Dark Passage

Year: 1947

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Daves

Review

bogey and bacall back together. first the bad – the direction and chemistry between bogart and bacall were both inferior to the brilliant “to have and have not.” on the upside, this film was more creative and, plot-wise, more interesting than “to have and have not.” one of the more intriguing aspects of the film is the world that is portrayed in the film. at times it is dark and hopeless, but other times it’s only because of a kind soul that the protagonist (bogart) is able to get by. in one instance bogart is saved from capture because of a lauren bacall’s character who hides him in her car, but, we find out later, he wouldn’t have been a wanted man if it wasn’t for the dark intentions of agnes moorehead’s character. later on there are a couple characters who are neither good nor bad, but still have a very important impact on bogart’s fate. in this sense the film creates a world that can be both bitterly cruel and angelic, but one in which bogart’s fate is always dependent upon another. for the first hour of the film we don’t even see bogart’s face. a lot of the time the camera uses a subjective point-of-view because bogart’s character gets plastic surgery half way through the film and his appearance is drastically altered. after the surgery he’s in bandages, so we only see bogart for the last 40 minutes of the film which is pretty amazing since he’s the lead of the film. i can’t think of many films in which the lead character is unseen for the majority of the film. there’s more diegetic music in this mystery-noir than you can shake a stick at. there’s some occasional illogical direction from daves. there’ll be a shot with two people facing each other a certain distance apart and the next shot will be from a different angle and have them in a different position. small stuff like that crops up a bit, but overall it’s an ambitious film with good acting, a smartly written screenplay, and an interesting and engaging premise.