Dead Reckoning (1947)

This mediocre film noir, involving the usual tangle of murder and deceit, is notable mainly for Bogart's presence. He's an army captain who sets out to solve the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of a buddy. There's the usual quotient of danger and deceit and, of course, a femme fatale, well played by Lizabeth Scott who seems to have been born for this kind of part. Many of the plot points are either hard to follow or hard to swallow, and it's all much too talky, but it does have a memorable closing line! Worth seeing for genre buffs.

Fmovies: The bulk of this film, the middle of it, was just too slow for me, hence the so-so rating. The beginning and endings were very good, especially several scenes in the final half hour. There were several twists concerning Lizabeth Scott's character that kept you guessing.

There were other things going for this film, such as Humphrey Bogart's narration. He had a lot of good lines in here, either narrating or talking to others. He and Scott were the stars but some of the supporting players also were great, such as Morris Carnovsky as the tough-guy aide, "Martinelli. " Also, they may not be big names but Charles Cane, William Prince, Marin Miller, Wallace Ford and James Bell all added nice performance here.

Yet, with all this going for it, I didn't find the film as involving as it should have been. Perhaps another look someone will change my mind.

The one liners; the dialogue that stops mid sentence; the black & white look; tough double crossin dames. This is great film noir or whatever its called. Bogey gets even. And Lizbeth Scott has the best voice this side of L. Bacall. Nice overbite. This is a good one to curl up and watch with the rain pounding outside. Too bad I live in this God forsaken So Cal where it never rains.

Dead Reckoning fmovies. Humphrey Bogart and William Prince should be psyching themselves up for the big moment of their lives in Dead Reckoning. Bogey's put Prince up for the Congressional Medal of Honor. But Prince doesn't react to that quite the way one would expect. He jumps the train in Philadelphia on the way to Washington, DC and disappears and Bogey starts his own hunt for him and an explanation.

The trail leads to Prince's hometown and Bogey learns that Prince was fleeing a murder rap when he joined the service. There's a girl involved to, Lizabeth Scott who Columbia was trying to build up into their version of Lauren Bacall. Of course the best way to do that was team her with Humphrey Bogart. Prince also winds up dead and Bogey's really on a mission now.

Dead Reckoning borrows very heavily from The Maltese Falcon in terms of Bogart's character motivation. He was avenging a partner, admittedly one he wasn't crazy about, in The Maltese Falcon. Here he's looking for answers and vengeance on whoever might have murdered his war time buddy. That was a common theme in a lot of post World War II films. The audience, heavily populated with veterans, could understand Bogart's motivation back then easily.

And because Humphrey Bogart is such a skilled player, today's audience can appreciate it. Dead Reckoning is not the best of Humphrey Bogart's films, but it's still entertaining.

By the way, the ending confrontation is also out of The Maltese Falcon, though a bit more violent.

This movie, while certainly not the best film noir, certainly would be an ideal introduction to the genre, in large part because of its blatant banality. It does not even attempt to elaborate or subvert any of the genre's themes, so in that sense is ideal for someone wanting to get a feel of a film noir. All of the noir ingredients are there: man returning from war, femme fatale, flashback narrative, gambling, seedy clubs, suspicion, paranoia, etc. I've never seen Lizabeth Scott in anything else so can't really comment on her, but my goodness she seems to be trying to do her best Lauren Bacall impression. Certainly she's no Bacall, Lake, Gardner or even Turner, but is passable in her performance as the femme fatale. The plot is more complicated than someone used to contemporary movies may expect, and one certainly needs to pay a lot of attention to it. That being said, it can work in the same way as 'The Big Sleep' (a much superior film) if one disregards the plot and just soaks in the atmosphere. The city at night shots at the movie's beginning are incredible, probably the photographic highlight of the entire movie. I've read criticism about the direction and lighting in the sense that it switches between light and dark. I think that it is supposed to work in the same way that a movie such as 'Mildred Pierce' works in the sense that the juxtaposition between light and dark represents the character's state of mind. So in a scene where Bogie is content with Scott, the colors are extremely light, representing his state of mind. More suspicious scenes are thereby darker. I don't know, just a theory, and even if this was the director's intention its debatable as to whether its effectively achieved.

All in all, an enjoyable noir, certainly recommended for fans of the genre, just don't expect any originality.

John Cromwell was a director that aimed to please, as demonstrated by the films he left behind.

"Dead Reckoning" is a film that is satisfying while one is watching it, but later on, in retrospect, we question a lot of what we have seen as the plot doesn't make sense in many ways. All the elements of the Film Noir genre can be found in it. We have a war hero Rip, who is investigating the disappearance of his buddy, who he watches running away from a train in order not to testify with him in Washington. The action takes us to a Southern coastal town, where supposedly, the escapee has gone to. Little prepares Rip to find his friend burned to death in the morgue.

Thus begins a tale of deception that has lots of interesting twists. The film benefits from its two stars, who play a game that on the surface seems to be one thing, and with a surprising twist at the end, turns out to be something else.

Humphrey Bogart excelled in movies like this. He is tough, but he has time to have a great rapport with Dusty, the former singer at the local night club. Lisabeth Scott plays the siren with an air of mystery. It comes as a big surprise what happens at the end.

Morris Carnovsky, a great theater actor of the time, is Martinelli, the crooked owner of the night club. Also a young William Prince plays the man who ran away to find a tragic fate by doing so.