D.O.A. (1950)

D.O.A.

Small-town accountant Frank Bigelow goes to San Francisco for a week's fun prior to settling down with fiancée Paula. After a night on the town, he wakes up with more than just a hangover; doctors tell him he's been given a "luminous toxin" with no antidote and has, at most, a week to live! Not knowing who did it or why, Bigelow embarks on a frantic odyssey to find his own murderer. Written by Rod Crawford {puffinus@u.washington.edu}

June 9, 2008

Powerful and intense noir movie

The opening scene of this movie is justly famous; Frank Bigelow (the excellent Edmond O'Brien)walks into a police station saying he wishes to report a murder -his own.The movie then goes into flashback mode and we witness the events that brought about his predicament and his tracing of the killer.It is a clever story and kudos should be bestowed upon the writers Clarence Greene and Russell Rouse for the ingenious plot .
Bigelow is murdered while in LA attending a convention and the modus operandi is the covert administration of a poison for which there is no known antidote .On being advised that he only has a short time to live he devotes his time to identifying the killer .The journey takes him into the seedier side of LA and Frisco bringing him into contact with the dark side of American society.Dark in this case can be taken literally as events unfold mostly at night or in darkened rooms

The photography by Ernest Laszlo is moodily effective and the score is quite exceptional but then it is by Dimitri Tiomkin ,so what do you expect?
O'Brien is rarely absent from the scren and he does a superb job of holding things together displaying what an under-rated actoer he was .Pamela Britton as his secreatry and confidants is fine and the debuting Neville Brand (playing a psychotic killer and hired muscle)is compelling .Watch out too for another debutant in Beverly Campbell(later Garland) and Luther Adler in another of his splendid slimeball turns .Rudolph Mate's direction is exemplary

In my view this movie has been slighly over-rated down the years and I dissent from the view ,often voiced ,that it is the best film noir ever .It is certainly the most unusual and that counts for a lot.So ,while I believe it is not quite as good as its reputation it is still a hypnotic and propulsive movie that deserves repeat viewings December 20, 2007

What an ending, but I won't tell you

One of the reasons I give this 5 stars is the reason this guy was murdered, my jaw droped to the floor and bounced. If you have not seen this film you will SAY WHAT??? this is crazy. Good film all the way through, deffinitly a classic Noir (black) film in all its glory, Great acting all the way through. What starts out slow excellerates to Whoa, slow this down before I chew my fingernails off. Don't ever tell anyone the ending, it's way too bizare to give up. November 6, 2007

One of the greatest movies ever!

After some character development that is essential
and never boring, this movie is relentless.
The brilliant film noir imagery, the constant action,
excellent performances and over-the-top score
puts the so-called action genre films of today to shame.
It is obvious that technological advancement
does not great art make.

Why aren't there more films in black and white?

The plot is awesome.

As soon as the opening credits and Frank Bigelow's
long, pounding death march to the
Police Dept. Homocide Division office ends,
he reports a murder. His own!

Then we learn the story, in flashback,
of how he hunted down his murderer
with the short time that he had left
and dealt with his imminent death
and the regrets that it gives rise to.

I cannot comment on video and audio quality
of this version because I have another
(the double feature with "Suddenly"),
but it is an important factor for
public domain films, of which this is one. October 6, 2007

The Difinitive Film Noir

This film is what Film Noir is all about. The plot is perfect; doomed
anti-hero faces fate, bad guys who are a step ahead of him at every turn, time running out and love just out of reach.
Everyman, Frank Bigelow, finds himself a "dead man walking", with two
days or about a week to live. The poisen that is killing him is as much a
mystery as the twist of fate that has made him worth murdering.
The opening makes this film a noir classic, Bigelow shows up at the
homicide department to report his own murder and the story takes off from
here, maintaining a torrid pace until the final scene.
This is a dark, complex tale that manages to make you suspect every-
one and know that there is a new twist around every corner. Each charactor
we meet has a story to tell that is not quite true.
Exquisite lighting, sound track and framing set the mood for the most
part except for the bizarre wolf whistles that accompany the appearance of
every beautiful woman he sees in San Francisco while he is out to have a
wild time away from his girlfriend, Paula. This part of the soundtrack is an off the mark distraction opposed to an otherwise nearly perfect acoust-
ic mirror for the action.
The taught fast moving story line provides enough twists and turns to lose the viewer who does not pay close attention.
Like most films of the genre, it relies heavily on dialogue to keep
up the pace. D.O.A. adds plenty of action to move this nifty litle film a-
long at a speed that make it's eighty-three minutes simply fly by.
Lively performances by Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton and a brief but intense and spellbinding performance by Neville Brand push this Noir
thriller into the must own, Noir Classique realm.
It has a dark finis' that entertains us even though fate deals our
anti-hero one bum hand after another. At last he sees love has been near
at hand but time has run out.
This is a "must have" for all real Noir fans. July 20, 2007

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