Dark Passage
Tags: murder, atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
Guy escapes prison (Humphrey Bogart) See? Girl (Lauren Bacall) gives refuge to guy. Got that? Yeah. . .
The exciting scénics of San Francisco become the backdrop for the ensuing manhunt. The escaped con is often recognized and suspected, heightening his wish to flee and hide detection, taking us with him through his Dark Passage into and out of film noir. He is able to do so but must brave a medical metamorphosis and battle the intervening finger of fate that slates him against the quirks of manipulators and those who would see him behind bars in a shake of this finger. Is he guilty? --no. San Francisco creates a symphony of noir elements with a twist. What. . .? A happy ending you say? Of course. It's Bogie and Bacall, likely the only couple to make it out of film noir alive, together in Peru and with a pretty colored tropical drink in hand, in B&W, of course.

Review: The absorbing documentary featurette on the DVD edition of the 1947 mystery DARK PASSAGE (DP) suggests that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's participation in the star-studded Committee for the First Amendment, intended to defend colleagues called before the HUAC, might have been the reason that DP wasn't as big a hit as the real/reel-life couple's earlier screen collaborations.
Instead of the cocksure Bogart character we all know and love, DP protagonist Vincent Parry is wary, fearful, fumbling in his attempts to clear himself of his wife's murder and elude the cops like he escapes from prison in the film's opening scenes.
His only allies include the mysterious Irene Jansen (Bacall), who followed his case during his trial and ends up in a position to help hide him while he proves his innocence, and Sam (Tom D'Andrea), a kindly, lonesome cabbie who steers Parry to a back-alley plastic surgeon (Houseley Stevenson) to get a new face to help him fly under the law's radar.1947 was The Year of the Subjective Camera, with DP's first hour shot from Bogart's point of view and Robert Montgomery's film adaptation of Raymond Chandler's LADY IN THE LAKE (which I've discussed elsewhere on the IMDb) using the technique throughout.
There isn't an uninteresting face or a bad performance in the bunch, with standout performances from the leads, D'Andrea, Stevenson (wise, kindly, and vaguely sinister all at once), Rory Mallinson as Parry's musician friend, the ever-dependable Bruce Bennett, cheap hood Clifton Young (with an oily grin and a cleft chin that looks like it got lost on the way to Cary Grant's face), and especially the magnificent Agnes Moorehead as Madge Rapf, the kind of woman who won't join any club that'll have her as a member, a stylish dame who spreads stress and misery wherever she goes.
Watching a "feature" on the DVD the other day after viewing this movie, it was interesting to hear that "Dark Passage" was never a popular film despite the headliners being Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.That was because studio head Jack Warner was displeased that Bogart's face wasn't shown for the first half of the film and so he didn't give the movie much publicity.
Before naming them, let me preface by saying Bogart and Bacall still give good performances and Bacall still had a face in those early days that was mesmerizing BUT the people who make this movie click are:Tom D'Andrea as the cab driver; Houseley Stevenson as the strange and extremely interesting plastic surgeon; Clifton Young as the blackmailer; Tory Mallison as Bogart's old best friend and Agnes Moorhead as the villainous snoop.
Even if she has only two or three scenes she steals them all.And it speaks volumes when the stars are Bogart and Bacall.This is my favorite B/B among the four films they made together."The big sleep" has a plot I've never understood -Hawks used to say it was the same to him-,"to have and to have not" fails to excite me (Bogart a resistant and Gaulliste at that!"Key Largo",on the other hand, is a close second to Daves' movie .Not that the subjective viewpoint/camera was that much new.Robert Montgomery filmed his hero the same way in 1946 ("Lady in the lake" ,and we only saw his reflection in the mirrors).Hitchcock knew the technique as well and he used it with virtuosity during short sequences.But Daves who is best remembered for his westerns ("broken arrow") pulls it off effortlessly.The depth of field gives a dreamlike atmosphere to the first sequences with Bacall and the surgeon -dream which becomes nightmare during the operation when Bogart sees in his bad dream all the characters involved in the story- There are plot holes of course,particularly Madge 's character .Parry is in Irene's house and presto here she comes.It takes all Agnes Moorehead's talent to give this woman substance.The first third is Bogartless,as an user points out.But he could add that the last third is almost Bacallless too.Only the ending,which I will not reveal of course ,is not worthy of a film noir!Maybe the producers imposed it..
While the least-known and, really, the least impressive of the Bogart/Bacall features, this is still a solid, if rather offbeat, movie that combines a film-noir atmosphere with a gimmick that is meant to drive most of the story.
Typically movies can only get away with one or two unlikely plot elements, but somehow I still enjoyed 'Dark Passage' despite numerous key elements' implausibility.The film opens to a shot of convicted felon Parry (Bogart) in a barrel in back of a truck headed down the road.
I especially like the first-person view, which then transforms through a surrealistic imagery scene of plastic surgery, into the normal third-person view.One plot element I particularly take issue with is that, although Parry gets a new face, we are asked to believe that his distinctive Bogart voice cannot be recognised by the closest of his acquaintances.
Bogart's third teaming with Lauren Bacall was in "Dark Passage," a murder-mystery film which depended upon contrivances rather than good scripting to see it through The film opened with the use of a subjective camera (MGM used it throughout their "Lady in the Lake" that same year) with Bogart's off-camera narration establishing the plot as we watch our hero escape from prison with the intent of finding the real murderer of his wife, the crime for which he had been wrongfully jailed Once he meets up with Bacall and goes to a plastic surgeon, the subjective camera is forgotten as Bogart now utilizes his own face and carries on the investigation "Dark Passage" was energetically directed and written by Delmer Daves who used some atmospheric location shots in San Francisco to underscore his drama The film included an unusual number of bizarre and eccentric characters, all competently playedAgnes Moorehead essayed a superb1y schizoid characterization as a bitchy "friend" of Bogart and his dead wife Bacall showed definite signs of improvement in her acting and Bogart was properly bitter, sour and nonplussed For all practical purposes, this film marked the conclusion of Bogart's famous "image" period Now he was to forsake his romantic leading-man roles for acting assignments which he hoped would raise him to greater heights as a performer He was to succeed, in many cases, magnificently.
An escaped convict (Humphrey Bogart) undergoes plastic surgery and hides out with a pretty young woman (Lauren Bacall) while he tries to figure out who murdered his wife, the crime for which he was convicted.
If Alfred Hitchcock had directed it with a better script, Dark Passage may very well have been the best instead of the worst of the Bogart Bacall teamings.One character I really liked though was Clifton Young who first picks up Bogart on the road after the escape.
Vincent Parry is a San Quentin convict wrongly accused of murdering his wife, who escapes from prison and is taken in by a gorgeous Good Samaritan (that would be Lauren Bacall as Irene Jansen).
After the operation is completed and the bandages are unspooled, Vincent Parry turns into Humphrey Bogart, and he is now able to set out to discover who really murdered his wife.I'm not one who usually can't suspend his disbelief when watching movies, but there are a lot of contrivances here, even for me!
A man convicted (Humphrey Bogart as an escaped convict and for the first 40 minutes you don't see the star , only hear his voice) wrongly jailed of murdering his wife breaks out of prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence .
He undergoes plastic surgery and it is only after when the camera turns on his new face ; he is subsequently aided and hidden by a beautiful girl (Lauren Bacall in an ordinary glamorous character as a valiant woman who hides him from the authorities , her scenes with Bogart are delightful), as he tries to find the real murderous .
"Dark Passage" is a 1947 Warner Brothers film starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.
As a bonus, Agnes Moorehead turns in one of the most unexpected performances in cinematic history, and that alone makes "Dark Passage" worth viewing.As a man falsely convicted of killing his wife, Bogart plays a standard noir hero with a troubled past and no future.
I guess Daves didn't pay attention.) Bacall shows up as Bogart's helpmate, there are creepy supporting characters speaking strange monologues (another noir trademark), and enough weak but interesting men to keep the plot moving forward.
Tough, gleaming black-and-white noir has Humphrey Bogart portraying an escaped convict in San Francisco who is helped by a well-meaning girl played by Lauren Bacall, Bogart's new bride in real-life.
Of course, in Vincent's case the tension is an act, but there is still more heat with Madge (act or not) than in any of the scenes with Irene.Lauren Bacall aside, Dark Passage is a good film.
"Dark Passage" is an example of how a gimmick can work wonders.Humphrey Bogart plays an escaped con who was wrongfully accused of murdering his wife -- of course he was wrongfully accused....he's Bogie!
Moorehead steals the picture simply by being on the screen, a considerable feat given the screen presence of Bogie and the visual sizzle of Bacall.The first half of "Dark Passage" is effectively eerie; the first-person camera work really adds to the atmosphere, and Bogart's bandaged visage lends a creepiness to things.
The way the San Francisco locale is used so that the city itself is a character in the film, the terrific performances of the supporting cast, especially Agnes Moorehead, and the settings and costumes give the film a distinctive look that few films, noir or otherwise can match.
"Dark Passage" is a silly film when you look at it objectively, but an effective film noir, a subgenre that, though set in the real world, has an exaggerated, almost feverish quality, emphasizing the dread, anxiety, and paranoia of modern life.Humphrey Bogart plays a man who escapes from prison where he was sent after being wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife, and tries to prove his innocence and bring the true culprit to justice.
The best parts of the film were the beautiful shots of San Francisco, Agnes Moorehead's last couple of scenes, and the creepiness of the backroom plastic surgery Bogart goes through (though gee, just a week later, a brand new face with no swelling, incredible).
A star vehicle for Bogart and Bacall, the third among their total four collaborations, DARK PASSAGE is produced in the apex of film-noir fad, Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a convict who has been accused of murdering his wife, is bent on finding the real killer after stowing away on a supply truck out of San Quentin prison in the opening scenes.
It is a novel move to tap into the facing-changing gimmick, although the film ineptly takes oceanic artistic license to justify/simplify the whole enterprise, from the Good Samaritan cabbie ( D'Andrea), surely is a chatty loner, who implausibly proposes the idea to Vincent after recognizing him, a wife-murder on the lam, not even for a monetary gain, to a shaggy-dog looking doctor (Stevenson)'s seemingly dubious business, until the pitch-perfect debut of a brand new face without any traceable marks left (an in-joke is to make Vincent look older than his real age, at the expense of Bogart's senescent bearing and his May-December marriage with Bacall), it might be able to pull the wool over the eyes of audience at that time, but viewed as this day, unintentionally it looks more like droll derision to the orthopaedic progression than anything scintillating.
The latter, a strong-willed rich gal, incorrigibly falls for a presumed wife-murderer, her undoubted certitude of the former's innocence is thinly based on preconceived notion and if taking out of the context of the two stars' personal intimacy, their liaison doesn't make sense in either way, but as usual, the girl's motivation bears the brunt of character underdevelopment, since Bogart's Vincent at least evokes a dew-eyed veneer of passivity in all the pandemonium which can allure those soft-hearted.On the plus side, Ms. Moorehead is fiercely catty and menacing to a fault, Daves makes impressive uses of San Francisco's film-genic topography and its art deco trimmings, together with DP Sidney Hickox's sharply expressive deep-focus shots, on top of a cock and bull escapist tale tempered by a soupçon of schmaltz and a big chunk of wishfulness..
A man (Humphrey Bogart) convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman (Lauren Bacall) to try and prove his innocence.The film is notable for employing cinematography that avoided showing the face of Bogart's character, Vincent Parry, prior to the point in the story at which Vincent undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance.
"Dark Passage" stars Bogart and Bacall in a classic cinema noir story about a man (Bogart) who escapes prison to prove his innocence of the murder of his wife.
For its first two thirds, this movie is filmed in first person perspective, as the story's main character, Bogart, escapes from prison after being wrongly convicted of killing his wife, and hides out with a "fan", played by Bacall.
Later undergoing plastic surgery, aided further in his recovery and search for his wife's killer by Bacall, who curiously disappears in later scenes.The effect of showing 60% of the film in first person perspective is effective to an extent, but is negated by the fact that by now, everyone knows what Bogart looked like, so his reveal holds no suspense.
Delmer Daves directed this unusual thriller that stars Humphrey Bogart as escaped convict Vincent Parry, wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife, who tries to prove his innocence.
A very cool little film-noir starring Humphrey Bogart as Vincent Parry, a prisoner escapee who has been framed for the murder of his wife.
Now with a new face he and his lone ally Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall), he sets out to try and clear his name.Since revisiting The Caine Mutiny (1954) earlier this years I've been sucked right in the movies of the late Hollywood giant Humphrey Bogart.
What I like about Dark Passage is not simply the clever gimmick of using point-of-view camera-work before the plastic surgery changes the main character's face (though Bogie's inimitable voice never seems to pose an issue).
Set in San Francisco, "Dark Passage" stars Humphrey Bogart as an escaped convict who was found guilty of killing his wife, and Lauren Bacall, as the woman who helps him.
This is a bit of an unorthodox take on the film noir genre and I like the premise but the pieces don't add up.Bogart is great as an escaped convict and Bacall is excellent as well but little else is believable.I can't recommend this movie on any basis except for the performance of Bogey, who is one of the best to ever appear on screen..
presents Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall in their third collaboration in a crime-drama with ingredients of mystery, while the leading man must act under heavy facial bandages to get supported by his wife into finding a new life from being an imprisoned convict for murder, when "Dark Passage" can only be enjoyed for the two Hollywood stars sake in an otherwise suspense-lacking attempt of stark-noir "hard-boiled" motion picture of the 1940s.© 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC.
"Dark Passage" (1947) is the third film in the hugely successful Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall pairing, the previous two having been "To Have and Have Not" (1944) and "The Big Sleep" (1946), both directed by Howard Hawks.
This film, however, is far from thoughtful: a thriller of the likes that only Warner Brothers Studios made, this is based on a previous years novel of the same name by David Goodis.The story is thus: Vincent Parry (Bogart) escapes from San Quentin after being framed for the murder of his wife, and with the aid of Irene Jansen (Bacall), he sets out to the find the real killer, as well as having a face change to avoid the police.On paper, it might sound fairly routine, but there are enough gimmicks and plot contrivances to keep it afloat: the first thirty-five minutes are mostly seen directly from Parry's point of view (meaning you never see Parry's face in the flesh, only through some newspaper photographs.
Wrongfully accused of his wife's murder, Vincent Parry escapes from prison and ventures into San Francisco in an effort to clear his name by unmasking the real killer--and in order to conceal his identity from the authorities undergoes plastic surgery.In order to carry off this plot device, the first half hour of the film is shot from the visual perspective of the character: we see what he sees.
In this film Bogart plays a convicted murderer on the run from prison who is innocent and Bacall helps him escape and hides him.
Neither plot nor characters (especially Agnes Moorehead as Madge and Clifton Young as the gunsel) are readily believable in this tale of an escaped convict seeking the one who framed him but, with Humphrey  Bogart (Vincent Perry, whose face doesn't appear on the screen for the first half of the film) and Lauren Bacall (who is at her most seductive, eyebrows notwithstanding) in the leads and suspense thick enough to cut with a knife, who cares?
(He's an escaped con who is going to have plastic surgery.) We see his "old" face in a newspaper photo, and then we see Bogart in bandages, reminding me a little of Claude Rains in the original The Invisible Man (1933), and finally we Bogey's face when Lauren Bacall removes the bandages.Although Dark Passage is representative of one of my favorite eras in film, namely the late forties/early fifties, on display here is not the best work of either of the principles.
Humphrey Bogart is Vincent Parry, and Lauren Bacall is Irene Jansen, so it's with a tinge of sadness that Dark Passage is considered the weakest film of the four collaborations from the special duo.