D.O.A.

Plot synopsis:
Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) begins his tale by walking into a Los Angeles police station and telling a detective "I want to report a murder... mine." Oddly, the police almost seem to have been expecting him and already know who he is since there has been an APB on him since yesterday.A flashback begins with Bigelow in his hometown of Banning, California where he is an accountant and notary public. He decides to take a one-week vacation in San Francisco, but this does not sit well with Paula Gibson (Pamela Britton), his confidential secretary and girlfriend, as he does not want her to accompany him.Bigelow meets and accompanies a group of randy men from a sales convention on a night on the town. At a "jive" nightclub called "The Fisherman", unnoticed by Bigelow, a stranger swaps his drink for another. (The nightclub scene includes one of the earliest depictions of the Beat sub-culture). The next morning, Bigelow feels ill. He visits a doctor at the general hospital, where tests reveal he swallowed a poison called "luminous toxin" for which there is no antidote. A second opinion confirms the grim diagnosis, and the other doctor implies that the poisoning must have been deliberate. Bigelow remembers his drink tasted strange. He flees from the hospital in a panic, wondering who poisoned him and why.With just a day or two to live at most, Bigelow sets out to untangle the events behind his impending death, interrupted occasionally by phone calls from Paula, whom never finds out about the predicament that he is in. Paula provides the first clue: a man named Eugene Philips who had urgently been trying to contact Bigelow by phone for the past two days has died, purportedly a suicide. Bigelow travels to Philips' import-export company in Los Angeles, meeting a variety of suspicious characters. He first meets Miss Foster (Beverly Garland), Philips' secretary; then Mr. Halliday (William Ching), the company's comptroller, who tells him that Eugene Philips committed suicide after jumping out of a window from his apartment the previous day, but he cannot offer Bigelow any information on why Philips was attempting to contact him or why. From there, Bigelow follows a lead to Philips' widow (Lynn Baggett) (whom is strangely distraught to meet Bigelow despite the fact that they have never met before). Bigelow also meets Philips' younger brother Stanley (Henry Hart) whom also claims not to know what Philips was wanting to speak with Bigelow for.The key to the mystery is a bill of sale for what turns out to be a shipment of stolen iridium. Stanley tells Bigelow that Philips was arrested two days before he died for selling the iridium to a gangster named Majak. During another phone talk with Paula, Bigelow learns that he had unknowingly notarized the bill of sale document of the iridium for Eugene Philips six months earlier on the behest of Philips' friend George Reynolds. Bigelow meets with Mrs. Philips again who tells him about Reynolds who had went missing two months earlier and who may have been responsible for the theft of the stolen iridium. Bigelow then goes back to Miss Foster who tells him that Philips had been having an affair with a fashion model and that Mrs. Philips knew about it.Bigelow meets with Philips' mistress, Marla Rakubian (Laurette Luez) demanding what she knows about Philips and Reynolds as well as the sale of the iridium, but she pulls out a gun and attempts to kill him. He subdues her and takes her gun. He demands to know what she knows, but she claims not to have seen George Reynolds for months. Bigelow takes a photo she has of Reynolds and goes to a photo studio where the photo was taken where the manager and photographer claim that the photo was taken over a year ago, but that Reynolds used a different name. While leaving the studio, an unseen sniper attempts to shoot Bigelow as he gets into his rental car. After a chase through a nearby warehouse, the unseen sniper gets away, allowing Bigelow to go free.That evening, Bigelow is captured outside his hotel by a group of gangsters whom take him to Majak (Luther Adler), a powerful crime lord whom is Marla's real lover after she had called him about Bigelow making inquires. After Majak questions Bigelow over what he knows and "what Philips may have told him over the phone". Majak sees that the ignorant Bigelow indeed did not talk at all to Philips in the past two days, but Bigelow has learned too much about Majak buying the stolen iridium from Philips so that Majak could re-sell it on the black market, plus George Reynolds was in fact murdered by Majak to cover up loose ends. Majak orders his psychotic chief henchman Chester (Neville Brand) to take Bigelow out of the city and kill him (none of the gangsters seem to be aware that Bigelow has been poisoned). However, Bigelow manages to escape when he stops the car that Chester is driving through the city and runs out. Chester pulls out a gun and gives chase, attemping to shoot Bigelow on the busy sidewalk. Bigelow runs into a pinball arcade where the police show up and shoot Chester dead, allowing Bigelow to slip away.Bigelow thinks Stanley and Miss Foster are his killers but when he confronts them at Philips' office, he finds Stanley has been poisoned too - after having dinner with Mrs. Philips. He tells them to call an ambulance and what poison has been ingested so that (in Stanley's case at least) prompt treatment may save his life. Stanley tells Bigelow he found evidence that Halliday and Mrs. Philips were having an affair. Bigelow realizes that the theft of the iridium by Majak was merely a diversion. Philips discovered the affair and Halliday killed him.Bigelow then confronts Mrs. Philips at her house where she tells him that she and Halliday used the investigation of the iridium as a cover for their crime, making it seem that Eugene Philips had killed himself out of shame. However, when they discovered that there was evidence of his innocence in the notarized bill of sale, Halliday murdered anyone who had knowledge of the bill of sale.After leaving Mrs. Philips apartment building, Bigelow is jumped by several of Majak's henchmen who try to kill him. Bigelow manages to outrun them and boards a local bus, but the gangsters, led by Majak himself, follow the bus in a car. When the bus stops at a local stop, one of the henchmen attempts to board, but Bigelow disembarks and sees a policeman standing at the street corner and stands close to him. Seeing that Majak and his henchmen will not attempt to capture or kill Bigelow with the cop standing close by, they drive away, allowing Bigelow to escape again.Bigelow tracks Halliday down to an office where he confronts him and finally sees that Halliday was the stranger who poisoned his drink the previous night. When Halliday attempts to run, Bigelow shoots him to death in an exchange of gunfire.The flashback comes to an end. Bigelow finishes telling his story at the police station and dies, his last word being "Paula..." The police detective taking down the report instructs that his file on Bigelow's death be marked as dead on arrival, or "D.O.A."

Tags: cult, mystery, murder, sadist, flashback

Review:
Edmond O'Brien had one of the best roles of his career in D.O.A., and he took full advantage, though few critics give his performance much credit for the film's success.O'Brien, a classically trained actor, plays a small-time Southern California businessman living his ordinary little life, minding his own business, regularly boffing his secretary (this was implied rather than made explicit; after all, this was 1949), and avoiding her whiney entreaties that they tie the knot, as he's been promising her he would do for ever so long.You can't help liking O'Brien in part precisely because of his human flaws.
(Hitchcock picked up on that real quick; watch Vertigo again to see how he saw the eerie side to that town, with its creepy deserted streets, little ghostlike fog-blown urban hills, and other abandoned places suggestive of loneliness and soullessness.)From here one great noir scene follows another in astonishing succession: the smoky, crowded jazz bar where the sweaty black musicians are blowing up a storm (to an all-white 1949 audience of course), while a murder is silently committed with a switched drink.
Edmond O'Brien, a great character actor who was in everything from the classic rock'n'roll movie 'The Girl Can't Help It' to Peckinpah's western masterpiece 'The Wild Bunch' (he played the old coot, you probably won't recognize him here), is the "hero" who is told he has been poisoned and has days, maybe even hours to live.
The reason that he was poisoned had to do with him notarizing a bill of sale for a shipment of iridium that was stolen and could put the person who shipped it behind bars for at least five years!It took a while for Bigelow to realize that he had a fatal dose of luminous toxin in his system and by the time he did it was too late to save his life.
While not as 'dark' as other film-noir pictures, it still ranks very high in it storytelling, having a potent enough story to tell, and a slew of actors just pushing the limits of the B-movie style.Edmond O'Brien is at his absolute best as the worried Frank Bigelow, worried because he's in a rotten predicament: poisoned by a random drop of 'luminous poison' at a jazz club, with no chances of survival.
Several are good, and a few are stand-out; Luther Adler as Majack gives some worth in his scenes, and especially a small but very memorable part for a nasty character, Chester, done to a T by Neville Brand (the little dialog scenes between them are as shamelessly pulp as any other film like this, but compelling and very entertaining).Aside from the merits of most of the cast, and Matte's visual approach (much of the outside running scenes and chase bits are shot right on location, like in a pre-guerrilla style of film-making), there's the aspect of the script.
Finding a good print is hard, although I finally got a decent one with this Killer Classic DVD set that includes this movie.The story, like the print, is not always easy to follow, either, even though the premise is very simple.
Great B-movie film noir, played as if his life depended on it (and it does) by Edmond O'Brien as a small-town notary who pays a big price for signing the wrong document at the wrong time, turning what should have been a pleasure trip to the west coast into a murderous affair altogether.It starts with a bang, O'Brien staggering into the local homicide unit to tell the cops that there's been a murder - his, before launching into the massive flash-back which takes up pretty much the rest of the movie.
The action from there on is hectic and as convoluted as all the best noirs are as O'Brien, infected by a deadly poison, races against the clock to track down his own killer and the reason behind it.The film makes fine use of actual San Francisco and Los Angeles locations as well as authentically depicting the hot and steamy atmosphere at a Frisco jazz club.
The director, Rudolph Mate, had a real insider joke with that shot.And that long tracking shot, by the way, was an excellent example of how to use fast camera work and great editing.On another level, the movie very much fits the times vis-à-vis the portrayal of evil and where it leads: retribution is always just around the corner for those who transgress society, even if you think you're justified.
When you see this movie, you'll know what I mean.And, for the times, the acting was good, with a standout performance from Edmond O'Brien, and ably supported by the ever-competent Luther Adler (as Majak, the sharp dealer in stolen goods), and Neville Brand, as the psychopathic Chester.
What was the director thinking of...?That aside, it's a good, fast-paced action mystery that helped to keep the film noir genre very much alive.
This is probably Rudolph Maté's peak.When a B-movie reaches such heights,it should be called nothing but classic.The movie starts slowly,after a brilliant opening,then picks up speed and ends up leaving the spectator panting for breath.Like every film noir -why do they use a French expression for a typically American genre?-,it's very hard to catch up with the very complicated plot,although the cause for the fighting is laughable(a bill of sale).There are a lot of characters,male and female,but the scenarists manage to preserve cohesion.This film noir recalls the Greek tragedy,because we learn in the very first scene that the hero has been irremediably poisoned .
Some scenes are particularly brilliant:the killer sadistically smiling,as he tells the hero he's going to kill him slowly,very slowly(the irony lies in the fact that he does not know his prisoner is really slowly dying);the short-lived reunion with his girlfriend;the funeral urn.The last line is the very title of the film.There have been very harsh words about the remake("color me dead"(1988)),featuring Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan.Probably unfair.It's no longer a film noir,but rather a whodunit,the plot -only the initial situation is the same- multiplies the wrong tracks .Quaid is a college professor and Ryan a student.So do not try to compare it with its highly superior predecessor,and you'll be able to enjoy it ..
There's no doubt that "D.O.A." grabs your attention right from the opening scene, as the camera follows Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) walking into a local police station to report a murder - his own!
Nevertheless this movie is not boring at all, with a decent running time as well it whizzes by quite nicely and the whole plot wraps itself up in just over 80 minutes.It stars Edmond O'Brien as Frank Bigelow the man who has been poisoned, he has no idea why because he has no obvious enemies and he doesn't even know where he was poisoned.
I just felt at certain points when the script throws up some quite dramatic part, the actors kind of go a bit over the top with what they've got, no one fails in this film but it is only some scenes are ruined by none believable acting though.Rudolph Maté uses the script from Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene to make a very fast yet efficient film, it never gets too bogged down in its own story and although it can open up too many avenues of investigation, it still comes to a conclusion that makes sense.
I also liked the bad people or person(could be either,no spoilers) in this, of course I will not claim who they are so I do not ruin for possible readers of this but although they are not superbly evil, they definitely have a ruthless streak waiting to come out.I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys well film noir, I still don't think many will find this near being a masterpiece although I am sure some will enjoy it massively more than I did.
Ask anyone to name a film noir movie or two and D.O.A is likely to mentioned simply because it has had a long TV life and so many generations of people have seen this.
The second time, I watched it for the little period details; the now 'retro' neckties; the goateed hepcat at the bar where O'Brien gets 'the drink'; the street scenes of a vanished San Francisco.Ever notice how many great movies were shot in San Francisco?
I recently watched D.O.A. and found it very gripping in parts.Frank Bigelow goes on a week long break to San Francisco but during this, he is poisoned with a luminous toxin by somebody for no apparent reason.
At the end (and beginning as the story is told mostly in flashback) as he arrives at a police station, he drops dead.The movie has some good location photography and a rather haunting music score.The cast includes an excellent performance by Edmond O'Brien (White Heat) as Bigelow, Pamela Britton as his fiancée, Beverly Garland (It Conquered the World), Luther Alder and Neville Brand.D.O.A. was remade in 1988, although I don't think it is so good as this version according to reviews I have read.
In it, a man must discover the person responsible for his own murder, a plot point realised thanks to the presence of a slow-acting poison that gives him only a day or two to live.D.O.A. presents a bleak and icy narrative that has a strong degree of pessimism to it, thanks to that excellent premise.
Frank Bigelow walks into a police station and talks about his own death.He has been poisoned by luminous toxin in San Francisco and only has a short time to live.Rudolph Maté's D.O.A.(1950) is a brilliant film-noir about a man searching for his own murderer.Edmond O'Brien is a perfect man in the lead.Other players are great as well.Pamela Britton plays Paula GibsonLuther Adler is Majak.Beverly Garland is Miss Foster.The movie has many brilliant scenes.It's a fantastic sequence when Frank has just found out he's going to die and goes running in the streets.This is a cynical movie that is not intended to entertain you.D.O.A. is classic of the film-noir genre..
Turns out it was just one of those unfortunate deals of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he is dead anyway.Pamela Britton, who would find later acclaim as Blondie and a regular on "My Favorite Martin" gave a passionate performance as his ditsy girlfriend.This was classic film noir and the score was terrific.
Frank Bigelow is in San Francisco for a break away from his fiancée, after a night on the town he wakes up and feels a bit under the weather, after consulting a doctor he is told he has been poisoned by a luminous toxin and only has a few days to live.
I don't think D.O.A. is film noir, as it seems to be almost a parody of film noir (notice how deliberately hard-boiled all the characters are (well, except loving, loyal, sweet Pamela Britton as his true love, though he doesn't know it yet) and call O'Brien's character always by his last name, Bigelow, even the less than diplomatic doctor who, coming out of his lab to confirm luminous poisoning and holding up the vial, says, "Yeah, you got it, Bigelow".
Businessman Edmond O'Brien, traveling from his small California town to San Francisco for a meeting, is given a slow-acting poison which will mean his eventual demise; he attempts to finger his own murderer before dying.
Even so, these two are not really the parties involved in O'Brien's poisoning and, in fact, the plot is a little too convoluted along the way until one gets all the threads sorted out towards the end.The character of O'Brien's secretary/girlfriend is quite one-dimensional and gets a bit annoying as a result, but it is relevant to the plot nevertheless; besides, the whistling on the soundtrack every time a good-looking girl passed O'Brien by during the early stages of the film was rather corny.
Edmond O'Brien plays Frank Bigelow an everyman type who enjoys his vacation away from work and girl-friend when he gets poisoned with some sort of luminescent toxic substance in a jazz club in San Francisco.
The opening scene - a long tracking shot of Bigelow entering police HQ and announcing to a homicide detective that he has a murder to report, "who was murdered?"/ "I was..." - truly matches the idea behind DOA in terms of originality and is surely one for the ages in the film noir universe.
O'Brien is right on the money on his role as the determined, gruff, doomed hero and most of the cast turn in good performances...Gripping, fatalistic, with moments of pure noir brilliance, DOA is well worth checking out for genre fans, even as flawed as it is..
The excellent Edmond O'Brien stars in this nifty story as Frank Bigelow, a small town tax accountant who goes on vacation in San Francisco.
Frank goes to the police station, where the following exchange occurs: "I want to report a murder." "Who was murdered?" "I was." From then on, you know you're going to have a fun time with this briskly directed (by Rudolph Mate) and paced film.
There seemed to be so much over-the-top scenery chewing taking place, especially by Edmond O'Brien, as Frank Bigelow, that I began to view this gravely solemn Crime/Drama as something of a cartoon-style comedy.There were a number of times when I actually burst out laughing when the situation was clearly meant to be taken with the utmost solemn seriousness.Told in a series of continual flashbacks, D.O.A.'s story concerns Frank Bigelow, a small-town accountant, who, after living-it-up in San Francisco one weekend, finds out that he has been poisoned by a "luminous toxin" (which had been, unknowingly, poured into his drink).With there being no antidote, Bigelow is told by the doctor that he has, at the most, a week to live.
(It is never explained why this poison didn't make him violently ill) Not knowing who did this to him or why, Bigelow embarks on a desperate journey to try to find out the identity of his murderer.Directed by Rudolph Mate', D.O.A., filmed in b&w, had a running time of only 83 minutes..
A Film Noir Gem. The Plot: Small-town accountant Frank Bigelow goes to San Francisco for a week's fun prior to settling down with fiancée Paula.
Not knowing who did it or why, Bigelow embarks on a frantic odyssey to find his own murderer.They don't make film noir like this no more.
The Great Opening Premise, the Scene at the Jive Bar, on the Street Locations, the Blistering Pace, Neville Brand's Sadistic Psycho, Tough Talk, and a rather Intricate Interwoven Plot are some of the Things that make this one of the Great B-Movies and an Essential Entry in the Noir Canon.Symbolism (the "Life" magazines), Post Nuclear Paranoia (radiation poisoning), Odd Camera Work, and a Conflicted Every-Man literally Doomed by Circumstance ("All I did was Notarize a Bill of Sale."), are some others.
A man (beautifully played by Edmond O'Brien) finds out he's been given a slow acting poison and has only a few days to live.
This is a dark, cynical noir -- O'Brien is dead from the moment he ingests the poison, and his actions for the rest of the movie are those of a drowning man frantically trying to save himself because he doesn't know what else to do with his final moments on Earth."D.O.A." looks like it was made for about five bucks, but it nevertheless managed to line up some formidable talent behind the screen.
Classic film noir about a man (Edmond O'Brien) who finds out he's been poisoned.
This movie is about a man named Frank Bigelow, who finds out he has been murdered by slow poisoning which there is no cure for, and he attempts to find out who did it.
Neville Brand plays an over-the-top sociopath Chester.Pamela Britton, as O'Brien's girlfriend is rather weak.Overall, a fun movie to watch, especially for film noir buffs..
Not only the script but the masterful direction by Rudolph Mate and the absolutely "no letup" Performance by Edmond O'Brien as Frank Bigelow, the central character.Kudos to Neville Brand as the giggling, sadistic, psycho.They just don't make 'em like this anymore.
Neville Brand plays the psychotic, hotheaded goon to perfection (also with humor as well as malice) the kind of role for which this character actor was perfect.The scene where his hotel room is adjacent to convention revelers, with the married lady trying to seduce him, is hilarious, These folks looked like, say, a group of small-town convenience store owners, loose for the first time in the big city.I've been to the "Bay Area" on extended visits a few times, and while the traffic and overall bustle might have been a bit less in this film than I encountered in later years -- from my experience in this crowded, busy city, it would have taken Edmund's character about two weeks to have done all the hurrying and scurrying, and visiting all his many destinations, whereas he accomplished all of this in a matter of hours in this story.Still, a very entertaining movie, with these features adding to the enjoyment of its story..
Average man Frank Bigelow(Edmond O'Brien) leaves on a little trip to San Francisco and then fate steps in.
A wonderful performance by Edmond O'Brien as Frank Bigelow, a man with only a few days to live.
This has to be one of the better film noir stories out there, and certainly among the best of its time.
(1950) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Exciting, fast and tense film noir has Edmond O'Brien mysteriously poisoned and slowly dying so it's a race against time for him to find out who did it and why.
Original for the 1950's but a little bit overused for younger generations the theme of a man running against the clock to find the truth behind the lies on matters of life and death is the main premise of "D.O.A." a classic film noir starring Edmond O'Brien playing Frank Bigelow, a man who tries to catch the person who poisoned him with a lethal substance during a trip in San Francisco.