Dark Passage ***** (1947, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Agnes Moorehead, Bruce Bennett, Tom D’Andrea, Houseley Stevenson, Clifton Young, Douglas Kennedy) – Classic Movie Review 1344

Writer-director Delmer Daves’s 1947 Warner Bros vintage film noir mystery thriller Dark Passage marks the extremely satisfying third star pairing in the series of the four films made by husband and wife Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Bogart stars as innocent convicted murderer Vincent Parry, who escapes from prison to prove he kill didn’t his wife. He undergoes illicit backroom plastic surgery to conceal his features and hides out in the apartment of sympathetic young artist Irene Jansen (Bacall) until his scars heal. She works with him to try to prove his innocence, but what she doesn’t know is that he is really after revenge.

This stupendous Forties film-noir thriller, in which the two stars glow, is not as famous as it deserves to be, certainly not as renowned as The Big Sleep or To Have and Have Not, or even Key Largo. Yet, with its splendid acting, cheeky scripting, and an enjoyably dark, outrageously far-fetched tale, it is a film noir marvel.

Plus there is taut, imaginative direction by Daves who wrote the excellent, literate and intelligent screenplay, adapting it from David Goodis’s novel.

With its noir cinematography from Sid Hickox, Dark Passage is hauntingly weird, artificial and claustrophobic, and always hits the target absolutely spot on. For example, after Bogart’s bandages are removed, there is no attempt to show any traces of the stitches, bruises or facial swelling that you would expect after plastic surgery. The film is that artificial. It is also remarkable for its atmospheric San Francisco backdrop settings and the use of subjective camera for the first third of the film, shot as Bogart’s eye view.

Robert Montgomery had used the subjective camera technique for his MGM Philip Marlowe film noir Lady in the Lake (1946) the previous year. Rouben Mamoulian had used it for the first five minutes of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) but the technique was pioneered in 1927 in France by Abel Gance for Napoléon.

Montgomery had got the subjective camera technique idea for Lady in the Lake from Delmer Daves, who was then planning to use it for the first part of Dark Passage. But the subjective camera technique experiment in Lady in the Lake had been generally considered a failure, so it is surprising that they would try it again, though admittedly this time just for the first third of the film. MGM and Warner Bros both objected to the experiment and both eventually dropped their objections to it.

Agnes Moorehead (as Madge Rapf), Bruce Bennett, Tom D’Andrea, Houseley Stevenson, Clifton Young, Douglas Kennedy are the star support players.

Rory Mallinson, John Alvin, Tom Fadden, Mary Field, Ross Ford, Patrick McVey, Richard Walsh, Clancy Cooper, Ian MacDonald and Ramon Ros also co-star, with Frank Wilcox as Vincent Parry (picture in the newspaper, uncredited).

Agnes Moorehead and Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage.

Warner Brothers studio head Jack Warner was angry to discover that the face of one of his biggest stars is not seen for the first half of the movie – it is not fully shown until 62 minutes in. The combination of this and the film’s unorthodox first person perspective was thought to have harmed its box office. Even so, on a cost of $1.6 million, it earned $3.4 million at the box office. To put it in context, Lady in the Lake cost MGM $1,026,000 and earned $2,657,000, while The Big Sleep cost Warner Brothers $1.6 million and earned $4.9 million.

The Art Deco apartment building used in the film located at 1360 Montgomery Street in San Francisco still standing.

The David Goodis story was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post from 20 July to 7 September 1946 before being published as a book. Bogart, then the best-paid actor in Hollywood, averaging $450,000 a year, read it and wanted to film it, so Warner Bros paid $25,000 for the rights. Goodis also wrote the novel Down There, on which François Truffaut based Shoot the Pianist (1960).

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart in Dark Passage.

Bogart and Bacall’s support for the Committee for the First Amendment, established to combat the House Un-American Activities Committee, also helped to lead to the film having a relatively poor box office.

Nevertheless, more than 1,500 fans turned out to watch filming of Bogart’s location scenes at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Adored screen legend Lauren Bacall died on August 12 2014, aged 89.

The cast are Humphrey Bogart as Vincent Parry, Lauren Bacall as Irene Jansen, Bruce Bennett as Bob, Agnes Moorehead as Madge Rapf, Tom D’Andrea as cabby Sam, Clifton Young as Baker, Douglas Kennedy as Detective Kennedy, Rory Mallinson as George Fellsinger, Houseley Stevenson as Dr Walter Coley, John Arledge as Lonely Man, John Alvin, Tom Fadden, Mary Field, Ross Ford, Patrick McVey, Richard Walsh, Clancy Cooper, Ian MacDonald and Ramon Ros.

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1344

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Bogart and Bacall’s four films together: To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Key Largo and Dark Passage.