera (MGM used it throughout their "Lady in the Lake" that same year) with Bogart's off-camera narration establishing the plot as we watch our hero escape from prison with the intent of finding the real murderer of his wife, the crime for which he had been wrongfully jailed...
Once he meets up with Bacall and goes to a plastic surgeon, the subjective camera is forgotten as Bogart now utilizes his own face and carries on the investigation...
"Dark Passage" was energetically directed and written by Delmer Daves who used some atmospheric location shots in San Francisco to underscore his drama... The film included an unusual number of bizarre and eccentric characters, all competently played...
Agnes Moorehead essayed a superb1y schizoid characterization as a bitchy "friend" of Bogart and his dead wife... Bacall showed definite signs of improvement in her acting and Bogart was properly bitter, sour and nonplussed...
For all practical purposes, this film marked the conclusion of Bogart's famous "image" period... Now he was to forsake his romantic leading-man roles for acting assignments which he hoped would raise him to greater heights as a performer... He was to succeed, in many cases, magnificently...
Movie Review: Mediocre film-noir thriller
Summary: 3 Stars
3 1/2 stars
It may not be a great classic but it is still viewable and entertaining. It has some beautiful outside settings in San Francisco, plus the always alluring presence of Bogart & Bacall.
The plot is not really thrilling or believable, but it lets you go with the flow. Slow paced, low-key dialogues, lack of action. Bogart seems to take it easy in this role: he just showed up for work. And this is rather a passive role for him.
What doesn't help either is that we don't see Bogart in the first quarter hour; and the next quarter hour we don't hear him... and still the movie holds. A way to spend 100 quiet minutes some boring afternoon.
Movie Review: DVD Dark Passage
Summary: 1 Stars
I bought item on Sept. 19 and as of Oct. 22nd I have yet to receive it.