clanciai
This is at the same time both one of the most romantic noirs and one of the darkest. Humphrey's situation is utterly hopeless, as he condemned for life escapes from San Quentin with no chance at all to get away with it, unless he changes his face, but even with that operation carried through successfully, he faces new overwhelming difficulties by murders and suicides and not a chance to prove his innocence. This is one of the main themes of most noirs: the helplessness of innocence to prove itself true, while all society seems united in attacking and prosecuting you for it, and in most noirs this struggle against impossible odds is not very successful. Here Humphrey finds Lauren Bacall who appears from nowhere and helps him on the way, while Agnes Moorehead does her best to ruin even that small chance of a break - she has never been more furious.The cinematography is fascinating, this is a forerunner of both Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and Frankenheimer's "Seconds", and the suspense is sustained all the way to the very end. It's certainly one of the best noirs of the forties, Franz Waxman's music helps in making it an accomplished cinematic masterpiece, and there is nothing wrong with the story. Only people lacking the sense of true romanticism could have any objection against the script.
cinemajesty
Movie Review: "Dark Passage" (1947)Warner Bros. presents Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in their third collaboration in a crime-drama with ingredients of mystery, while the leading man must act under heavy facial bandages to get supported by his wife into finding a new life from being an imprisoned convict for murder, when "Dark Passage" can only be enjoyed for the two Hollywood stars sake in an otherwise suspense-lacking attempt of stark-noir "hard-boiled" motion picture of the 1940s.© 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC
Ross622
Delmer Daves' "Dark Passage" is a very good movie that is very similar to "The Fugitive" (1993) in terms of the story-line but has some different aspects as well, this is one of the best film noir type films that I have seen along with "The Big Heat" (1953), "The Maltese Falcon" (1941), "White Heat" (1949), "The Big Sleep" (1946) and as well as many others. The movie stars Humphrey Bogart as Vincent Parry a man who is convicted for murdering his wife and ends up escaping from prison and is on the run from police in order to prove his innocence. Parry then meets a woman named Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall) who tries to help him prove his innocence. Then during the movie Parry seeks a doctor's appointment to seek plastic surgery in order to change his appearance with Dr. Walter Coley (Houseley Stevenson). The first forty minutes of the movie are the most interesting 40 minutes I have ever seen in a film since those shots are from Parry's perspective. Then towards the end of the movie we see Parry and Jansen and her neighbor Madge (Agnes Moorehead) scream as if he actually killed somebody when he actually didn't. The movie was the third of four movies that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall would do together (the fourth was John Huston's "Key Largo" (1948)). The chemistry between Bogart and Bacall was so good in this movie just like it was in their previous film "The Big Sleep" from the previous year and was directed by Howard Hawks. Delmer Daves' direction and his screenplay is executed for the film like an Alfred Hitchcock movie but much less suspenseful. But it was still was a very good movie to watch and is one of 1947's best films, and it kept me on the edge of my seat as well.
frankwiener
I knew from the very start that I would love this film, ably directed by Delmer Daves and based on the original novel by David Goodis with a very strong musical score by Franz Waxman. I enjoyed the movie so much that I was willing to overlook the plot holes that have been identified by other reviewers.What about those alleged plot holes? Considering Irene Jansen's (Lauren Bacall's) fixation with Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart), couldn't she have satisfied her need to be physically close to him by finding inspiration to paint in the hills that surrounded San Quentin while he was imprisoned there? And was her friendship to the villainous Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorhead) far too coincidental, or could she have sought out Madge's companionship from all of the other phony socialites in San Francisco only for the purpose of retribution against Madge after she helped to convict the innocent Parry for the murder of his wife? I haven't yet read the book, but perhaps it fills the holes better than the screenplay did.Plot holes aside, I knew that I would love this movie from the moment that the barrel started swaying precariously from the back of the prison truck while the sirens of San Quentin blasted throughout the surrounding California countryside. Next I am suddenly spinning down the mountain in the dark barrel with escapee Vincent. For the first thirty minutes of the movie, I only see the action in first person point of view as Parry experiences it and narrates it.From the very start, this movie never disappoints. At every moment, there is an unexpected turn of events and the introduction of a new and unique character. There are so many fascinating and quirky elements, including personalities both large and small, that I don't know where to begin, so I'll start with the wonderful, dramatic score of Franz Waxman, prominently showcasing the classic Mercer-Whiting song of the era, "Too Marvelous for Words". Who can deliver us to the world of 1947 more authentically than icon Jo Stafford as she sings what would soon become Vincent's and Irene's very appealing theme song?Clifton Young perfectly plays Baker, the very disagreeable, small-town crook and blackmailing weasel, who drives a jalopy that can't do more than 40 mph with seat cushions made from a circus tent. As we learn more about baker, we share Vincent's desire to "crack open his head full of figures" and even worse than that.Next we embark on a very tense drive through a police dragnet from one end of the Golden Gate Bridge to the other, established specifically to capture the escaped Vincent, with Irene nervously behind the wheel and the ex-con Vincent hidden in the back of her station wagon among fresh oil paintings. "Be careful not to get paint on your sleeve, officer," she warns before he rummages through her precious cargo, and he heeds her advice. Then, the cop at the tollbooth turns out to be none other than Vince Edwards, who played Dr. Ben Casey in the very popular 1960's television drama. Once Irene and Vincent successfully dodge the police checkpoints, we are invited into Irene's art deco building somewhere in the hills of San Francisco with its glass elevator and avant-garde, elaborately etched glass walls that lead to an apartment with a sexy, spiral staircase that climbs to her very private bedroom. Tom d'Andrea as Sam, the gregarious and goodhearted cab driver, is another valuable asset to the film, as is the menacing presence of Housely Stevenson, who plays Dr. Coley, Vincent's plastic surgeon. Is the doctor the fiend that Vincent imagines him to be during an unforgettable nightmare episode that immediately reminds me of my own anxious moments when I was once prepped for a major, real-life operation? "Got the money?" the doctor asks ominously before he proceeds. No need for a health insurance card here.Agnes Moorehead is genuinely detestable as Madge Rapf, whose disagreeable name matches her grating personality. The intensity of Madge's and Vincent's eventual encounter at her apartment is another dramatic turning point, thanks to the efforts of not one but two of the best professionals in the business, Bogart and Moorehead, head to head with an excellent script that is worthy of them. Madge's "moment of truth" during their gripping verbal exchange, and her sudden exit from the scene are not to be missed. Could those shoes sailing through the bay breeze possibly be bright orange too? In the end, the movie's constant state of suspense and uncertainty finally settles into a very serene and soothing scene that, in my humble opinion, conveys unlike any other the love that Bogey and Bacall felt for each other in real life. Too marvelous for words.
