'Dark Passage' - Movie Review

Humphrey Bogart plays Vincent Parry, accused of murdering his wife. In the first scene, we see him escaping from San Quentin prison on a supply truck. The film is quite unusual in showing most of the first third of the film from Vincent's P.O.V. - and even when it's not his view, his face is never shown until he has plastic surgery (to become Humphrey Bogart). After his escape from prison, he's aided by Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall - possibly at her most beautiful), a woman convinced that - as he claims - he didn't kill his wife. Parry eventually tries to prove his own innocence.

The movie is very uneven. Some scenes are brilliantly creepy - particularly as he's taken into plastic surgery by a doctor who's lost his license, and who jokes about what a mess he could make of Parry's face if he didn't like him or if he slipped up. The dialogue varies between preposterous and very good. It felt a bit like a failed experiment, but it was sure as hell interesting and I really enjoyed watching it.