Dead Reckoning (1947)

Dead Reckoning
Directed by John Cromwell
Written by Oliver H.P. Garrett, Steve Fisher et al
1947/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Captain Warren ‘Rip’ Murdock: You know, you do awful good. I came here to – but go ahead. Put Christmas in your eyes and keep your voice low. Tell me about paradise and all the things I’m missing. I haven’t had a good laugh since before Johnny was murdered.[/box]

Columbia attempts to replicate the magic of Bogie’s Warner Brother’s films noir with mixed results.

Captain “Rip” Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) and his fellow paratrooper Johnny Drake are on their way to Washington on an unknown mission atthe end of the war .  When Johnny finally discovers that he is to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor there, to great publicity, he makes a speedy getaway.  Rip deduces Johnny’s real name from some engraving on the back of his Yale pin and takes off for Johnny’s home town.

Oddly for someone so afraid of being found out, that is exactly where Johnny headed. Johnny suspected that Rip would end up there and leaves him a letter with the bartender at a shady bar/casino run by the gangster Martinelli.  The singer at the club is Mrs. ‘Dusty’ Chandler (Lizabeth Scott) for whom Johnny had pined throughout the war.  Before Rip can catch up with his correspondence Johnny and the bartender are both dead and the letter is MIA.

It develops that Johnny was the prime suspect in the murder of Dusty’s husband but managed to elude the police.  After the briefest of mourning for the dead Johnny, Dusty has thrown herself at Rip’s feet and teams up with him to find Johnny’s killer and clear Johnny’s name.  With Wallace Ford as a safe cracker.

Having got its hands on Bogie, Columbia decided to recycle all the tropes from Warner Brothers films like The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca, right down direct quotes in the dialogue, in Dead Reckoning. Unfortunately, instead of Mary Astor or Ingrid Bergman, Lizabeth Scott has to deliver the other half of the repartee. And try as she might, despite her husky voice and languor, she just is no Lauren Bacall.  It all came off a bit forced to me.

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