User reviews

If Humphrey Bogart had ever decided to film one of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer thrillers, it would have turned out something like 1947's DEAD RECKONING. Although it's not actually based on a book, John Cromwell's tautly-directed film noir owes more than a little of its plotting and characterization to earlier classic crime novels-turned-classic Bogart movies. Indeed, when my husband Vin entered the room while the film was on, he began watching it with me and soon asked, "Is this THE BIG SLEEP, or THE MALTESE FALCON?" However, DEAD RECKONING is steeped in the kind of bitter post-war viciousness that distinguished Mickey Spillane's writing -- not that there's anything wrong with that! :-) Bogart commands the screen as Rip Murdock, a former Army paratrooper (lots of colorful references to parachutes and jumping here) and one of the most misogynistic good guys he ever played (not that you can blame Rip, after the wringer he's put through in this film). Captain Rip starts out trying to find out why his Sergeant and pal Johnny Drake (William Prince) has a Yale pin with the name "John Joseph Preston" on it, and more importantly, why Johnny bolts rather than accept the Congressional Medal of Honor for his wartime heroism. Rip's investigation leads him to Gulf City, Tropical Paradise of the South (don't take my word for it, check out the neon sign in the upper right-hand corner of the screen in the opening establishing shot :-), where he's quickly sucked into a whirlpool of secrets, double-crossing, murder, and such inventive mayhem as tossing napalm-powered Molotov cocktails at sinister smoothie Morris Carnovsky and his psycho henchman Marvin (THE MILLIONAIRE) Miller to make them talk. Standing in for quintessential Bogart leading lady Lauren Bacall (and original leading lady Rita Hayworth, who was hung up making THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI) is Lizabeth Scott as mysterious chanteuse Coral Chandler, the kind of dame guys go gaga for against their better judgment (she's got so many pet names from her various beaus that the first time I saw the film, I wasn't quite sure if her name was "Coral," "Dusty," or, of all things, "Mike"!). While Scott's no Bacall (don't get me wrong, Scott fans, I like her, but to my ears, her husky voice always sounds more phlegmy than sultry. Every time Scott speaks, I half-expect someone to offer her a cough drop!), she's certainly chock full of luminous blonde beauty, plus Scott has an air of wounded vulnerability that makes me empathize with her in spite of myself. Sometimes the film is gloriously, deliriously nutzoid. For instance, Bogart's speech to Scott early on about how men should be able to reduce women to pocket-size when necessary, and Scott's interpretation of this theory, must be heard to be believed. But when DEAD RECKONING works, it's dynamite (literally, when Bogart and Scott join forces with safecracker/explosives expert Wallace Ford)! Even when things get ugly, this movie is always gorgeous to look at, thanks to the stunning use of shadows and light in Leo Tover's black-and-white photography. If you love Bogart and you like your film noir grim yet glamorous and over-the-top at times, DEAD RECKONING is well worth a look.

By the way he talks Humphrey Bogart thinks he's still Sam Spade and that Lizabeth Scott is Mary Astor but "Dead Reckoning" is no "Maltese Falcon". Nevertheless this convoluted film-noir is still extremely enjoyable if a little hard to follow. It was directed by John Cromwell in 1947 and while Mr Cromwell was no John Huston he was no slouch either so the film moves at a fairly professional clip and is never less than entertaining.

If there's a problem it probably lies in the over-egged script and the purple prose, courtesy of no less than five writers and that includes producer Sidney Biddell who came up with the original story. Bogart is excellent as always and there's nice work from Morris Carnovsky as a bad guy but Lizabeth Scott was certainly no Mary Astor and at times you wonder if her 'bad acting' is bad acting or just 'bad acting', if you get my drift. For some reason the film isn't much seen these days which is a pity because, while no classic, it really is a lot of fun.

One of Bogart's best, a brutal Film Noir with a surprising ending, & filled with sharp, witty dialog. Lizabeth has never looked more beautiful than here, & although her acting ability is overmatched by Bogart, she would improve in her later films & she's adequate in this role. There's glimpses of the basic "Maltese Falcon" plot here: Bogey searches out & seeks revenge for his partner, even some of the dialog is similar in that respect. If you like Bogart or if you like Film Noir, you can't go wrong with this one! And by the way, this is a REAL Film Noir, not in the newer use of this phrase (recently, people have been calling any B&W crime drama made in the 1940s a "Film Noir"). This film has all the classic Film Noir elements: lots of shadows & stark contrasts (in the beginning, Bogart speaks from shadows so dark that one can hardly see his face), a spoken narrative, a "hero" who works outside the law, a murder mystery, & a heroine who may not be a heroine.

"Dead Reckoning" is a good, if not very original, film noir starring Humphrey Bogart as a paratrooper investigating his buddy's death. William Prince, who later was a more visible actor as a white-haired older man, has a small role as the buddy, who runs away when he learns he's about to receive the Medal of Honor. Later, he's found dead in his home town.

There are the usual ethnic stereotypes - the de riguer black maid, the thug of Italian descent, and the torturing thug of German descent. The thug in this case is Marvin Miller, who later became the assistant of John Beresford Tipton on the TV show, "The Millionaire." He got to give people $1 million tax free. With prices today, they'd probably all laugh in his face.

Lizabeth Scott is the woman "Johnny" (Prince) was in love with. She's an actress I always found heavy on style and slight on substance. Beautiful, with a warm smile, and one of the best voices in films, she never exhibited the acting range of, say, Bacall, whom she seemed groomed to follow. In this role, she's not very believable, which is great for the noir films, in which she excelled. You really didn't know how involved she was or wasn't in the crime at hand.

All in all, a very entertaining film with a solid performance by Bogart. Regarding the film's reference to the "Geronimo" cry that paratroopers made as they jumped, I asked an actual war paratrooper about this, and he said, "We were usually so scared we couldn't make a sound."

Dead Reckoning appeared too early to have worn out and begun to recycle film noir's conceits and conventions, but already it has a tired, seen-it-all feel to it. Its director, the generally reliable John Cromwell (who three years later was to helm the great-grandmaw of women-behind-bars pix, Caged) works here with a by-the-numbers detachment that keeps the movie as limp and soggy as its "Gulf City" locale.

Returning vet Humphey Bogart, en route to Washington with a war buddy who's about to be awarded some Big Medal, is baffled when said buddy suddenly takes it on the lam. His investigation into what happened and why takes him to a seamy town on America's south coast where, in a morgue, he finds his friend's body, charred beyond recognition. He also meets up with Lizabeth Scott (as Coral Chandler, or "Dusty," or, even, "Mike"), a canary in a local nitery run by heavy Morris Carnovsky. It seems she and the late pal were something of an item, and she teams up with Bogart to get to the truth.

Or does she? The most problematic aspect of the film is that dealing with Scott -- game blonde or femme fatale? It's as if the scriptwriters or studio heads couldn't make up their mind about her, or as if alternative endings were contemplated, or even filmed. This doesn't help the viewer, whose empathy seems always to be out of kilter with what's happening in the plot. And this can't be written off as a teasing ambiguity -- it's a gross failure of filmmaking. So the sentimental, "redemptive" ending in the hospital ward, with high-flown talk of parachute jumps, tries to have it both ways. Well, it can't.

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.

One can't help wondering, while watching this movie, whether one has seen it before. Not for the first time is Bogart out to avenge a friend's death. He's gone after polished, Continental Mr. Big types before, too; and Lizabeth Scott looks an awful lot like Lauren Bacall. Some of the dialogue seems to have been lifted in toto from earlier Bogart films. Yet for all this, Dead Reckoning is still entertaining. Its cliches are at least agreeably packaged, and the setting, the Gulf Coast South, is unusual. Bogart brings sublime integrity to his world-weary and life-battered persona, and however artificial and predictable the story might be, the star's authenticity is absolute. One believes what's going on because one believes Bogart.

This kind of thriller, which now falls under the general rubric of film noir, was losing a little steam by this time. For one thing, Morris Carnovksy's character of Martinelli had been done to death in the previous five years by everyone from Sydney Greenstreet to Otto Kruger. Marvin Miller's hulking, seemingly emotionally disturbed thug had become a commonplace fixture in such films; and while Miller is unique in his heavy-set, Orson Wellesian appearance, there's little that's new here, either. One can imagine script conferences of the day, with young screenwriters falling over one another trying to come up with a new psychological "complex" for the bad guy to be suffering from. Fortunately for the viewer, cliched though this movie is, it was made with extreme professionalism. Leo Tover's cinematography is understated, and nicely suggests the equatorial. John Cromwell was an old stage and movie pro by this time, though his usual magical touch with actors failed him with Miss Scott, he handles the tough guy stuff with suave authority.

A church provides a little safety, some sanctuary, a chance to take your time and hide out, while you flee, where a paratrooper padre, listens to the words that you say, recount the tale of what's happened, these past few days. It all began with celebration and your pal, but as the train approaches station it goes mal, when your friend just disappears, seems he had a past career, and is wanted for a crime that's capital. So we follow you around as you hunt down, spiralling around a story causing frown, until you find what we all knew, suspense has very little glue, then a parachuting lady in a gown.

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.

In one night after the Second World War, Capt. Warren 'Rip' Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) goes to a Catholic church and confess to a priest that he has been chased by the police and gangsters, and he would like to clean the name of his best friend, Sgt. Johnny Drake/John Joseph Preston (Wiliam Prince). He explained that Johnny was in love of a woman, Coral 'Dusty' Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). When they returned to USA, through the airport of La Guardia (N.Y.), they were confidentially sent by train to Washington. When they found that they would be decorated for their performances in the war, Johnny rushed to another train and vanished. Murdock decided to investigate the reason for such a behavior, and found in an old newspaper that Johnny was accused of murdering Coral's husband some years ago, and he had enlisted the Army with a false name, trying to escape from the crime. He moved to St. Louis, trying to meet Johnny, but instead he confronted a powerful mobster, Martinelli (Morris Carnovisky), had trouble with the local police and felt in love with Carol. "Dead Reckoning" is an authentic film-noir, with all the necessary "ingredients": the fatal woman, lots of money, sordid environment, crimes and dirty cops. However, the story of "Dead Reckoning" is magnificently developed in flashbacks and is very engaging, with many plot points, having a wonderful black and white photography, using perfectly the effects of the shadows, a very gorgeous actress Lizabeth Scott with a beautiful voice and Humphrey Bogart, my favorite actor ever. The dialogs are fantastic, having very sharp lines. I really liked this unknown film a lot, and I believe that fans of film-noir will certainly appreciate it. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Confissão" ("Confession")

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.

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.

Every time HUMPHREY BOGART opens his mouth to say anything, it sounds like deja vu all over again. His role as a tough-talking ex-GI looking for his buddy's murderer and moving among a bunch of unsavory characters is the kind of material Raymond Chandler could have written with his eyes shut.

The stock heroine is played with sultry charm by LIZABETH SCOTT, who seems to be subbing for Lauren Bacall throughout the murky proceedings. She even sings a torchy night club number in the same style as Bacall, but is not quite as alluring--nor does her chemistry with Bogart seem as strong.

Bogart's string of one-liners make him sound like Philip Marlowe, detective, rather than a man on the hunt for a killer who gets drugged by the gambling joint owner and when he wakes up, discovers a corpse in his apartment. The corpse is a bartender who knew too much about the murder of Bogart's buddy.

It's a typical Bogart movie of the '40s, film noir material that's well handled by director John Cromwell. While it doesn't have the impact of the high quality noirs like THE MALTESE FALCON, it will keep you guessing until the smart finish.

Bogart gets all the nifty lines. "If you're looking for Easter bunnies, you're a day early." He delivers a solid performance that makes much use of voice-over narrative. Scott is okay, but she's had better roles in other films of the forties.

Worth watching, especially if you like faux Chandler-type material. There's an Astor/Bogart quality to the final confrontation between Bogart and Scott. He even has the line that sounds like it's lifted from THE MALTESE FALCON: "When a guy's buddy dies, a man's gotta do something about it."

So, why does war hero Johnny Drake (William Prince) take a fast train away from the nation's highest military honor. It's an intriguing premise and the next 90 minutes tells us why. The movie's got noir icons like Bogart, Lizabeth Scott, and Morris Carnovski, plus a mysterious past, a smoky night club, and a barbecued corpse. In short, this ought to be classic noir, but in my little book it's not.

I've got two basic gripes. First, Scott may look the part, but she's no Jane Greer (Out of the Past. 1947). Above all, noir's spider women have to be good actresses so that we never know their true feelings. That trickiness means we can get suckered along with the hero. But it also means we get suckered against our better judgement because we and the hero suspect their sincerity all along. Scott's performance lacks that crucial element of trickiness-- hers is essentially a one note performance with no hint of a gap between how she feels and how she behaves. Thus, there's no real revelation at the end because she looks and acts the same as before. As a result, the betrayal is all in the script and crucially not where it belongs-- in the performance.

Speaking of the script-- the banter is too cute by-half. Practically every line out of Bogart's mouth shouts clever writer's device, whether it's baseball metaphors (strike one, strike two, etc), car metaphors, or the various other false rhetorical notes. For me, it gets tiresome, Bogart or no Bogart. Then too, Carnovski's queasy racketeer is made to enunciate his lines with perfectly parsed diction. Of course, that makes him a more interesting character and criminal mastermind. But, this again amounts to a device that calls attention to the words being said instead of to who is saying them or how the plot is helped along. It seems to me that a good script carries a story without competing with it.

These are my two main gripes. There are other reasons I think the movie doesn't get beyond second-rate noir, such as uninspired direction (whether Cromwell's name is elevated above the title or not), overly long love scenes (after the point has been made), and menacing figures who don't really menace (Carnovski & Miller). Together these undercut the strong points, such as the train scenes (how Prince & Bogart have bonded) or certain good story points (the unidentifiable corpse, the poignant last scene).

In passing-- this is not a gripe, but I suspect Columbia was using Bogart to build Scott into another Lauren Bacall. The two look somewhat alike, sound somewhat alike, and both built careers on appearance and attitude rather than ability. Here Bogart ends up calling Scott's character "Mike", just the sort of sidekick affection he shows for real life wife Bacall in their several movies together. Nothing obvious hangs on this, just a surmise that the movie may have been shaped for more than one purpose. However that may be, the movie amounts to okay but unmemorable noir entertainment.

A big thank you to MOVIES Net Film Noir Sunday night, rerunning this film great. What a trip. One extraordinarily good movie. Not the BIG SLEEP, but every bit as entertaining and Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott make a supreme team.

There seems to be a lot of picking on Lizabeth Scott, more or less in the shadow of Lauren Bacall. Wrong. Scott would not have been in this flick if she did not have the talent. She is stunning and quite convincing as the former gal friend (Coral Chandler) of Bogey's old army bud --who turns up dead. Bogey plays Rip Murdock who has to put the pieces together, matching wits with notorious nightclub owner Martinelli (played by Morris Carnovsky). Question: Is Coral also mixed up with Martinelli?

Good support from Wallace Ford as another of Rip's old war pals. If you watch closely, you can see Ford is having a good time with Bogey and Scott. It's obvious. Really the secret of any great movie, the comaraderie behind the scenes that make it all click.

Special credit to director John Cromwell, who had just finished ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM (1946). The ending will stick with you, and some memorable dialogue at that. To note, Bogey looks a little younger thanks to a better hair piece. Scott's hair styling is marvelous. Everybody put in the extra time, even the clothing and sets. It shows.

10 Stars.

On Columbia Tri Star dvd with lots of features, including bonus trailers. Also blu ray.

This is a superior thriller with a wonderful storyline. It is lessened in its impact by the miscasting of Lizbeth Scott as a singer and as a villain. But the rest of the cast is very good indeed; and the suspense never lets up. This is a true noir, one that might have been done by Alfred Hitchcock or perhaps Leigh Brackett. It tells the story of Rip and his friend Johnny, who are being sent to Washington so that Johnny can collect the Medal of Honor. But Johnny is reluctant, strangely, and he disappears from the train that is taking them there. Rip follows him, remembering where his hometown is, and plunges headlong into a nightmare of lies, danger and suspicions. He seeks out Johnny's girl, Scott, a singer in a nightclub, and narrowly escaping death here and there and a frame-up for the murder of a man he questioned, he finally solves the murder of his friend--and finds out who really killed Johnny's wife, which was the accusation against Johnny that he what been running from in the first place. Veteran John Cromwell directed, beautifully; and the cinematography and sets, the latter by Louis Diage, are outstanding. Jean Louis did the costumes; and lighting, art direction and other elements are far-above-average. The story is by Gerald Dayson Adams, Steve Fisher and Sidney Biddell. Humphrey Bogart is at his best in this film, and it is also a good one for George Chandler, Morris Carnovsky and Marvin Miller. Charles Cane, Wallace Ford and William Prince as Johnny do well also; others contributing included James Bell and Ruby Dandridge. The story is a bit complex, but it believable at all points. The climax involves the use of weapons against the bad guy, by Rip, and an attempt on his life--by Johnny's girl, with whom in any case he has fallen a little in love. Tough dialogue, classic confrontation scenes, frame-ups, hard-boiled cops, a parachuting padre and a first-rate mystery; no wonder this film is so well liked. It deserves more attention than it has ever gotten.

Enjoyed all of Humphrey Bogart's films along with a very sexy actress, Lizabeth Scott,('Dusty' Chandler) who gave outstanding performances in their one and only film together. Bogart plays the role of Capt.'Rip' Murdock who is traveling by railroad with his Army buddy, Sgt. Johnny Drake, (William Prince) who is going to Washington, D.C. to receive a Medal of Honor award, but somehow disappears off the train. Rip decides to investigate his buddy's disappearance and runs into 'Dusty' and finds out she was Johnny Drake's ex-girl friend and he seeks her help and assistance and becomes very much in love with her. There are some very dark secrets that 'Dusty' is keeping from Rip and when these secrets are revealed this film will take you into another tricky ending. Great Classic and a very entertaining film which keeps your interest in the beginning, and gets rather slow and boring in the middle of the film, but the ending is a knock out.

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.

Humphrey Bogart's performance in this film is what makes it rise above a 5 or 6. Columbia is obviously trying to replicate the elements of the types of films that Bogart did so well in the 1940's over at Warner Brothers. The oddest thing about this film is Bogart's dialogue, especially during his voice-overs. At times it comes on so strong as to approach a parody of Bogart as Bogart. If any other actor were speaking this dialogue it might evoke laughter if not confusion, yet Humphrey Bogart makes it work.

Here Bogart is paratrooper Rip Murdock, just recently home from the war with Sergeant Johnny Drake, who is to receive the Congressional medal of honor. However, when Drake disappears right before the ceremony, Murdock gets permission from his superiors to find out what happened to his usually reliable friend and fellow soldier. Murdock follows his buddy's trail to Gulf City, a bar and gambling joint there that is run by a mobster, the girl that stole Johnny's heart - young and beautiful - and wealthy - widow Dusty Chandler (Lizabeth Scott), and a trail of clues fraught with mystery and murder. It's rather obvious that Lizabeth Scott is Columbia's answer to Lauren Bacall in this one, and that gangster Martinelli and henchman Krauss are attempting to duplicate the types of roles played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Bogart's successful Warner pictures. Although these three can't begin to match their Warner counterparts, and at times Scott painfully overacts, they do lend enough credible support to give Bogey a framework in which to play an interesting character in a rather intriguing mystery that has plenty of atmosphere.

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.