|
Dark Passage (1947)
In Delmer Daves' dreamy, expressionist noir-thriller,
one of four films made by Bogart with Bacall:
- during the film's first hour of restricted perspective,
the many subjective POV camera angles - from the viewpoint of wrongly-accused
escaped San Quentin fugitive Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart)
- the newspaper photo of Humphrey Bogart's character
Vince Parry (Frank Wilcox) before the surgery - in many headlines,
one of which read: "ESCAPED KILLER IN S.F. - Police Dragnet
Spread Throughout Bay Area For Fugitive Murderer"
- a lonely San Francisco taxi-driver's story to Parry
about taking goldfish for a ride to the Pacific: "You should
see the character I had for a fare yesterday. Picked him up at the
Ferry Building. Standin' on the curb with a big goldfish bowl in
his arm, full of water. Two goldfish. Climbs in the back of the cab,
sits down and puts the goldfish bowl in his lap. Where do you think
he wants to go? To the ocean. Clean from the Ferry Building to the
Pacific Ocean. But he doesn't know that there's seven hills. Seven
steep hills in between. So we start off. Up the first hill, slippity
slop, down the hill, slippity slop. Water all over the back seat,
the goldfish on the floor. He picks 'em up, puts them back in the
bowl. Up we go again, slippity slop, water all over the -- You never
saw such a wet guy in your life when we got to that ocean. And two
tired goldfish. But I like goldfish. I'm gonna get a couple for the
room. Dress it up a little bit, it adds class to the joint. Makes
it a little homey"
- the kaleidoscopic, surreal sequence of Parry's facial
plastic surgery by a clandestine "SPECIALIST" Coley (Houseley
Stevenson)
|
|
|
Creepy Plastic Surgeon
|
With Bandages after Plastic Surgery
|
- the scene in an apartment when Parry - with his
face obscured by shadows or bandages after facial plastic surgery
- was hiding out with the supportive assistance of sympathetic
and attractive artist Irene Jansen (Lauren Bacall), and being fed
out of a glass tube (a symbolic umbilical cord)
- the confrontational sequence of evil Madge Rapf (Agnes
Moorehead) with Parry, who tried to force her to sign a confession
(he told her: "I've got to make you confess it" - for committing
two murders for which he had been framed); as she backed away from
him and yelled out: "They'll believe me, they'll believe me!",
she ducked behind a window curtain - where she crashed through a
window and fell to her death many stories below onto the street,
and he looked down at her demise
Demise of Madge Rapf (Agnes Moorehead)
|
|
|
- the sequence of rebirth 62 minutes into the film
when Irene unwrapped Parry's facial bandages and his face was revealed
in a mirror - and he uttered his first reaction: ("Same eyes.
Same nose. Same hair. Huh! Everything else seems to be in a different
place. I sure look older. That's all right. I'm not. If it's all
right with me, it ought to be all right with you") - and he
was renamed Allan Linnell
- the happy ending phone call between Parry and Irene,
who made plans to separately flee to Paita, Peru - and then after
a time-dissolve (and an end to dialogue), the pair were seen meeting
up and dancing in an oceanside cafe to the song Too Marvelous
for Words, and the film's fade to black
|
Fugitive Headlines
Taxi-Driver's Goldfish Story
Irene Jansen
(Lauren Bacall)
Removing Facial Bandages
Phone Call - Plan of Escape to Peru
Happy Ending: Oceanside Cafe Rendezvous
|