Dark Passage (1947)

Dark Passage
Directed by Delmer Daves
Written by Delmer Daves from a novel by David Goodis
1947/USA
Warner Brothers
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box]Vincent Parry: You know, it’s wonderful when guys like you lose out. Makes guys like me think maybe we got a chance in this world.[/box]

My reaction to this one was colored by my dislike of the “I am a camera” gimmick.  Once Humphrey Bogart shows his face things pick up.

Vincent Parry (Bogart) escapes San Quentin, where he has been incarcerated since being wrongfully convicted for murdering his wife.  He has to deck a guy who offers him a lift after the man asks too many questions.  Then Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall) picks him up, having learned of his escape.  She followed his trial closely because the case reminded her of the wrongful conviction of her father.

A kindly taxi driver alerts Parry to a cut-rate plastic surgeon who gives people new faces on an outpatient basis (!!?).  The new face is to make Parry look significantly older than he is. Irene cares for him during his week-long recuperation.

Parry soon has to worry not only about finding his wife’s murderer but tracking down the killer of his closest friend while simultaneously fighting off the blackmailing driver he decked during his escape.  With Agnes Moorhead as a friend of the family.

The movie is shot from the Bogart character’s point of view for about the first third.  Then his face is covered in bandages for another good stretch.  Some might find the POV camerawork intriguing.  I find it extremely jarring and unconvincing.  I also had serious problems buying into most of the plot points.  But Bogart and Bacall’s chemistry is totally convincing and the movie might be worth seeing just to look at his face when he gazes at her.  My husband liked this movie much more than I did.

Trailer