Dark Passage (1947)

Humphrey Bogart plays Vincent Parry, a convicted murder who has just escaped San Quentin Prison. Lauren Bacall is Irene Jansen, a woman interested in his case who shelters him. Vincent, believing he was framed, is desperate not to be sent back to prison so he enlists the help of a plastic surgeon to change his appearance.

This was a big deal for the studio because they were shelling out the money for Humphrey Bogart to star in this movie, but Vincent didn't look like Humphrey Bogart until after his surgery - meaning Bogart's face doesn't even appear on screen until the last third of the movie. The first two thirds we just see his hands and a first-person point of view followed by a brief time with his face in bandages.

First-person (or subjective) camera work was still rather exotic at the time. In today's context though, it feels like a video game. Another interesting filming choice was that this movie was shot on location in San Francisco. It's refreshing when compared to all the obviously studio set films of this era - even with the driving scenes clearly being in front of a screen.

As for the story, it's limited by the fact that Vincent is hiding and has nowhere else to go. Yet even in a confined plot Bacall and Bogart play off each other wonderfully. Dark Passage was the third out of the four on-screen partnerships between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and just like the rest, it makes you wish there had been more than four.

Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: Bacall/Bogie fans who wonder what plastic surgery was like in the 40's

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

In case you're not familiar, The Maltese Falcon is the standard for all film noir as well as Humphrey Bogart's career even though its actually a remake of a film that came out only ten years earlier. Humphrey Bogart is the smooth yet cold detective Sam Spade. Mary Astor is Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the frightened dame looking for help finding her missing sister.

When Spade's partner is killed during the investigation, Spade reluctantly picks up the case because, as he puts it, "When a man's partner gets killed, he's supposed to do something about it." Brigid's case isn't what she originally made it out to be and soon enough Sam is involved in the hunt for a statue called The Maltese Falcon. He tangles with a few others looking for it too, including Sydney Greenstreet in his first film role as the gentlemanly yet commanding Kasper Gutman and his oftentimes screen partner, Peter Lorre as Gutman's dapper associate, Joel Cairo. Distinct, memorable performances come from both these men.

While Mary Astor was the female star of the film, Lee Patrick is the one who really stands toe to toe with Bogart as Spade's secretary Effie. She slides in and out of scenes with ease, showing her distaste in small ways without words or disrespect. Meanwhile Astor stands around looking like a worried flower about to wilt, making you wonder how the heck she got involved with any of these people in the first place. And then of course there's Bogart bringing depth to the tough Sam Spade with movements as small as a smile. It's clear he does everything he does with great thought behind it and even though Spade isn't necessarily a nice guy, it's easy to find yourself rooting for him.

The film itself has great flow with the exception of any time anyone disarms anyone else. It's amusing, coming across as a hiccup with moves you can see coming across the room, but that's a style of the time. Outside of that you just float right through.

The Maltese Falcon shines even more so through its fantastic cinematography. Pause it at nearly any moment and you have a beautifully-composed black and white photo. This was soon-to-be-well-known writer/director/actor John Huston's first time directing and he's comes pretty strongly out of the gate. He doesn't shove anything in your face. He just lets you discover the film naturally and that's more beautiful than any jewels the falcon may have encrusted in it.

Rating: 5/5
Recommended for: Photographers and people who like to see where things got their beginnings

Key Largo (1948)

The John Huston-directed Key Largo is a rather simple and straight forward film noir. Humphrey Bogart stars as WWII veteran Frank McCloud. McCloud has stopped in Key Largo to pay his respects to a deceased comrade's family which includes the man's widow Nora, played by Lauren Bacall, and his father, as done by Lionel Barrymore. The hotel the two run has been taken over by fugitive gangsters awaiting a transaction. Predictably enough, as a hurricane brews outside, tempers brew inside. Lead gangster Johnny Rocco's abuses build up and someone has to stand up to him. Frank McCloud is not really interested in be that someone, regardless of him being the most likely candidate.

McCloud is archetypical Bogart hero who has moved on and is attempting to live the rest of his life in peace. And of course there's a woman and circumstances beyond his control trying to drag him back into the fray. It's is not the most exciting of the Bogart/Bacall on-screen partnerships, but it's their last and they work together well. The film itself is a confined tension builder akin to 12 Angry Men but falls just short of that same intensity. That might be due to story pacing which is a little on the slow side. It's a great cast though. Everyone is clearly committed and pulling their weight. So overall, not the best film ever but not a bad one at all.

Rating: 3/5
Recommended for: Any adult who is hankering for some film-noir and has one hundred minutes to spare.

Extended Review: The last twenty minutes or so finds Frank McCloud on a boat with bad guys. Immediately I found myself wondering if I had inadvertently switched over to To Have and Have Not, which has Bogart's character on a boat... trying to escape from bad guys. It seemed too uncanny to call a coincidence. A little research reveals the film was incredibly loosely based on a Maxwell Anderson play. Since they were re-writing everything anyway, when it came time to make up the ending they used the unusable boat shootout from... To Have and Have Not. Well, it worked.

The Unsuspected (1947)

The beginning of The Unsuspected finds a dead woman in the house of Victor Grandison, the host of a radio show that tells true crime stories. It's soon followed by the return of one of his nieces who'd been believed dead. The niece, Matilda, is accompanied by Steven, who claims to be her husband, but to whom she can't remember ever being married. Then there's Althea, Victor's other niece, who is married to Oliver, who was once engaged to Matilda. And Althea's not exactly thrilled that Matilda is still alive.

So yes, to say the plot is very thick right from the beginning is an understatement. And everyone manages to keep it interesting as the plot gets even more muddled before everything suddenly becomes clear. At that point, the audience is in on it but there's nothing we can do to warn the dwindling cast of good guys.

The cast gives a great ensemble performance, delivering lines naturally with nothing too overdramatic until a Grandison speech in the later half. Highlights come from Claude Rains, the penultimate supporting actor, as Victor Grandison, commanding your attention and fully committing to his character - a man who doesn't waver from his end goals for a second. Joan Caulfield is a great person for the audience to empathize with as she wanders about mildly confused at the center of the story. Director Michael Curtiz floats us through the Grandison home, making us familiar with all the rooms and giving us the impression that trouble is waiting just around the corner. The black and white film is really taken advantage of with the use of lighting to set the mood - an example being the soft glow that seems to emanate from the Matilda. And the whole production is so smooth, Hollywood could never match it with a remake today.

Rating: 4/5
Recommend for: Those who'd enjoy a good mystery without needing to grip the edge of their seat.

Notorious (1946)

Alfred Hitchcock directs Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains in this 1946 film-noir thriller. Good news for the squeamish and jumpy: There are no birds pecking anyone, no one being attacked in a shower, no one almost gets mowed down by a plane, and it won't make you dizzy.

Bergman is Alicia, the daughter of a former Nazi, asked by US agent T.R. Devlin (Cary Grant) to spy on some of her father's former friends in Brazil. She leads a willy-nilly life and harbors a bit of guilt over her father's actions, so she drops everything and goes with it. It just so happens that the leader of these "friends", Alexander Sebastian, was once in love with Alicia, so it's pretty easy for her to slip into their group and the next thing she (and the audience) knows he's asking her to marry him. Continuing with her "oh what the heck" attitude, she goes with that too. Alexander's mother suspects something's strange about Alicia that moment she walks in and eventually Alexander comes to be of that opinion too.

So what does a man with a shady past and present do when he figures out he's married to a spy? It's where the movie really gets interesting and the audience feels any investment in the characters start to mature. Alicia definitely isn't the gun-toting, rip-line-using, bustier-wearing Mrs. Smith of the 2005 Jolie-Pitt spy flick. She's in over her head with absolutely no training. Her only back-up is Devlin, who can't tell if she's taking the mission seriously or not and isn't sure if he can get her out before it's too late.

On the other team, we have the elderly Mrs. Sebastian who seems to be just waiting for a chance to put cruel words to actions, and her son, who has the wealth and network to do almost whatever he wants. Even though there's clearly a limited window for everyone involved, the film's pacing doesn't seem to speed up at all which serves to double the tension and make the conclusion all the more dramatic.

Rating: 4/5
Recommended for: Everyone over age 12, even if you don't usually like Hitchcock films

Extended review: Ok. I'll concede this: sending someone on a mission as a spy with no training and no exit plan doesn't seem that realistic. Perhaps that way they thought Alicia would seem more natural/less suspicious? Devlin does a good job of sliding into the scene next to her as an old friend but she meets with him so often right in broad daylight of course it eventually makes people wonder. It's probably why I didn't find myself that involved in the film until she's figured out. As Alicia slowly dies, you think Devlin will figure it out and save the day, but instead, in a moment of great irony, Alicia's well-known drinking habit is what stops Devlin from really checking in to why she seems a bit off. When Devlin finally comes to check on her the slow rescue right in front of the bad guys still infuses a little doubt that she'll be saved. Hitchcock has done something great here with expectations. You expect sneaking and running and you get slowly stepping and eye-to-eye confrontation. Questions of Devlin's aptitude are put to rest when he finally manages not only to save her, but stick Alexander in a no-win situation that'll prove to be his undoing. Cary Grant pulls it off so suavely that you may think he's not such a poor agent after all.