Dark Passage
(1947) Dir. Delmer Daves. This is one of the lesser known Bogart and Bacall pictures. A film noir that has an actual happy ending, at least as happy as these things get. One of the either interesting or annoying (depending on the viewer) aspects of the film is that for the first 20 minutes or so the camera serves as a stand-in for Bogart’s point of view. He’s a man who was wrongly sent to prison for the murder of his wife and, in the beginning of the story, escapes. After getting to San Francisco (with a little help from Bacall), he gets plastic surgery (from a very creepy doctor followed by a nightmarish montage sequence) and only then do we see his face. While not as overbearing as Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake (shot all from the first person), I was glad to move away from the first person. The film is surprisingly light for a film noir. Light as in, literal light. There aren’t as many dark shots as one expects. Even metaphorically the film isn’t so dark. Unlike many noirs the ending resolves itself in a way that is against the normal film noir conventions. While Bogart ostensibly solves the mystery at hand (though I’ll admit to not really following the logic) he never clears his name. Apparently the Surrealists like this one as it is listed on a 1951 “Surrealist Advice” piece on what to see and not see.
Tags: filmnoir
Entries RSS
No comments
Jump to comment form | comments rss [?]