Dark Passage (1947)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio Featurette-Making Of-Hold Your Breath And Cross Your Fingers: The Story Of Short Film-Merrie Melodies - Slick Hare (7:44) Theatrical Trailer-1.33:1, not 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital 2.0 (2:13)
Rating
Year Of Production	1947
Running Time	101:50 (Case: 95)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (39:06)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Delmer Daves
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Humphrey Bogart Lauren Bacall Bruce Bennett Agnes Moorehead Tom D'Andrea
Case	?
RPI	$19.95	Music	Franz Waxman

    Dark Passage seems to occupy an unusual place in the Humphrey Bogart canon. Whilst it reunited Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall for their third film together - at a time when Lauren Bacall was having a hard job getting parts that suited her - and therefore should have been a box office smash, it did not do well at all. This may of course be something to do with the fact that this was not a typical film, shot in the usual sort of way. Even nearly sixty years on, the use of the first person style of shooting - where the camera takes the role of the main lead - is rarely used at all. It is perhaps a little too gimmicky and is very difficult to use at all well. That Delmer Daves chose to film in such a style seems rather odd in some respects, even though the story as written sort of required it. After all, here he has one of the greatest stars around and chooses not to reveal him until 60 minutes into the film. Even the most dedicated to the story and the style of shooting would have to agree that it results in a fairly lengthy exposition to the film that partly creates the other problem from which the film suffers: it seems to take a while to get going and by the time it does the third act has arrived and everything has to be resolved fairly quickly.

    The result is that the film loses a bit of the grip that the third act could have had, especially in the scene between Vincent and Madge, and sort of peters out. We all know the truth by now of course, but frankly it was a bit early to reveal all and the film ends up being slightly disappointing because of it.

    It did not help of course that at the time of the film's release, Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall were caught in the midst of the un-American activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee that was basically a witch hunt against communism - effectively meaning that the citizens of the land of the free were not able to exercise their freedom to choose their own political persuasion. The pair were very much the public figureheads of The Committee for The First Amendment that was seeking to support the rights of the members of the film community who were dragged before the House Committee. America has never been short of paranoia (as we can well see today) but in the post-war period it was even more pronounced. The film was perhaps not suited to the time in which it was released, which is perhaps why its stock has risen over the years as we can approach the film without the baggage of the post-war period to cloud our judgment.

    Not withstanding that however, it has to be said that the film is ultimately let down by the story which simply requires far too much suspension of belief in order to make it work.

    Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) has been incarcerated in San Quentin prison for the murder of his wife, a murder that he did not commit. He has now escaped in a desperate bid to clear his name. Whilst escaping through the nearby countryside, he happens upon Baker (Clifton Young) and hitches a ride, only to find that Baker asks too many questions. Whilst trying to solve that problem at the side of the road, Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall) happens along and makes Vincent get into her car and she takes him to her apartment in San Francisco to escape the police. Whilst hiding out in Irene's apartment, her manages to avoid her friend Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorehead) when she comes a-knockin' on the door. Of course, since this is a film of amazing coincidence, it turns out that both these ladies have a connection to Vincent - one good and one not so good. With the police desperate to catch the escaped con, Vincent decides to seek out his old friend George Fellsinger (Rory Mallinson) and hide out with him until the heat dies down. Just by a staggering coincidence, the cab driver he rides with is not only chatty but knows a d*** good back street plastic surgeon - so Sam (Tom D'Andrea) drops Vincent off at George's before heading off to make arrangements for Vincent to see Doctor Walter Coley (Houseley Stevenson). The operation is performed that early morning, and Vincent heads back to George's place to rest - only to find George murdered. With the murder almost certain to be pinned on him, Vincent heads to Irene's. Along the way he happens to find Baker's car...

    After a short period of recuperation, the bandages are off and the finally revealed "new" Vincent can now go off in search of the truth surrounding the murder of not just his wife but also George. With the circumstantial evidence all pointing to him, there is of course no doubt that he did not commit the murders and we are all interested to see who did. Along the way though, Vincent, even with his new appearance, still has to avoid the police - which ends up sending him straight into the clutches of a person who turns out not to be what he seemed. An almost innocent remark then apparently reveals the identity of the real murderer to Vincent who sets off with his accusation in hand.

    If the above all sounds a little cynical and far too trite, then that is intended: this is really not a great story and far too many coincidences occur to make it even remotely believable. So with a weakish story to work with, does that first person shooting style help or hinder proceedings? Well, I still remain unconvinced of its merit and feel that it was really done in too gimmicky a way. What the film really needed was a less gimmicky shooting style and a far more believable narrative, probably starting not from Vincent's perspective but rather Irene's or Madge's. Still, Delmer Daves did a fair fist with what he had, even after choosing the subjective shooting style. Given that we really don't see Humphrey Bogart until the sixty minute mark of the film, it has to be said that he really does not exert a vast amount of influence on proceedings from an acting point of view. That means of course that Lauren Bacall had to carry the film to a very large extent and whilst she certainly picks up in the second half, the first half of the film does see her wanting a little in her performance. The rest of the cast are just there to provide some minor support, which is what they did - although to be honest I still wonder why they even bothered with the Bob character (played by Bruce Bennett), which has no appreciable impact upon the film at all.

    It was certainly a high profile film, but it was not a successful film. Whilst the passage of time has been kind to the evaluation of the worth of the film - and lets face it, most of Bogart's films have improved the further away from the period from which they were spawned we get - in this instance, I simply don't see it. The shooting style is relatively easy to adjust to, even if it is not wholly successful. However, what cannot be adjusted to is the staggering number of coincidences that have to be believed in order to follow the film to its conclusion. That ultimately is where I find the film a little disappointing. Most of that disappointment could have been overcome by a little bit of thinking in the screenplay. Still, there is certainly another fine performance in the latter part of the film from Lauren Bacall, which is always worthwhile seeing.

Video

    With the films included in The Bogart Collection Two being from the second half of the 1940's, as opposed to the films in The Bogart Collection One being from the first half of the 1940's, then the expectation is for better transfers. After all, the war was over and the film industry was starting to get back on its feet, there was a bit more money around and better cameras and film stock would have been available. That the second box set starts chronologically with the previously released The Big Sleep, that expectation was not met as it had inherent problems. Was Dark Passage to see the expected improvement in the transfer?

    The transfer is presented in a Full Frame format that accords with the theatrical aspect ratio of 1.37:1 pretty well. It is of course not 16x9 enhanced.

    The fact that much of the film was shot on location - another improvement permitted with the end of the war - is probably the reason why there is an inherent improvement in the look of the film. Obviously being on location means a natural look, with plenty of space, rather than the occasional claustrophobic appearance that can result from shooting supposedly outdoor scenes on a soundstage. Locations also mean that the detail is real, that there is a proper depth to the detail and that all adds a lot more credibility to proceedings. All this is well captured in what is generally a sharp, well detailed transfer. It is however offset by some light grain throughout the film. Shadow detail is generally very good. Just ignore the obligatory soft focus in the close ups of Lauren Bacall though.

    The black and white tones are improved by the location shooting and this is a very natural looking and quite vibrant effort that has excellent definition across the grey scales. Whilst the blacks can be a little variable in depth, at their best they are very good and certainly never drop below better than average.

    There were no obvious MPEG artefacts in the transfer. There were few indications of any real issues with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. Aliasing is the main issue with examples appearing in the bridge at 7:54 but most notably in the clothing worn by Agnes Moorehead between 86:30 and 90:00. At times this also looks like moiré artefacting is breaking out. Film artefacts are very prevalent at times (such as the snowstorm at 23:45), but mainly are of the speck variety and so they don't really impinge upon the film all that much.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc, with the layer change occurring at 39:06. The layer change was not noted during playback and was only found during the checking and confirming of the DVD specifications on my computer.

    There are ten subtitle options on the DVD. The English and English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles are good efforts, with only the odd lapse here and there in the dialogue.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are the same two soundtracks on the DVD as we have found on the DVDs from The Bogart Collection - One box set: an English Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack and an Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 soundtrack.

    In broad terms there is nothing awry with the dialogue, which comes up well in the transfer and is easy to understand. There were no problems with audio sync in the transfer.

    The original score is from the renowned Franz Waxman. If you think you know the main theme from somewhere - you do. It was the theme that the uncredited Franz Waxman composed for To Have And Have Not. This is a good, although not spectacular, dramatic score that does a fine job of supporting the film.

    At normal listening levels, you might just hear some hiss here and there - nothing that approaches the problem in the main menu though - which might or might be annoying depending upon how touchy you are about such things. It was just below the level where I took any notice of it and it certainly did not bother me in the slightest. The sound is a little strident at times, but this again was not overly bothersome. With it being a less primitive style of mono sound to begin with, the overall quality of the soundtrack is much improved here.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Another decent package has been assembled for the film.

Menu

    In a similar style as the new release DVDs in the first box set, this is decent looking but is marred somewhat by the somewhat hissy audio enhancement. This is also not aided by the fact that the menu audio is at a higher level than the feature film.

Featurette - Hold Your Breath And Cross Your Fingers: The Story Of Dark Passage (10:32)

    We have seen the format in the previous new releases in the first box set. This retrospective look at the film has contributions by Eric Lax (Bogey's biographer), Leonard Maltin and Robert Osbourne (both film historians). This nicely fills in some of the detail about the problems Lauren Bacall was facing in her career after Howard Hawks (well miffed that she chose Humphrey Bogart it seems) sold the balance of her contract to Warner Bros. It deals with the pre-production of the film as well as the problems confronting the film as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Quite an interesting effort, albeit way too short, and worth the effort to watch it. From a technical point of view, it is quite decent . The presentation is in a Full Frame format that is not 16x9 enhanced, with the audio being Dolby Digital 2.0. There are selectable English, Italian, French and Dutch subtitles.

Short Film - Slick Hare (7:44)

    Dating from 1947, this Merrie Melodies animated short sees Humphrey Bogart at the Mocrumbo Restaurant (complete with a not-so-sly dig at the pretentiousness of restaurants frequented by the stars) requesting fried rabbit for dinner. Elmer Fudd is in a quandary - he has no rabbit and Bogey has given him twenty minutes to produce the meal. So when he spies Bugs Bunny, naturally his troubles are just beginning. With the deadline Bogey set fast approaching, all seems to be lost until Bugs finds out that the meal is for Baby - and happily throws himself onto the plate (fans will understand). The inclusion of other well known characters as patrons of the restaurant lifts the whole thing - Bugs doing a very good Groucho Marx too. Technically it leaves a bit to be desired with some inconsistency in the colour and obvious film artefacts floating around. The presentation is Full Frame of course, it is not 16x9 enhanced and comes with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. There are selectable English, Italian, French and Dutch subtitles.

Theatrical Trailer (2:13)

    Well if the promotion for To Have And Have Not was fairly obvious, then this was even more so. After all, if they were such a pairing in that film and in The Big Sleep, exactly why would you promote the film in any manner other than - Bogey and Bacall? There are film artefacts floating around but not more than would be expected in such material of this age. It is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, it is not 16x9 enhanced and features at times quite strident Dolby Digital 2.0 sound. There are no subtitles.

    The DVD is available as a standalone release in Region 1 that seems to have the same content as appears on this disc, with just language and subtitle options being different. As usual, it comes in a snapper case. By the reviews located, it would seem the overall transfer quality is probably on a par with this Region 4 release, if not slightly better. Accordingly, there would perhaps be nothing too significant to balance the scales either way. In Region 2, the DVD is only available as a part of their version of The Bogart Collection Volume 1 - partnered with Casablanca and High Sierra. The actual DVD itself is the same as the Region 4.

    Dark Passage was certainly a high profile film that simply did not gel with the audience of the time. Its quirky style of shooting for the first hour certainly had something to do with that, but so did the times in which the film was released. Whilst the passage of time has been generally good to the critical acclaim of the film, it remains one of the less successful of the films from the Humphrey Bogart after his breakout role in High Sierra. There is nothing really awry with the transfers though, so it makes a worthy enough inclusion in The Bogart Collection Two.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall