Themes: Out For Revenge, Haunted By the Past, Amateur Sleuths
Main Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Bruce Bennett, Agnes Moorehead, Tom D'Andrea
Release Year: 1947
Country: US
Run Time: 107 minutes
Plot
Robert Montgomery's 1946 film Lady in the Lake attempted to tell the entire story with a "subjective camera": shooting the film from the point of view of the main character, with the camera acting as his "eyes". The first hour or so of Dark Passage does the same thing--and the results are far more successful than anything seen in Montgomery's film. Humphrey Bogart heads the cast as an escaped convict, wrongly accused of his wife's murder. After being forced to beat up a man (Clifton Young) from whom he's hitched a ride, Bogart hides out in the apartment of Lauren Bacall, while recovering from plastic surgery, and tries to set about locating the actual murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
This sturdy 1947 noir makes great use of its economical script, its San Francisco location shots, and its leads' well-established sexual chemistry. The winding hills, world-famous bridges, and prison proximity of the Bay Area are integral to the story, while the city's non-geographical features (its mixture of affluence and squalor, misfits and money men) provides plenty of fuel for the film's shadowy atmosphere. Humphrey Bogart inhabits his tight-lipped everyman, Vincent Parry, with typical aplomb, even in the first act when he's only a voice. Lauren Bacall, meanwhile, plays it more vulnerable than in To Have and Have Not, her lonely heiress acting out oedipal redemption scenarios that give the real-life couple's unlikely screen pairing more verisimilitude than usual. Character actors Bruce Bennett, Tom D'Andrea, and Houseley Stevenson turn in top-notch work as the friends both new and old who help Parry establish his new identity, while the performer who plays the villain (and will not be disclosed here) does a powerhouse job. Overseen by veteran writer/director Delmer Daves, Dark Passage is a less crowd-pleasing but darkly seductive entry in the Bogie and Bacall canon. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Charles H. Clarke - Art Director, Bernard Newman - Costume Designer, Delmer Daves - Director, David Weisbart - Editor, Jack L. Warner - Executive Producer, Franz Waxman - Composer (Music Score), Leo F. Forbstein - Musical Direction/Supervision, Perc Westmore - Makeup, Sidney Hickox - Cinematographer, Jerry Wald - Producer, William L. Kuehl - Set Designer, H.F. Koenekamp - Special Effects, Dolph Thomas - Sound/Sound Designer, Delmer Daves - Screenwriter, David Goodis - Book Author
