Dark Passage

"In danger as violent as their love!!!"

1947 1h 46m EN

👍

7.3

SOLID

★7.3TMDB · 364

ThrillerMystery

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence.

“In danger as violent as their love!!!”

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Cast

Humphrey Bogart
Vincent Parry
Lauren Bacall
Irene Jansen
Bruce Bennett
Bob
Agnes Moorehead
Madge Rapf
Tom D'Andrea
Cabby (Sam)
Clifton Young
Baker
Douglas Kennedy
Detective Kennedy
Rory Mallinson
George Fellsinger

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Delmer Daves
Writers: Delmer Daves
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Shot for just $1.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

79 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Delmer Daves, shot by Sidney Hickox. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Franz Waxman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor David Weisbart shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Bruce Bennett carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "In danger as violent as their love!!!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0039302 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Delmer Daves directs. Sidney Hickox behind the camera. Franz Waxman scores. David Weisbart cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Shot for just $1.7M — micro-budget by Hollywood standards.
279 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Delmer Daves, shot by Sidney Hickox. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Franz Waxman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor David Weisbart shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and Bruce Bennett carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "In danger as violent as their love!!!".
8IMDB entry: tt0039302 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 9 themes, including "fire escape", "san francisco, california", "plastic surgery", "prison escape".
10Released under 31 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Sidney Hickox
Original score: Franz Waxman
Editing: David Weisbart
Costume design: Bernard Newman
Makeup / hair: Perc Westmore
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $1,678,000
Box office: $3,430,000
Return: 204% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: Dark Passage (1947)

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Delmer Daves

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-08-28
★ 7/10
Dark Passage, light journey. This review may contain spoilers Vincent Parry has been imprisoned in San Quentin for murdering his wife, he escapes at sets about clearing his name. After being picked up, and then hidden by Irene Jansen (who has followed his case closely), Parry gets a tip from a cab driver which leads him to an underground plastic surgeon. After being given a new face, Parry must keep away from the police and find out just who did in fact kill his wife? OK, so the plot isn't much to write home about, but the star appeal of the leads and a quite simply brilliant supporting performance lifts this noirish thriller way above average. Humphrey Bogart is Vincent Parry and Lauren Bacall is Irene Jansen, so it's with a tinge of sadness that Dark Passage is considered the weakest film of the four collaborations from the special duo. And though in plot and screenplay that may well be true, I maintain that the sexual chemistry here is as electric as it is in The Big Sleep. Has to be said, though, that both Bacall & Bogart are playing second fiddle to a waspish turn from Agnes Moorehead as Madge Rapf, she ups the ante and grabs the attention span when the film drifts close to a stand still. The clever camera technique of viewing the events from Vincent's eyes works well for the first third of the film (we never see Vincent's face), but heavy with Bogarts' narration, this loses impact once Vincent gets his new face. The mysterious element to the plot doesn't quite get the jolt that it should because sadly we know it's Bogart from the off, So when the reveal comes about it just falls a little flat. Still, the film works as a more than serviceable thriller, with great acting and a very tidy turn of events in the ending make Dark Passage recommended viewing for noirish thriller fans. 7/10
tmdb280390232022-08-27
★ 2/10
Humphrey Bogart spends at least half of Dark Passage heard but not seen. When the movie isn’t shot from his point of view – little more than a gimmick in any day and age, though I guess in 1947 it might have had the benefit of novelty; sort of like a first-person shooter long before first-person shooters –, Bogie’s face is either a shadowy silhouette or wrapped in bandages. The latter is the result of a back-alley plastic surgery, which is itself an oddity since this is an extreme that more often than not only true villains will go to – perhaps because only a truly guilty conscience could bear to part with the face in the mirror. In this case, however, Vincent Parry (Bogart) is a the victim of a Miscarriage of Justice who sets out to Clear My Name. What happens if he does manage to prove his innocence? Will he then undergo further cosmetic surgery and go back to looking like whatever it was he looked like before? Or will he just go through the rest of his life with a surgically rearranged visage? Something tells me ol’ Vince did not think this through; on the other hand, he could have done a lot worse – like, for instance, Peter Lorre in The Face Behind the Mask. Of course, for all the good his new face does him, he might as well have kept the old one and saved himself the money and the time – and one could say the same of writer/director Delmer Daves; I mean, what’s the point of getting Bogie (who had by then starred in, among others, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, To Have and Have Not, and The Big Sleep) only to have us play peek-a-boo with him for the first half of the film?