Dead Reckoning

Plot synopsis:
Leaving a church, Father Logan, a well known ex-paratrooper padre, is approached by Captain "Rip" Murdock (Humphrey Bogart). Murdock needs to tell someone what has happened to him in the past few days in case his enemies get to him. A flashback follows.
Just after World War II, paratroopers and close friends Captain Murdock and Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince) are mysteriously ordered to travel from Paris to Washington, D.C. When Drake learns that he is to be awarded the Medal of Honor (and Murdock the Distinguished Service Cross), he disappears before newspaper photographers can take his picture. Murdock goes AWOL, follows the clues and tracks his friend to Gulf City in the southern United States, where he learns Drake is dead – his burned corpse is recovered from a car crash.
Murdock finds out that Drake joined the Army under an assumed name to avoid a murder charge. He was accused of killing a rich old man named Chandler because he was in love with his beautiful young wife Coral (Lizabeth Scott). Murdock goes to a nightclub to question Louis Ord (George Chandler), a witness in the murder trial. Ord reveals that Drake had given him a letter for Murdock. Murdock also meets Coral and Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky), the club owner, there. Seeing Coral losing heavily at roulette, Murdock not only recoups her losses at craps, he wins her $16,000. For some reason, however, she is uncomfortable with the situation. When they go to collect the money in Martinelli's private office, Murdock accepts a drink; it is drugged. When he wakes up the next morning, he finds Ord's dead body planted in his hotel room. He manages to hide the corpse before police Lieutenant Kincaid (Charles Cane), responding to an anonymous tip, shows up to search his room.
Murdock teams up with Coral. Suspecting that Martinelli had Ord killed in order to get the letter, Murdock breaks into his office, only to find the safe already open. Just before he is knocked unconscious by an unseen assailant, he smells jasmine, the same aroma as Coral's perfume. When Murdock awakens, Martinelli has him roughed up by his thug, Krause (Marvin Miller), to try to find out what is in the coded letter. However, Murdock manages to trick his captors and escape. The flashback ends, and Murdock slips away.
Now suspicious of Coral, he goes to her apartment to confront her. She claims to be innocent, but finally admits that she shot her husband in self-defense. She went to Martinelli for advice and gave him the murder weapon to dispose of, but he has been blackmailing her ever since. In love with her himself, Murdock agrees to leave town with her, but insists on retrieving the incriminating weapon first, despite Coral's objections. He threatens Martinelli with a gun, eliciting some startling revelations. The club owner reveals that Coral is his wife. He killed Chandler (having learned the man had lied about having only six months to live) and framed Drake so that Coral could inherit the estate. Murdock gets what he came for and forces Martinelli to precede him out of the building. As he opens the door, Martinelli is shot and killed.
Murdock jumps into the waiting car and drives off with Coral. As they are speeding away, he accuses her of having just tried to kill him. When she shoots him, the car crashes. He survives, but she suffers fatal injuries. In the hospital, Murdock comforts her in her final moments.

Tags: plot twist, murder, flashback

Review:
If Humphrey Bogart had ever decided to film one of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer thrillers, it would have turned out something like 1947's DEAD RECKONING.
Although it's not actually based on a book, John Cromwell's tautly-directed film noir owes more than a little of its plotting and characterization to earlier classic crime novels-turned-classic Bogart movies.
Indeed, when my husband Vin entered the room while the film was on, he began watching it with me and soon asked, "Is this THE BIG SLEEP, or THE MALTESE FALCON?" However, DEAD RECKONING is steeped in the kind of bitter post-war viciousness that distinguished Mickey Spillane's writing -- not that there's anything wrong with that!
:-) Bogart commands the screen as Rip Murdock, a former Army paratrooper (lots of colorful references to parachutes and jumping here) and one of the most misogynistic good guys he ever played (not that you can blame Rip, after the wringer he's put through in this film).
Standing in for quintessential Bogart leading lady Lauren Bacall (and original leading lady Rita Hayworth, who was hung up making THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI) is Lizabeth Scott as mysterious chanteuse Coral Chandler, the kind of dame guys go gaga for against their better judgment (she's got so many pet names from her various beaus that the first time I saw the film, I wasn't quite sure if her name was "Coral," "Dusty," or, of all things, "Mike"!).
If you love Bogart and you like your film noir grim yet glamorous and over-the-top at times, DEAD RECKONING is well worth a look..
One of Bogart's best, a brutal Film Noir with a surprising ending, & filled with sharp, witty dialog.
This film has all the classic Film Noir elements: lots of shadows & stark contrasts (in the beginning, Bogart speaks from shadows so dark that one can hardly see his face), a spoken narrative, a "hero" who works outside the law, a murder mystery, & a heroine who may not be a heroine..
Dead Reckoning is not the best of Humphrey Bogart's films, but it's still entertaining.By the way, the ending confrontation is also out of The Maltese Falcon, though a bit more violent..
"Dead Reckoning" is a film that is satisfying while one is watching it, but later on, in retrospect, we question a lot of what we have seen as the plot doesn't make sense in many ways.
The film benefits from its two stars, who play a game that on the surface seems to be one thing, and with a surprising twist at the end, turns out to be something else.Humphrey Bogart excelled in movies like this.
There were several twists concerning Lizabeth Scott's character that kept you guessing.There were other things going for this film, such as Humphrey Bogart's narration.
Warren 'Rip' Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) goes to a Catholic church and confess to a priest that he has been chased by the police and gangsters, and he would like to clean the name of his best friend, Sgt. Johnny Drake/John Joseph Preston (Wiliam Prince).
However, the story of "Dead Reckoning" is magnificently developed in flashbacks and is very engaging, with many plot points, having a wonderful black and white photography, using perfectly the effects of the shadows, a very gorgeous actress Lizabeth Scott with a beautiful voice and Humphrey Bogart, my favorite actor ever.
However, no matter what definition you choose, John Cromwell's 1947 film, "Dead Reckoning", will definitely end up being one of the best examples of a movie under the film noir label.
With legendary actor Humphrey Bogart leading the cast and a story of mystery, crime and suspense; experienced director John Cromwell helms a film that while probably not very original, fulfills is intentions and delivers a good dose of entertainment."Dead Reckoning" is the story of Captain Rip Murdock (Bogart), who along with his teammate and friend, Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince), returns home after World War II to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Medal of Honor respectively.
But this is only the beginning of Murdock's investigation, as his friend's past will unfold and Rip will discover that his friend had dark secrets that cost him his life.Based on a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Sidney Biddell, the plot follows the conventions of film noir, although it packs more than a few surprises.
It is also very dark, more than the typical film of this type, with Bogie's character being probably one of his meanest (quite a feat for the noir icon) and the whole film carrying an incredibly tragic (and very effective) mood.Stylistically "Dead Reckoning" follows the patter of noir style to the letter, and certainly takes full advantage of its elements.
Again, it may not be the most inventive film noir ever, but it's one of those that better demonstrate the style at its best.Humphrey Bogart once again demonstrates his domain of the scene and his knowledge of the trade, making a noir archetype turn into a powerful character that can go from being hateful and unlikeable to charming and worthy of sympathy in seconds.
Morris Carnovsky is excellent as Martinelli, the man knows exactly what Murdock needs to know, and gives a classic noir performance."Dead Reckoning" is an excellent thriller that perfectly showcases the different elements of the noir style at its best, but as written above, it follows that pattern to the letter without really adding something new.
If any other actor were speaking this dialogue it might evoke laughter if not confusion, yet Humphrey Bogart makes it work.Here Bogart is paratrooper Rip Murdock, just recently home from the war with Sergeant Johnny Drake, who is to receive the Congressional medal of honor.
Murdock follows his buddy's trail to Gulf City, a bar and gambling joint there that is run by a mobster, the girl that stole Johnny's heart - young and beautiful - and wealthy - widow Dusty Chandler (Lizabeth Scott), and a trail of clues fraught with mystery and murder.
It's rather obvious that Lizabeth Scott is Columbia's answer to Lauren Bacall in this one, and that gangster Martinelli and henchman Krauss are attempting to duplicate the types of roles played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Bogart's successful Warner pictures.
The movie's got noir icons like Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, and Morris Carnovski, plus a mysterious past, a smoky night club, and a barbecued corpse.
There are other reasons I think the movie doesn't get beyond second-rate noir, such as uninspired direction (whether Cromwell's name is elevated above the title or not), overly long love scenes (after the point has been made), and menacing figures who don't really menace (Carnovski & Miller).
Here Bogart ends up calling Scott's character "Mike", just the sort of sidekick affection he shows for real life wife Bacall in their several movies together.
His role as a tough-talking ex-GI looking for his buddy's murderer and moving among a bunch of unsavory characters is the kind of material Raymond Chandler could have written with his eyes shut.The stock heroine is played with sultry charm by LIZABETH SCOTT, who seems to be subbing for Lauren Bacall throughout the murky proceedings.
The corpse is a bartender who knew too much about the murder of Bogart's buddy.It's a typical Bogart movie of the '40s, film noir material that's well handled by director John Cromwell.
The film manages to pull in many of the standard noir elements; best of which is the femme fatale; excellently brought to life by Lizabeth Scott.
By the way he talks Humphrey Bogart thinks he's still Sam Spade and that Lizabeth Scott is Mary Astor but "Dead Reckoning" is no "Maltese Falcon".
Bogart is excellent as always and there's nice work from Morris Carnovsky as a bad guy but Lizabeth Scott was certainly no Mary Astor and at times you wonder if her 'bad acting' is bad acting or just 'bad acting', if you get my drift.
Bogart is superb, as always.Some of the lines near the end seem to have been paraphrased straight from "The Maltese Falcon"("You're going to fry!") and Lizbeth Scott's character seems to have been inspired from Lauren Bacall's from "The Big Sleep" from a year earlier, but those are minor nitpicks.
Enjoyed all of Humphrey Bogart's films along with a very sexy actress, Lizabeth Scott,('Dusty' Chandler) who gave outstanding performances in their one and only film together.
Bogart plays the role of Capt.'Rip' Murdock who is traveling by railroad with his Army buddy, Sgt. Johnny Drake, (William Prince) who is going to Washington, D.C. to receive a Medal of Honor award, but somehow disappears off the train.
Humphrey Bogart is at his best in this film, and it is also a good one for George Chandler, Morris Carnovsky and Marvin Miller.
Humphrey Bogart is at his best in this Film-Noir as Ex-GI Rip Murdock but not his usual private detective role that he plays in these kinds of movies.
"Dead Reckoning" is a good, if not very original, film noir starring Humphrey Bogart as a paratrooper investigating his buddy's death.
Superb film noir incorporates the poetic, metaphoric dialogue that Bogart delivers so well, and the husky brogue of femme fatale Lizabeth Scott, as a sad-eyed singer and magnet for murder.
"Dead Reckoning" is an average film-noir made better only because of Humphrey Bogart.
Bogie is good in this classic film-noir and I enjoyed watching him, just like I enjoyed the plot and Lizabeth Scott, although I prefer Mary Astor, Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall (of course) more in the other Bogie films.
Scott was a bit cold at times.This is a good movie, but if you are looking for a top-notch really awesome film-noir, then watch The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon, cause they are great.
This is definitely one of those and moreover director John Cromwell, not one I'd regard as being in the Hollywood pantheon, somehow manages to get his name above the title too.Good for him, because this is a cracking and mostly pulsating film noir, led by the inimitable Bogart again immersing himself in a meaty role, ostensibly a demobbed army captain but evidentially a sub-Sam Spade type adventurer who gets up to his neck in danger as he attempts to track down his army-buddy-with-a-secret Johnny and taking in encounters with a gambling-den boss, his hired muscle who gets up close and personal in a far from pleasant way with Bogart's face and Lizabeth Scott as the femme fatale playing both ends as you would expect.The movie starts with a straight-away drop-in to the action leading up, you just know it, to a lengthy flashback from Bogie, involving a fairly contrived unburdening of not quite his soul to an ex-forces padre.
Not to worry, a quick look at your watch tells you there are still 20 minutes or so to go and you know you're in for an exciting guns (and fires) - blazing finish.Bogart's great as per...and Scott is just fine for the most part in her Bacall-clone part, all smoky eyes and voice, even getting into a noir-trademark white outfit (a la Stanwyck & Turner) for the second half, although she acts a pretty poor deathbed scene in the final reel and can't lip-synch her early-on torch song for toffee.
It soon becomes evident that Johnny was not who he said was, something that makes Rip's journey one that will involve murder, deception and one hell of a dame.Dead Reckoning has a mixed relationship with critics and Bogart/noir fans alike.
Based on the novel by John Cromwell, it tells the story of GI Rip Murdoch as he tries to avenge the death of his friend at the hands a local mobster named Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky), along the Gulf Coast.Lizabeth Scott, an absolutely brutal actress and a poor imitation of Lauren Bacall to say the least, plays the female lead and is the target of Bogies insults degrading women throughout the film.
The overuse of the Paratrooper Theme that becomes almost Cringe Inducing as the Movie moves along, and the usual Hard-Boiled Chandleresque Patter just never stops (there can be too much of a good thing).The Dark Atmosphere and even Darker Characters are Welcome and there is some Sharpness to the Proceedings although it does Weaken in the Romance Area at times and comes off as an Odd Coupling between Bogart and Lizabeth Scott.
Dead Reckoning (1947) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Mildly entertaining drama has Humphrey Bogart playing a Captain who goes searching for his buddy who ran off just days before he was suppose to receive the Medal of Honor.
Dead Reckoning is a film noir that would had benefited from a stronger leading lady and if the film had not followed the strictures of the film noir genre so slavishly.Humphrey Bogart gives a sardonic but tough performance as Captain Rip Murdock (Bogart) who searches for his friend and army buddy Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince) who fled when he was told he was to receive a medal after returning home from the war.Murdock goes to a southern coastal town and finds out that Drake has died.
"Dead Reckoning" is somewhat of a rehashing of the plots and dialog of "The Maltese Falcon" and "The Big Sleep," but it contains much more visual violence It is a typical Hollywood film noir of the post-war but a long way behind "Gilda" in likability Bogart is again portraying his now all-too-familiar role of the sardonic cynic with his own moral code who, this time, is on the trail of a killer who has murdered a wartime paratrooper friend Lizabeth Scott is cast as Bogart's femme fatale, obviously hoping to exploit her close resemblance to Lauren Bacall Unfortunately, like Bacall, her first few films found her equally awkward and expressionless.
DEAD RECKONING has every possible element and cliché of 40's Hollywood film noir,with the disadvantages of an ill-chosen director,John Cromwell (who usually specialised in tearjerker or straightforward melodramas),a rather weak supporting cast,dated stereotypes and hackneyed plot.It would have ended up confined to B-movie obscurity had it not been for one factor:Humphrey Bogart.The story (war veteran seeks his fellow conflict hero buddy in his hometown,only to find out he gets killed,and tries to find out why),the dialogue and characterisations (cynical,hard-boiled) the settings (seedy nightclubs,plush apartments) characters and flashback structure were even in the mid-1940's when this film was made,so over-acquainted to audiences that such cinematic essays were teetering on the verge of parody.DEAD RECKONING perilously comes close to that said description,with it's lack of originality and style,but it is redeemed to the point of watchability simply by the presence of one of Hollywood's all time greats.He is given no chance to particularly stretch his talents,but Bogart was the all-time master of world-weary cynicism and nonchalant sarcasm,and by force of his sheer charisma rises above the mediocrity surrounding him.The supporting cast involved (Lizabeth Scott,Morris Carnovsky,Marvin Miller) are adequate but pale alongside Lauren Bacall,Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre who they are obviously trying to emulate,and large chunks of the story are inferior derivatives from such classics as THE MALTESE FALCON,THE BIG SLEEP and GILDA,with a monotonous voice-over which would have been unacceptably over-literal had Bogie not been it's instigator.DEAD RECKONING is fortunate to be saved by Bogart's cinematic persona,and the only truly memorable or imaginative touch is reserved for the film's very final shot;with the same studio (Columbia),Bogart would make a far better example of post-war Film Noir three years later with IN A LONELY PLACE,with a much more interesting and inventive plot,in-depth characterisations and directorial style.RATING:6 and a half out of 10..
"Dead Reckoning" is an entertaining movie which contains many film noir characteristics.
His sergeant is about to get the Congressional Medal of Honor, but he discovers the man isn't who he claimed to be, but a suspected murderer on the run from the law.Lisbeth Scott plays the Mary Astor role as the woman who cannot really be trusted.Some interesting things here, this movie doesn't show Post-WWII America in the happy terms we all want to remember it.
Director John Cromwell's film noir thriller "Dead Reckoning" is the last great tough-guy movie that Humphrey Bogart starred in after he left Warner Brothers and went to Columbia Pictures for the last phase of his career.
"Dead Reckoning" contains an oblique dialogue reference to the classic John Huston detective film "The Maltese Falcon." Bogart is cast as a U.S. Army paratrooper, Captain Rip Murdock, and his buddy, Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince of "The Gauntlet"), is slated to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor, so the military put both of them on a plane home.
She was going on and on about marriage only to turn out to be an untrustworthy snake, She does look great in the end with perfect make-up on...Lizabeth Scott was very good playing the femme fatale role.
The best film noir always features a sultry femme fatal out to get what she wants from a brooding anti-hero, and in the case of this one, she is Lizabeth Scott, the blonde vixen with more than a passing resemblance to Lauren Bacall, the wife of the star here, Humphrey Bogart.
His army buddy, Rip, Humphrey Bogart, investigates and this leads to further murder, mayhem and who knows what else in this far-fetched drama.Liz Scott is the mysterious woman with quite a past and she belts out a song at the night club owned by Morris Carnovsky, quite a crook.
. MALTESE FALCON wannabe, with Humphrey Bogart co-star Lizabeth Scott an equally silly and cheap Lauren Bacall knock-off.
But while we care for Bogart, we never really care for Lizabeth Scott, who seems like a poor man's Lauren Bacall.
Good Bogart film-noir.
Worth watching by anyone with an interest in Bogart or film noir.
She is played by Lizabeth Scott, who was to become one of the great noir actresses, but who at the time was a young starlet appearing in only her third film; despite this she achieved equal billing with Bogart.
"Dead Reckoning" is certainly worth watching by anyone with an interest in Bogart or film noir.