Dark Passage is a unique movie for it's time. It goes around half the film before it shows the main star's face. Early on it makes great use of the first person perspective, and later shadow to avoid showing Humphrey Bogart's face. The first half of the film gives you so much tension because you're not only unsure of what the main character looks like but he's evading the law after a prison escape and trying to find out who killed his wife and possibly framed him for the crime. The second half of the movie gets a little bogged down in the romantic plot and the mystery becomes a bit too predictable for this to be great. The first half though is as brilliant and tense of mystery thriller in the noir era as I have ever seen.
The film starts with Humphrey Bogart's character Vincent Parry escaping his way out of a San Quentin aboard a barrel in a truck. After tipping the barrel over and falling he hides his shirt in a bush. He quickly hitches a ride with Baker (Clifton Young) who is immediately suspicious of his appearance. He hears about an escaped convict with Vincent's description and Vincent punches him out. A stranger named Irene (Lauren Bacall) picks him up. She is revealed to have a father who was falsely convicted and takes an interest in Vincent's case. Her friend Madge (Agnes Moorehead) knocks on the door at one point and Parry reveals through narration he had been with Madge and she had testified against him after he broke up with her.
While in a taxi the driver recognizes Parry. He is actually sympathetic toward him and offers to take him to person he knows specializing in plastic surgery. He gets the surgery and this is when we finally see Bogart's face, albeit bandaged for the first time in the movie. He had arranged to stay with a friend whom he later finds murdered. He goes back to Irene. They fall in love but Parry has to leave to find out who killed his wife and prove his innocence in George's murder.
The pacing of the first half is very quick and never feels boring. There is a tense scene where Vincent is recovering and listens in on the conversations that Madge and George, Irene's boyfriend at the time have. I actually don't mind the romantic subplot between Bogey and Bacall as their chemistry is great. It does take away something from the main plot of the movie though and really bogs the movie down a bit. There is another great scene where after Vincent leaves he is quickly suspected by a police officer in a restaurant after not having an ID. He eventually escapes from the officer by moving quickly in front of a moving car.
Spoiler Section
While I like that Baker shows up again, the fact he was involved with the whole thing is a bit on the nose. It's a bit too cute. Madge is an interesting character as this cat lady who resents any man who rejects her and who she can't have. I just think this movie either needed one more person involved or another person's narrative to not be quite as predictable. As it stands I don't mind the second half but it is like eating the fries after you've all ready eaten an amazing burger instead of eating them a bit at once. It doesn't feel complete. The ending where Vincent manages to leave the country live well with Irene is nice though. Madge is a truly evil character though not necessarily a traditional femme fatale which is different for one of these movies. I do wonder if this movie would have been even better if Bogart's face was never shown or only shown at the end. For some reason I think that unique blocking and first person perspective would have actually been interesting throughout the whole movie and not just the first half. For marketing purposes I'm sure that could never happen. Though it could happen now. This movie must have had some influence on the Fugitive and even Face/Off has this to thank as well.
Rating: 7.5/10
Trivia: When Vincent sees a newspaper clipping of Irene's that shows a headline of her father being convicted for killing her mother the picture is of director Delmer Daves
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