Customer Reviews

Dark Passage [Import]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Pay no attention to the editorial review...
Pay no attention to the "Lady In The Lake" review.
That's okay... I can see that MOST people don't get this film.

If you like a "smart" film, "Dark Passage" is one of "THE" best.
I will acknowledge, The Big Sleep (although, Martha Vickers, who plays Lauren Bacall's sister is more interesting than Bacall in this film), Maltese Falcon (which is tedious and pretentious), To Have And Have Not (there's some good performances but after repeated viewing they wear on you), Key Largo (a GREAT film in which ALL actors are great and Claire Trevor deserved the Oscar), however, Bacalls "acting" was almost a stereotype from the start. She REALLY shines BRILLIANTLY in Dark Passage - the whole PREMISE for this film is the beginning setup in which we don't see Bogarts face - DUH... it's part of the PLOT man!... and it sets up the WHOLE FILM.

To watch Agnes Mooreheads face when she finally realizes that... well... I won't give it away but, trust me, WATCH HER FACE - it is a magical moment of film!

Talk about "film noir"?... THIS IS IT... AT IT'S BEST!
Are some people so lame that they don't know it IS Bogart at the beginning of the film? Do you HAVE to see a "recognizable" face?... The "FACE" of a Film Star?? before you allow yourself to appreciate the fact that the director is treating the audience with respect for our "intelligence" that we can "survive" without seeing Bogarts face for a while?

Anyway, once Bacall got away from the rigidity of the "STUDIO MACHINE", she started to relax in her acting and became the actor she always SHOULD have been and HAS been to date... I'm referring to films like: Written On The Wind, The Shootist, Dogville etc. and, somehow, she was "allowed" to ACT like herself in this film.

If you like a little edge to your Bogart, I'd suggest you check out, "In A Lonely Place", "Dead Reckoning", "All Through The Night", "Treasure Of The Sierra Madre", "We're No Angels" & "The Left Hand Of God" (if you can find it anywhere - I taped it off of AMC before I got rid of all my cable, Dish etc. and now I have a DVD collection of over 300 films in place of cable/dish bills).

Most people will think I'm a snob... but I'm not - I enjoy all Bogart & Bacall together and separately (to more or lesser degrees).

p.s. If you liked Claire Trevor in "Key Largo" you may like "Raw Deal" and, MAYBE, even "T-Men", "Railroaded", "Sweet Smell Of Success", "Naked City", "Blue Gardenia", "M", "High And Low", "Seven Samuari", "High Sierra", "The Big Combo", "The Big Knife", "3:10 To Yuma", "Hitchhiker" etc... ENJOY!

One of Bogart's best. Up there with The Maltese Falcon and To Have and Have Not. Highly recommended to fans of Bogart, Bacall, and Agnes Morehead.

"Dark Passage" is the last time Bogart and Bacall were teamed together on screen. The resulting film noir was not a box office sensation when it originally hit theaters, perhaps in part due to the first person camera perspective employed during the first forty minutes of the narrative and then the additional absence of seeing Bogart's character, except behind a swath of bandages for most of the latter half of the film. However, like most great film noir, "Dark Passage" has outlived its initial disappointment to become a classic. Bogart is Vincent Parry, a man accused of murdering his wife and sent to prison for life. But he escapes San Quentin prison and is rescued by Irene Jansen (Bacall). Irene smuggles Parry past police, across the Golden Gate Bridge and to her San Francisco apartment. From there Parry procures a plastic surgeon to alter his facial features, but first takes off to visit his old friend, George Fellsinger (Rory Mallinson). However, when Parry returns to George's flat he finds that someone has murdered his best friend. Knowing that he will be considered the first choice of suspect in this crime, Parry retreats to Irene's apartment where she looks after him for the duration of his healing. With his new face looking like the spitting image of Humphrey Bogart, Parry heads over to his ex-wife's former friend, Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorehead). She is the one responsible for Parry's wife's murder and when Parry confronts Madge with his knowledge, she realizes who the stranger is, attempts to escape, but accidentally falls from the seventh story to her death. With no conceivable way of proving that Madge killed his wife and George, Parry contacts Irene with his next port of call. The finale is perhaps overly optimistic with Irene miraculously turning up at some café in a tropical port with Parry waiting at a table for two for her to arrive.

The DVD transfer is outstanding. Warner Brothers gives us a remastered picture that ranks among their very best transfers. It's amazing how much fine detail is maintained throughout the presentation. The gray scale is extremely well balanced. Blacks are - for the most part - black, although there is a couple of scenes in which 'blooming' does occur. There is also a trace element of pixelization. The audio is MONO but very nicely balanced. Extras include a featurette on the making of the film that, while short, manages to cover a lot of ground and contextualize some of the background surrounding its production shoot. You also get a Bugs Bunny cartoon and the film's theatrical trailer.

The best of black-and-white films are such that the viewer forgets very quickly that there is no color. If truly good, it will impart a style and an atmosphere that color can't duplicate. By 1947, when this movie was made, there wasn't much that a major studio couldn't do superbly in B/W. All their talent has been transferred to this DVD.

The premise for this movie is indeed improbable, and the idea that someone would want to change into the Bogart time-worn face is laughable. However, the interplay between the Bogarts is electric, and she never looked any sexier. The San Francisco art deco buildings and scenery is an added bonus. Agnes Moorhead, certainly one of our most underrated radio and film actresses, was never better as the catty friend. As a variation of film noir, though, this is fun to watch and gets better with each viewing.

Often passed off as the least successful of the four screen teamings of legendary Hollywood couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, "Dark Passage", despite its often unlikely premise has much to recommend it. Bogie is always riverting to watch on screen even in his lesser films and his work in "Dark Passage", as an escaped convict undergoing plastic surgery to try to clear his name over the murder of his wife is first rate. While the film certainly lacks a degree of the unique verbal sparring that viewers have come to expect of Bogie and Bacall's work together, the personal chemistry is still there and just as magic between the two. It is these two performers aided greatly by the superb Agnes Moorehead in the type of vinegary characterisation that she made uniquely her own in the 1940's that really elevates this story and manages to make many of the incredible turn of events that bit more believable.

Based on a David Goodis novel, director Delmer Daves also took over responsibility for the screenplay and weaved an engrossing if not always plausible story centred around Vincent Parry (Bogart) who we see in the first scene making his escape on the back of a truck from San Quentin Prison. Picked up a few minutes later by artist Irene Jansen (Bacall), who happened to be doing some painting in the surrounding hills as the prison siren went off, Vincent finds himself suddenly with a staunch ally in his quest to get to the bottom of his wife's murder. Irene takes Vincent back to her apartment in San Francisco where her attraction to him becomes immediately evident.She explains that her sudden determination to help him despite the personal risks to herself, is the result of her interest in his case and the firm belief that he was framed for his wife's murder. Seeing that a city wide manhunt is now underway Vincent takes the advice of a friendly cab driver (Tom D'Andrea), who guesses who he is and allows him to arrange to get some plastic surgery done to change his appearance. Hiding out at Irene's apartment while his face heals Vincent realises that he and Irene have a connection in the person of gossipy sharp tongued Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorehead),who is a constant thorn in Irene's side and actually testified against Vincent in his murder trial. Madge gets suspicious of the man she believes Irene is hiding in her apartment and begins to follow Vincent once his bandages are removed and he begins to track down the real killer of his wife. Putting two and two together Vincent realises that Madge is the guilty party and is a woman who when she can't get what she wants is the type to destroy what others love. In a powerful confrontation scene where Madge learns the identity of the man with the strangely familiar face it is revealed that she is the one who was also responsible for the death of his wife and only friend George. Unable to get Madge to confess to her crimes and thus clearing his name Vincent realises he has no chance of going free in particular when Madge falls to her death from her apartment window. He then decides to flee to South America where with not much persuasion he is joined by the romantically hooked Irene to hopefully start a new life together.

Totally implausible? Perhaps but as with alot of the well crafted film Noir's of the 40's it is done in an irresistable style. The sheer coincidence of most the characters being somehow connected with each other or automatically knowing someone who can help in Vincent's plight is indeed at times hard to accept but once again it is the performers and their total immersion in the characters that succeeds in pulling it off. "Dark Passage", is unique, and on the down side has been at times strongly criticised for, its shooting from the view of Humphrey Bogart's face so that we dont actually see him for the first half hour of the film. I personally believe that approach is highly effective and quite unique and it certainly keeps the interest up until Vincent's grand unveiling when he looks like of course Humphrey Bogart. The fact that Vincent does look different is also responsible for the very powerful last scene between Vincent and Madge when she slowly begins to realise, much to her terror, who this strange man is she has invited into her home. Bogart, Bacall and Moorehead rightly run away with the acting honours here but the supporting cast is a strong one with Houseley Stevenson as the plastic surgeon and Clifton Young as the black mailing Baker real standouts in their playing. The film like all noir efforts benefits greatly from the stark black and white photography by Sid Hickox with many of the exterior shots done in very early morning or late in the evening. Location work done in the downtown region of San Francisco also gives the film added interest with alot of action taking place around the Golden Gate Bridge which is well used in particular during the shoot out between Vincent and Baker.

"Dark Passage", may not be top draw Bogart akin to "Casablanca", or "The Maltese falcon", however it is a spirited tale in its own right and should be viewed as such. Its strong 1940's feel and stark photography aid in raising this story a number of notches above other similiar efforts of this period and even when he is not seen on camera for the first section of the story Bogart by using his distinctive voice manages to draw the audience into Vincent Parry's story. He and Lauren Bacall were one of Hollywood's greatest acting teams and even in a lesser effort such as this still provide first class entertainment. Enjoy.

Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) is convicted and sentenced for murder and has now escaped the San Quentin prison. By coincidence Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall) is in the near by hills painting landscape portraits when Vincent escapes and she decides to help him. Irene is one of the few who believed that Vincent was innocent of the murder of his wife, and this motivates her to help him. However, Vincent wants to discover who the murderer was on his own, but realizes that his face is nationally known as it has been on the front page of all the newspapers. Through the help of a taxi driver Vincent finds a plastic surgeon that gives him a new face that will help him on his quest for the truth. Dark Passage begins with interesting cinematography as it conceals Vincent's face until after the plastic surgery, which enhances the cinematic experience. But it does not save the awkward coincidental moments that drive the story forward and hurts the overall cinematic experience leaving the audience with a viewable, but gawky story.

Of the four movies Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together, Dark Passage is easily the weakest. (The others were To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and Key Largo.) It's a noir film that has what it thinks is a neat idea (the first third of the movie uses a "first-person" camera, meaning the central character is the camera viewpoint) but it falls flat.

In fact, the gimmick pretty much ruins the film because we don't get to see (and therefore connect with) Humphrey Bogart's character. In the first third, we don't see him period. He is the camera viewpoint. In the second third, his head is bandaged (due to plastic surgery to alter his identity).

We don't actually see Bogie till a large chunk of the movie is over. By the time we do, we're bored.

Bogart plays a character wrongly accused and convicted of murder. The movie opens with his escape. On the run, he is rescued by Lauren Bacall's character. (Everyone Bogart runs into conveniently has some connection to the story.)

A helpful cab driver later recommends a shady plastic surgeon to Bogart's character. Bogart gets his face changed then goes off in search of the criminals who framed him so he prove his innocence.

Despite trying, the movie never gets very interesting. For one thing, there is very little to relieve the darkness of the noir approach. There is little chemistry between Bogart and Bacall and this is largely because they play so few scenes together, at least in the first two thirds.

The characters do have scenes, but since Bogart isn't physically in them (because of the camera viewpoint or because his head is wrapped in bandages and he can't talk), the Bogie-Bacall magic is absent.

The other problem is the improbable convenience mentioned above - the helpful cab driver, a guy who picks up Bogart when he is hitchhiking, Bacall's appearance ... it's a little too improbable.

The only time we get a sense for an interesting story is at the very end when Bogart and Bacall have fled to South America. Suddenly the heavy handed noir atmosphere is relieved and we get something that has more of the atmosphere of Casablanca or To Have and Have Not.

It seems clear that the movie has misread what made Bogart and Bacall so interesting together. It certainly misreads Bogart.

Despite the success of movies like The Big Sleep and The Maltese Falcon, it wasn't the noir genre that made Bogart popular. It was that he was playing a flawed romantic hero within them.

In Dark Passage he simply plays a schmuck floundering around trying to prove his innocence. He doesn't play a strong character. If anything, the character is rather weak.

And so we end up with tedious movie, one that relies on something of a gimmick rather than the power Bogart and Bacall could bring to the screen.

I was bowled over by this forgotten piece of Forties High Style, wacky and quirky and unpredictable as it is. Yes, the idea of subjective camera for the first third of the film was campy and too much, and certainly neither Bogey nor Bacall added significantly to the allure established elsewhere. The Waxman musical score is great, though, and the supporting cast, and the lines and situations they are given!, is brilliant, one of the best ever. The couple Bogey overhears at the train station! The plainclothes cop with all the weird questions in the diner! And, above all, the cabbie driver and his wild stories about goldfish and the seven hills of San Francisco! I laughed with delight all the way through, and I readily forgive the film that it is no straightforward thriller. So much the better!

Bogart's third film with Lauren Bacall is also the third film in as many years to cast him as a man either plotting to kill his wife ("Conflict" and "The Two Mrs. Carrolls") or, in the case of "Dark Passage," a man imprisoned - unjustly - for having done the deed. Perhaps it was studio head Jack Warner's way of expressing his disappoval of Bogart's having romanced his "To Have and Have Not" co-star Bacall while still married to Mayo Methet. (Back in those more innocent times, a film star under contract to a big studio could ruin his career by violating the "morals clause" in his contract.)

Even if "Dark Passage" is not Bogie and Bacall's best (an honor I would bestow upon "The Big Sleep" by default--the superior "Key Largo" was more Edward G. Robinson's film than Bogart and Bacall's), it sticks in the memory, not because of its story, which is full of plot holes and coincidences (how convenient to have Bacall driving by and offer you a ride just after you've escaped from prison), but because of its wonderful noir touches. Bogart is an all too typical noir character here, a victim of the manipulations of others, especially Agnes Moorehead, as wicked a witch as Margaret Hamilton in "The Wizard of Oz." The scene in which Bogart undergoes plastic surgery is a highlight, one of those surrealistic nightmares that were almost a requirement of noirs from the late 40s. (Check out "Murder, My Sweet" with Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe for a similar moment, one memorably duplicated in the 1975 remake, "Farewell, My Lovely.")

Bogart has rarely been so sympathetic on screen as he is here, and Bacall is at her most attractive and appealing. The supporting cast is also first rate. This may not be a great movie, but it's an immensely enjoyable one, highly recommended for fans of the genre and the stars.

OK, first of all I do "get" this movie, despite what a previous reviewer suggests. This movie is not as bad as many reviewers would have you believe, nor is it as good as some would have it. Certainly not the best of the Bogey/Bacall collaborations. To quote reviewer Leonard Maltin from "The making of Dark Passage", included with the DVD: "This is not a great, great movie, this is a good movie". There are 8 other Bogart DVDs in my collection, I can't see watching this one over before any one of the others. Interesting to watch once, but hardly a "must have" and most definitly the least of the 4 films featuring Lauren Bacall. If you need to own all of Bogeys flicks on DVD, by all means grab this one, it won't dissapoint, otherwise I recommend passing and grabbing something else.