The Sun Sets At Dawn (1950)

Plenty of movies have been made about prisoners on death row, including a couple of films noirs. The 1958 noir 'I Want To Live!' about a free-spirited woman sentenced to death even earned Susan Hayward an Oscar. Other such noirs were never really meant to be Oscar-contenders, but rather quickly made B-features for the lower bill, sold in package deals. 1950's 'The Sun Sets At Dawn' is one such movie, even if it tries to add some different, more poetic, ingredients to the mix.

Always on the grim gray dawn of an execution, it seems instead of rising, the sun sets...

The movie starts off in an intriguing manner... It's 4.30am and an old man drags a mailbag outside of a roadside cafe, when a bus arrives. A girl exits, in a seemingly comatose state. They share some looks and he helps her into a waiting car, which drives off into the night... It's a small scene, but the way it plays out without any dialogue and a lot of melancholy, the tone is set. This is not going to be a cheery movie...

The Girl (Sally Parr) is on her way to the execution of her boyfriend The Boy (Patrick Waltz), who has been sentenced to death for the murder of a politician. He always claimed innocence, but after 2 reprieves the governor has denied another one. There is also another reason to deny the reprieve, it will be the first execution by a new electric chair in the state. A group of newspaper reporters have gathered inside the roadside cafe, waiting to be driven to the prison, to the execution.

The story of the murder is explained in 2 ways, by The Boy as he has one final talk with The Chaplain (Walter Reed), and at the same time, by the reporters as they recount the details of the case and the trial to a young new reporter (Sam Edwards). It's a decent way to explain the backstory, as well as drop a few clues for the murder case... This is not a flashy crime or mystery movie however even if it does have those elements to it. It's really more of a solemn, doom-laden movie with a dark feeling of despair and dread throughout. The movie does not use names for most of its characters, which adds to the bleak mood. It's a small touch, but it does work.

The movie does suffer from some pretty wooden acting from the lead actors however. This was Patrick Waltz's first movie, billed as Philip Shawn, and it shows, he's clearly out of his depth with the heavy and deep emotions he's supposed to emote. He would move on to bit parts on TV after this movie. Sally Parr does a bit better, but she left the business after this movie and a TV appearance. It seems she was more comfortable on the theater stage than in front of the camera. Thankfully there are several well-known character actors here with decent performances, such as Percy Helton ('The Set-Up') and Charles Arnt ('Hollow Triumph') as a couple of reporters, Housely Stevenson ('Dark Passage') as the owner of the roadside cafe and Howard St. John ('Strangers On A Train') as the prison warden.

This was one of director Paul Sloane's last movies, after leaving the business for over a decade. He does a solid job here, together with DoP Lionel Lindon ('Alias Nick Beal')... There are several interesting scenes and shots, that are a notch above what you'd expect from a low-budget movie like this one. It's a shame that the movie's script, written by the director, required a couple of contrived coincidences to reach its conclusion, but overall I've seen far worse.

'The Sun Sets At Dawn' is not exactly a hidden gem, but its downbeat and bleak mood do set it apart from other movies. Despite its issues I enjoyed this movie, it's different.

7/10

Armored Car Robbery (1950)

Before making the stone-cold noir classic 'The Narrow Margin' in 1952, director Richard Fleischer and noir icon Charles McGraw made another film noir, 1950's 'Armored Car Robbery'. While 'The Narrow Margin' is a better movie all around, don't hesitate to catch this one either, it's a great little caper in its own right.

Dave Purvis (William Talman) has come up with a plan to rob an armored car dropping off money at LA.s Wrigley Field park. He's timed the police's response to several false alarms he's triggered, and figures there's plenty of time to carry out his plan. Of course things don't go quite according to plan, as police lieutenant Jim Cordell (Charles McGraw) and his partner happen to be near the park when the police receives another alarm. They arrive sooner than Purvis expected, forcing a shootout. Both one of the Purvis's men, Benny McBride (Douglas Fowley), as well as Cordell's partner get shot. Purvis and his men manage to escape tho, while Cordell's partner dies in the hospital later that day. Cordell is determined to catch the gang, and Purvis has to deal with his gang while evading the police...

Charles McGraw will always be fondly remembered as one of noir's tough guys, whether he played a good guy like here and in 'The Narrow Margin' or a villain such as in 'The Killers' or 'The Threat'. He has Presence with a capital P. His gravelly voice, granite face and hard-boiled demeanor made him perfect for film noir. I have yet to see a performance of his I didn't enjoy. This one's no exception, he's all sorts of great in this movie. The same can be said for William Talman, who's best known in noir circles for playing the titular character who sleeps with one eye open in Ida Lupino's 'The Hitchhiker', but overall is probably best remembered for playing the D.A. who never stood a chance against Perry Mason in the classic TV series starring Raymond Burr. Talman had an atypical look, and could act with the best of them. He has a menacing, vicious presence here, and it's clear he's not nearly as clever or calculated about the heist's plan as he himself believes. His improvisation skills during the heist, as well as in the aftermath, tend to be on the more violent side, heh...

Like Cordell's partner, Benny McBride also doesn't make it to the end of this movie, which is maybe for the best for him. He's a two-bit loser fallen on hard times, whose beautiful girlfriend and burlesque dancer, Yvonne LeDoux (Adele Jergens, 'The Dark Past', 'The Miami Story') also happens to be two-timing him... with Purvis of all men! For whatever reason, I've grown fond of seeing B-movie character actor Douglas Fowley show up in low budget noirs and crime movies of the 40s and 50s. He might not be the greatest actor ever, but he's got enough charisma and the right oily looks to always leave an impression, whether he's playing a good guy as in 'Bunco Squad' or a sleazy one as in 'Behind Locked Doors'. I wish I could say the same for Adele Jergens. I like her performance here, but it's a bit one-note and I could just as easily see another actress play her burlesque dancer role equally well.

Speaking of burlesque dancers, one of Cordell's police detectives pronounces the word burlesque as 'burle-queue'. As far as I know it's pronounced 'burlesk'... I don't know if this was a common alternative way to pronounce it, does anybody know? I'm curious, heh...

There's one other actor I'd like to mention here, and that is another member of Purvis's gang, Steve Brodie ('Desperate', 'Out Of The Past'). Brodie's name might not ring a bell to many these days, but he always turned in a solid performance and could just as easily play a good guy as he could a crook. He's good here as essentially the only guy in the heist gang who won't be played by Purvis.

There's an interesting scene involving a microphone Cordell has planted in Yvonne's dressing room. The agent assigned to listening to it can eventually tell by the sounds what Yvonne's doing, such as taking off her dress, taking off her headdress, her beads, etc... It's funny and voyeuristic at the same time.

With its fairly short running time of under 70 minutes, director Richard Fleischer (also 'The Clay Pigeon' and the sci-fi classic 'Soylent Green') keeps things fast-paced and tense. The cinematography by Guy Roe ('The Sound Of Fury') fits the movie well, even if he doesn't go into full-on chiaroscure mode. The movie delivers tho, and is a solid heist-noir with good performances. Recommended!

7+/10

This Side Of The Law (1950)

David Cummins (Kent Smith) is a down-on-his-luck hobo who's picked up for vagrancy. At his court appearance, lawyer Philip Cagle (Robert Douglas) notices that Cummins is a dead-ringer for his client, millionaire Malcolm Taylor, who's been missing for almost 7 years. Cagle has a proposition for Cummins: to impersonate Taylor for 2 weeks. Taylor's about to be declared legally dead, and Cagle wants to prevent that from happening. Cagle wants Cummins to find out what happened to Taylor, and for that Taylor cannot be dead. So Cummins heads to the Taylor estate where his wife Evelyn (Viveca Lindfors) lives with his brother Calder (John Alvin) and his wife Nadine (Janis Paige)... Cummins soon finds out they're not all that happy to see him return for various reasons, and he also has problems maintaining his cover. But before he's able to find out the truth about Taylor, there's a murder, and Cummins ends up at the bottom of a cistern, realizing he's been a patsy in someone else's plan to get Taylor's fortune...

The movie starts with Cummins stuck inside the cistern as he narrates how he got there... It's a simple but very effective way to draw in the viewer, as there is an element of mystery and intrigue to it. Using this sort of flashback story-telling was used quite regularly in the 40s, and I for one am really into it when it's done well, as it is here. Truth be told, part of the mystery is gone pretty quickly, as it is clear from very early on who's the villain (or villainess). But that still leaves the question as to what happened to Malcolm Taylor.

Kent Smith ('The Damned Don't Cry', 'Cat People') isn't a well-remembered name these days, and he wasn't an A-list leading man at the time. He was a reliable actor who had enough charisma and talent to carry a movie, but for whatever reason, he never quite broke through. He's good here, and carries the movie with ease. But it is Swedish-born Viveca Lindfors ('Dark City') who is top-billed, despite her role being somewhat limited. She's great here tho, as the conflicted widow who suddenly gets her husband back, but he's a completely different man from the selfish and cold-hearted man she used to know.

It's a bit surprising Janis Paige wasn't cast as a femme fatale before or after, she's great as the gold-digging wife of the cowardly Calder who also had an affair with Malcolm Taylor. It should come as no surprise that she's the one to discover Cummins is an impersonator, and that she tries to use it to her advantage...

There's also a lot to like here visually, also thanks to the movie's setting. A big mansion near a cliff, a man stuck inside a cistern, a lethargic 'widow'... At times the movie has a gothic noir feel to it, mixed in with a bit of 'Rebecca'... Director Richard L. Bare and cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie worked together many times, including on the noir 'Flaxy Martin' as well as several Joe McDoakes shorts and it shows. Their work is more than solid, they're able to effectively create some highly atmospheric scenes. The story might not be too surprising in who's the real villain(ess), but it's well-written and there are no real filler scenes or story lines either... So to me, this movie ticked a lot of boxes, and I had a great time with it. Recommended!

8-/10

Federal Agent At Large (1950)

This blog has been dormant for far too long, so it's time for a change... I will try to do smaller reviews more frequently with hopefully a bigger review every so often. I will also post these smaller reviews on my Letterboxd account, so feel free to follow me on there. First up is Poverty Row's 'Federal Agent At Large' from 1950...

Matt Reedy (Kent Taylor, Boston Blackie in the early 50s TV series) -- and not Mark Reed as listed on IMDb -- is an undercover US federal agent in Mexico under the alias Nick Ravel. He is investigating a gold smuggling ring that is also believed to have ended the life of another undercover agent. The gang is forcing archaeology professor Dr. Ross Carrington (Robert Rockwell, 'Lonely Hearts Bandits') to hide the gold inside artifacts to smuggle them into the States. Through a local pawn shop owner Reedy manages to infiltrate the gang by getting introduced to Solitaire (Dorothy Patrick, 'Follow Me Quietly') who is second in command just below the mysterious Mr. Upstairs but who carries a toch for Carrington...

The way the story is told is primarily through one long flashback sequence. Reedy strikes up a friendship with one of the gang members, Angel (Frank Puglia, 'Walk Softly, Stranger') by helping him write letters to his daughter. It is through Angel that Reedy manages to deliver a recording of all that's going on to his superiors. The movie starts with Angel delivering the tape to the feds, and right up until the very end the movie's told in flashback as the agents listen to the tape before springing into action.

This movie was made by Republic Pictures, one of the most prolific Poverty Row studios. Their noir-ish movies (and this is admittedly barely noir-ish) tended to be decent and fast-paced, but you wouldn't expect to find many gems among them. Don't expect brilliantly lit chiaroscuro scenes or labyrinthine plots, but at the same time these movies rarely had filler scenes. Prolific director George Blair ('Scotland Yard Investigator') and DoP John MacBurnie ('The Red Menace') knew how to make these movies, and they also deliver here. Unfortunately the actors are less than stellar, even by Poverty Row standards they don't really stand out. Except perhaps Dorothy Parker, but that has more to do with the ambiguity in her character than her own talents.

One thing to note, and this is a spoiler, is that Reedy does not make it to the end of this movie alive. It is quite different compared to most crime & noir movies of that era and does set this movie apart a bit. However, it is far from a hidden gem, and I would only expect fans of these low-budget crime movies to enjoy 'Federal Agent At Large'.

5+/10

Destination Murder (1950)

Film noir loves strong characters, and not just men... Granted, the strong women are more often than not of the femme fatale variety, but still... you've got to be tough to survive in the noir universe, male or female. But aside from the many femmes fatales of noir, there are also instances where a non-fatal woman takes the initiative or is the driving force to solving the mystery/crime at hand. In a noir like 'The Dark Corner' it is secretary Lucille Ball who is the force behind private eye Mark Stevens, who is the weak link of their partnership. And Nina Foch can only rely on herself to unravel the truth in 'My Name Is Julia Ross'. Just like in that noir, in 1950's 'Destination Murder', the female amateur sleuth if you will, is personally and emotionally involved in her case, and in many ways can't trust anybody in her quest for the truth.

The amateur detective here is Laura Mansfield (Joyce Mackenzie, 'The Racket'). One quiet evening her dad, an influential businessman, is shot and killed by a courier, in front of Laura. As she checks up on her dad, she spots the killer skipping over the front porch to a waiting car... The police at first suspect her dad's main business competitor Frank Niles (John Dehner) to be involved somehow, but he is quickly cleared. Laura is then asked to identify the killer from a line-up of couriers, but the ones she picks as potentials, all have an alibi. After leaving the police station, she offers one of her picks, Jackie Wales (Stanley Clements, 'Canon City') a ride to apologize for the trouble she caused. But when she sees him skip the frontporch, like the killer, she realizes who he really is. And guess what? She starts to date the guy, to expose him and find out why he killed her dad! The longer they date, the more she realizes that there is more going on and that Wales might have been hired by Armitage (Albert Dekker, 'The Killers'), the owner of a nightclub that Wales likes to hang out at. She decides to go 'undercover' in the club by getting herself hired as a cigarette girl...

You see miss Mansfield, we're dealing with killers. And a killer has only one destination: murder.

The phrase 'everything but the kitchen sink' certainly applies here, the plot outlined above barely scratches the surface when it comes to describing this movie. Aside from the rather crazy notion that it's a good idea to date a killer in order to uncover the truth, this movie contains a lot of additional crazy and quirky elements. And that is not even counting the large amount of twists and double-crosses that happen at random intervals during the 70+min runtime. This one's a rollercoaster!

A word of warning, the rest of this review might contain (even) more spoilers than usual. This is almost unavoidable due to trying to explain some of various characters and relationships.

A few more of the movie's characters need to be introduced here. First off, Stretch Norton, played by Hurd Hatfield ('The Unsuspected'). Such a cool name with a 30s gangster ring to it. And lo and behold, he's not just the manager of Armitage's nightclub, he is well involved with Armitage's plans to take over the business run by Laura Mansfield's dad. There's even a bit of a twist/reveal, which actually makes some sense, in the relationship between Stretch and Armitage. Armitage himself is quite the character. He refers to himself as 'Armitage' in conversations, and needs to have the Moonlight Sonata played whenever he's about to beat or even kill someone. He even has a pianola set up with that tune in his office. The first time this happens he savagely beats Wales with his leather belt, later on the music announces doom for someone else in Stretch's apartment. Armitage and Stretch make a nice villainous pair, but the reveal I mentioned does lead to a rather awkward scene where Armitage falls out of character. Oh well, you can't have everything...

Jackie Wales: 'You're uh.. you're not two-timing me are ya?'
Laura Mansfield: 'If you only knew how I feel about you.'

And then there's also Myrna Dell ('Nocturne') as Alice Wentworth, who is Armitage's girl but only sees him as another rung in the ladder towards financial independence. She's the femme fatale of the movie, as she double-crosses and plays almost everybody in this movie, altho in this case she does it with the bad guys... And that can never end well... She even tries her hand at playing Wales by getting him to blackmail Armitage, and of course it works at first. But Wales is just a kid really, who thinks he's the real deal, but despite his cocky and brash attitude is just naive. I mean, he doesn't even hesitate for a second when the daughter of the man he killed starts dating him! To top it all off, he also has a gambling debt, so Alice's blackmail idea works fine for him. And it gets him some money at first, but it's never a good idea to double-cross or blackmail your boss, and that goes for Alice too!

Performances across the board are adequate to good, but it's up to Joyce Mackenzie to carry the movie. And she does well, combining a homely look with a more resilient character. She comes across look-wise as a younger Barbara Hale, and is very easy to sympathize, and emphatize, with. Her career in movies and TV was rather short, lasting under 10 years, not counting a random appearance in the TV-show 'Perry Mason' in the early 60s 7 years after her last credit. Maybe she decided Hollywood wasn't for her, but she had nice screen presence. The 'romance' angle with the much more juvenile looking, and acting, Stanley Clements doesn't really work because of Mackenzie's more homely and 'older' presence, despite Clements being 3 years her elder in real life.

The movie was directed by Edward L. Cahn, who directed well over a hundred movies, most if not all of them low-budget B movies, including the sci-fi cult classic 'It! The Terror From Beyond Space' from 1958. As with any decent B-director, he knew how to get the most out of the material he had to work with, as he proved here. He also co-produced this movie, which was then picked up for distribution by RKO. But make no mistake, even tho the movie starts with the familiar RKO logo, this movie is most definitely a low-budget movie, albeit a small step above poverty row level. There is also some nice, albeit not too striking, cinematography by Jackson Rose ('Dillinger') who worked on tons of (mostly B-)features, his earliest credits going back to 1914!

The movie throws all kinds of quirks, double-crosses and twists at the viewer, definitely a few too many to make this a great movie. Maybe this was an attempt by the writer of the original screenplay, Don Martin ('Shakedown'), to mix things up a bit. It does make this movie stand out, it is definitely not a routine programmer, even if in many ways it's B-fare from start to finish. But his screenplay, which also lacks the memorable type of oneliners and dialogue that typifies noir, does turn the movie into a bit of a mess. But to me, it's a fun and delightful mess. It is definitely one that has the ability to surprise you! Don't expect greatness, but expect a movie that requires you to stay focused.

7/10

In A Lonely Place (1950)

1950 was an amazing year for film noir. A number of great noirs, including some genuine classics, were released that year: 'Sunset Boulevard', 'D.O.A.', 'The Asphalt Jungle', 'No Way Out', 'Night And The City', 'Where The Sidewalk Ends' and so on. Another noir classic from that year is 'In A Lonely Place'. It was directed by Nicholas Ray ('Knock On Any Door', 'Rebel Without A Cause'), with cinematography by Burnett Guffey ('Johnny O'Clock', 'Nightfall') and music by George Antheil ('Knock On Any Door', 'The Sniper'). The story was based on a novel by Dorothy B. Hughes, which was adapted by Edmund H. North and turned into a screenplay by Andrew Solt.

Humphrey Bogart plays Dixon Steele, a Hollywood screenwriter who hasn't produced a decent screenplay in a decade, also due to having served in the US army during WWII. One evening his agent Mel Lippman (Art Smith, 'Quicksand') gives him a mediocre, but best-selling, book to read, so he can turn it into a screenplay. Steele is not exactly interested and takes hatcheck girl Mildred (Martha Stewart) home with him, who just finished the novel and is raving about it. He wants her to give him a summary, and sends her home afterwards. The next morning he's woken up by his old army friend Brub Nicolai (Frank Lovejoy, 'The Hitch-Hiker'), who's now a detective. Mildred was found murdered, strangled and then thrown from a moving car. Steele is suspect #1, at least for police captain Lochner (Carl Benton Reid, 'Convicted'), as he's the last person to have seen Mildred and he has a long list of assault charges indicating a violent disposition. At the police station Steele shows very little interest or remorse for the murdered girl, but his new neighbor and actress Laurel Gray (Gloria Grahame, 'Crossfire') gives him an alibi as she saw Mildred leave his apartment. Steele and Laurel fall for each other, hard. But Steele treats the murder almost like a joke, never really denying his involvement, and Laurel is feeling more and more doubts about Steele's innocence as time passes by, also because Dixon Steele has a volatile personality that can turn to violent rage in a matter of seconds.

The movie acts out in 2 halves, the first half is more concerned with Dixon Steele and his possible involvement in the murder, in the second half the murder takes a bit of a backseat and this part is more concerned with Laurel, as the romance between Dix and Laurel intensifies and she sees more and more of Dix's dark side and starts to doubt his innocence, or at least her own feelings about his possible involvement. The movie ends with a dramatic, intense and moving finale that is an acting tour-de-force. Those who say film noir and romance don't mix, need to see this movie.

The movie title reflects Dixon Steele's position in life, he's in a lonely place, created by his own persona. He's intensely cynical, moody, defiant (even when there's no reason for it) and seemingly always ready to burst out in anger and rage. The police records on charges filed against him for assaults and fights only speak against him. But despite being unlikeable and hard to deal with he also has a loyal side to him. In his own way he's also a rebel without a cause (Nicholas Ray pun intended). Steele doesn't deal well with stress and frustration, he lashes out and takes it out on anybody who happens to be in his vicinity. Steele has plenty of demons within, and is not afraid to let them out every so often. But he also sees Laurel as his last shot at a real relationship, a shot at redemption, which also makes him feel obsessive over her. Bogart, who shared a number of Steele's traits in real life, is perfect here, as the deeply flawed Dixon Steele who you should dislike and even hate but who you still care for, because there's a glimmer of humanity inside him, and his love for Laurel is so genuine.

Gloria Grahame is amazing as Laurel Gray, I might even prefer her performance here over Bogey's. Grahame was able to convey her beauty in sleazy ways like in 'Crossfire' (which earned her an Oscar nomination) and 'The Big Heat' as well as in classy ways like here, and she was a very gifted actress, more so than she's usually given credit for. Bogart, naturally, wanted his wife Lauren Bacall for the part of Laurel Gray but Warner wouldn't lend her out for the movie. But Grahame's own failing marriage at the time with director Nicholas Ray ended up giving her performance a very real and personal edge that shines through. Laurel's background story of her previous relationship isn't given a lot of attention, but enough so to make her character vulnerable despite her quick-witted remarks and general confident and very classy demeanor. Suffice it to say, Bogart and Grahame have incredible chemistry in this movie and their romance is as real and alive as any classic cinematic romance.

Steele makes a very good point in the movie when Laurel and him talk about a love scene he's written and he remarks how it is such a good scene because it is clear the two characters love each other without having the need to say 'I love you' constantly, comparing it to him preparing breakfast for them while she's sitting there half-asleep, claiming anybody can see they're in love. It is touching because of the lack of 'I love you's, not despite it. He's also written a few sentences for the screenplay that sum up their romance, and thus the movie as a whole, very succinctly: 

I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me. I lived a few weeks while she loved me.

The cast does a stellar job throughout really, every character has a distinctive personality, and the actors are all doing a great job. Aside from the already mentioned characters, there's a small but memorable part for Robert Warwick as the almost forgotten actor-turned-drunkard Charlie Waterman, one of the very few people that Dixon Steele does not feel any contempt for. Steele jokingly, and lovingly, refers to him as 'thespian'. Which had a connection to real life as well, Bogart had the part of Waterman written specifically for Warwick, who helped Bogart out during his early years on the stage, well before his movie career.

Visually the movie is less noir and heavy on shadows than more traditional noirs, but it is used more subtly here to show the darkness in Steele. In one scene Steele is having dinner at Brub's place and has Brub and his wife Sylvia (Jeff Donnell) act out the way Steele envisions the way the murder happened. The light that falls on his face changes subtly in this scene to highlight his manic eyes as he gets wrapped up more and more in the scenario. He keeps telling Brub to squeeze harder, almost choking Sylvia, while he watches on with clear glee and excitement. Similarly, in other scenes where Steele shows his dark side, the light becomes a touch more contrast rich, changing the overall mood of the scene together with Steele's changing mood.

'In A Lonely Place' is a truly great movie, one that lingers on inside your head for a long time. It is a noir about the darkness of the soul, not the darkness of a criminal's soul but that of a damaged individual, who has a good heart, but one which might be damaged beyond repair. A must-see movie.

D.O.A. (1950)

Edmond O'Brien is one of my favorite actors when it comes to film noir, and 1950's 'D.O.A.' is one of the reasons why. It's a classic film noir with a very noir protagonist, a man who simply cannot escape his doomed fate. The movie was directed by Rudolph Maté, who was better known as a cinematographer ('Gilda', 'Foreign Correspondent'), this was one of the first movies he directed. Cinematography was handled by Ernest Laszlo (1951's 'M', 'Stalag 17'), the music was done by Dimitri Tiomkin ('I Confess', 'Dial M For Murder'). The story was written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, who worked together in different capacities on a number of movies, including noirs 'The Well', 'The Thief' and 'New York Confidential'.

The movie's opening scene is a noir classic. The camera follows a man from behind as he enters a large police building and walks down seemingly endless hallways, with the dramatic music's tempo almost in sync with his footsteps. He finally reaches his destination, room 44: homicide division. There he has a classic conversation with the chief:

'I want to report a murder.'
'Sit down... When was this murder committed?'
'San Francisco, last night.'
'Who was murdered?'
'I was.'

It is only until right before the last line is said that the camera shows the man's face. It is Edmond O'Brien. His name is Frank Bigelow, and he recounts to the policemen the story of how he was murdered and his investigation into the murderer's identity and reasons.

Bigelow is an accountant in a small town, who has a girlfriend, Paula Gibson (Pamela Britton), but isn't too committed and he enjoys looking at other women (shown/heard in a rather awkward way by the sound of a wolfwhistle whenever he spots a nice-looking dame early on in the movie). He is going on a week-long vacation to San Francisco, without Paula. There he joins a group of people who are staying in the same hotel as he is, and they end up in a small bar. When he's trying to talk to a woman at the bar, somebody switches his drink. He remarks how the drink tastes funny, but thinks nothing of it. The next morning he doesn't feel too well, and decides to get checked up by a doctor. There he gets the rather unexpected news that he's dieing, he's got a week to live at most. Bigelow has 'luminous toxic matter' inside his body, a poison that affects his organs and for which there is no antidote. Understandably upset he runs off to a hospital, only to have the diagnosis confirmed. The doctor there even shows him a testtube filled with the luminous poison, apparently extracted from his body, and indeed, it lights up in the dark! The doctor wants to inform the homicide department because Bigelow does not know where he ingested it, and as the doctor explains: 'I don't think you understand, Bigelow. You've been murdered'. Since the poison's been in his system for 12 hours and there's a lot of alcohol in his system, somebody must've spiked a drink the night before. This doctor gives him a week at most. But Bigelow wants to find his killer before he dies, and why he needed to die, so he goes off in search of the truth on his own. His first stop, the bar from last night... And then there's also this mysterious man that kept calling his office profusely during his absence, who committed suicide soon after...

The movie hints at the nuclear/radioactive paranoia of the time by using a 'luminous poison' (it even lights up in the dark) and later on in the movie a bill of sale for a shipment of iridium shows up which turns out to be critical to the plot and Bigelow's fate. It's not a far stretch to think of radioactive iridium isotopes, but this angle is not as obvious though as in for instance 1955's 'Kiss Me Deadly'. Still, it seemed pretty deliberate to me.

The aforementioned wolf-whistles are a strange and awkward sound that appears in the first quarter of the movie. But they were possibly added to make a quite melodramatic scene near the end of the movie even more melodramatic, when Bigelow finally declares his love for Paula to her. Through his predicament, he discovers that Paula is indeed the woman he truly loves. It is by far the least interesting part of the movie to me. There is also a hoodlum later on in the movie played by Neville Brand, who comes off as a second-rate copy of a more memorable hoodlum like Tommy Udo from 'Kiss Of Death', Brands' character is more laughable than crazy and menacing really.

The rest of the movie is extremely entertaining however. O'Brien gives a great and intense performance here, as usual. Bigelow is a doomed man with nothing left to lose, so he doesn't care that he has to ask direct and painful questions to a woman about her husband who just committed suicide, which of course isn't a suicide at all. There is also the, fairly stereotypical, suave villain with the foreign accent, played here in competent manner by Luther Adler. His part isn't big enough to leave much of an impression however, the movie focuses squarely on Bigelow.

There are plenty of memorable scenes here. There is a beautifully shot scene where Bigelow faces his killer inside the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles. Also, after Bigelow hears about his inevitable death, he runs from the hospital, and the camera follows him as he runs across San Francisco, seemingly for miles. He finally collapses against a newpaper stand, which ironically just happens to sell a lot of Life magazines. There is also a cool and suspenseful stand-off between him and the killer, who is never seen in this scene, in an abandoned industrial complex (which oddly enough has a lively photo studio next to it).

All in all, 'D.O.A.' is indeed a noir classic, it starts off with a bang, then briefly turns into a weird slapstick-like piece but quickly changes back again to a tense noir once Bigelow gets the bad news. Highly recommended!