After escaping from prison, Vincent (Humphrey Bogart) undergoes plastic surgery to change his features.
Assisted by a mysterious young woman, Irene (Lauren Bacall), Vincent tries to work out who framed him for his wife’s murder.
Bogart has so many great movies, but they have been written about so comprehensively I sometimes find it hard to not come away parroting the consensus.
Sadly, I do not have much to say about Dark Passage. The best thing about it is the presence of its stars.
It might be a perfect example of a star vehicle, in that it lives and dies on the chemistry between its leads.
Famously shot from the male lead’s perspective for the first half, the film is built around the gimmick of slowly revealing the character with his new face.
This delayed reveal is something that no movie would be able to accomplish today.
In that, the movie is a fascinating artefact of the former power of movie stars.
Unless the character is played by someone who has been a star for decades (Cruise, Jolie, Washington), I do not think this movie would be made.
The closest equivalent is Gemini Man where the gimmick is Will Smith versus himself.
The movie is a collection of contrivances - the plastic surgery, the fact that all the characters we meet know each other.
Most of the action is confined to one apartment.
And sadly, most of the movie is characters explaining the plot for minutes.
It gets tedious.
The film is vaguely watchable but it was so forgettable I did not remember to write any notes until a couple days later.
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