Noir lite
Thursday, February 13, 2014
Regarded by some film scholars to be a minor classic worthy of rediscovery, Delmer Daves' "Dark Passage" is the least remembered of the quartet of films featuring Humphrey Bogart and wife Lauren Bacall. Here's what our CineVerse group uncovered after taking off the bandages:
WHAT DID YOU EXPECT COMING INTO THIS MOVIE, AND HOW WERE
YOU SURPRISED?
·
Interestingly, for a film featuring Bogart and
Bacall, we don’t get to see Bogart’s face for the first third of the film, and
Bacall disappears for most of the last third of the movie.
·
Most of the first third of the picture is shot
using subjective camera, in which we see the point of view of Bogart’s
character, which is an interesting technique used in the film noir “Lady in the
Lake” one year earlier and in a handful of films prior.
·
For a film noir, it doesn’t replicate a lot of
the same conventions and clichés: the city isn’t necessarily depicted as threatening
and oozing evil, and Irene isn’t a classic femme fatale leading men into
danger; in fact, her abode is a sanctuary where Parry finds refuge from danger.
·
Also, unlike many films noir, Dark Passage doesn’t
end on a pessimistic, dark or cynical note wherein somebody dies or a villain
gets his comeuppance; instead, its denouement is like a tacked-on fairy tale
ending—the lovers “reunite in an exotic fantasyland, and this tale of murder
and deceit ends up happily ever after,” according to critic Glenn Erickson.
·
There are a lot of implausibilities and
illogical elements at work in the story, which many critics consider to be a
mess; yet, arguably, the film proves captivating and entertaining, primarily
due to the talents and star power of its leads and the noirish ambience.
WHAT DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE DECISION TO USE SUBJECTIVE
CAMERA AND NOT SHOW BOGART’S FACE FOR A GOOD PORTION OF THE MOVIE. WAS THIS A
MISTAKE, OR DOES IT WORK?
·
You could make a case that it’s unnecessary:
while it’s true that Parry has his appearance changed, which is an important
plot element, you could have either had Bogart wear makeup or cast a different
actor and dubbed in Bogart’s voice.
·
Or, as reviewer Mark Van Hook posited: “I would
have started the film with Bogart in bandages and explained the plastic surgery
development in the film’s first scenes, with Bacall either already a part of
the story or somehow introduced later. This would have allowed Bogart to reveal
himself earlier in the film instead of more than halfway through it, and it
would have allotted more time to the mystery of just who did kill Parry’s wife.”
·
The problem with subjective camera is that
characters who are interacting with and speaking to the person whose eyes we’re
seeing through have to look and talk directly to the camera, which breaks the
fourth wall, feels stilted and awkward, and can result in campy delivery.
·
Subjective camera was used very sparingly after “Lady
in the Lake” and “Dark Passage” because it was thought to be too gimmicky and
not conducive to the accepted cinematic standards of conventional film grammar,
which calls for shot, reverse shot, close-up, reaction shot, over-the-shoulder
shot and other traditional shot techniques.
HOW IS THIS PAIRING OF BACALL AND BOGART DIFFERENT FROM
THEIR OTHER 3 FILMS TOGETHER?
·
Although Bogart and Bacall only made 4 films
together, including “Key Largo,” their most popular couplings were Howard Hawks’
“The Big Sleep” and “To Have and Have Not,” in which their sexual chemistry was
powerful and the double entendres and erotically charged flirting was indelibly
etched in fans’ minds.
·
Here, the chemistry is still strong and the
romance feels real, but their interaction is more calm and comfortable.
·
Film Comment writer Bertrand Tavernier theorizes that “the motherliness of the
Bacall character and Bogart’s enforced passivity make for an uncharacteristic
type of relationship…gentle tenderness prevails, which probably accounts
for Dark Passage’s comparative obscurity.”
OTHER FILMS DIRECTED BY DELMER DAVES
·
Pride of the Marines
·
3:10 to Yuma
·
Broken Arrow
·
The Hanging Tree