Cardinal
Pictures, 83m 29s
Some film noir characters are largely at
fault for their own misfortune. That is not the case in D.O.A. What an unnerving situation! A man who has done nothing
wrong learns he has only days or perhaps hours to live. "Why me?"
would be the obvious question for any person to ask under such grim conditions.
The noir city responds, "Why not
you?"
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| "I was." |
The
existential plot of D.O.A. has its
basis in the German comedy Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht
(1931, AKA LOOKING FOR HIS MURDERER)
directed by Robert Siodmak, but the film under review strikes a more serious
tone. Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien) is self-employed as an accountant in
Banning, California, about 30 miles west of Palm Springs. His
secretary/significant-other Paula Gibson (Pamela Britton) has matrimony on her
mind, but Frank lets her know he is about to leave for San Francisco for a
week. Paula is pissed, and not without good reason. It is party time in San
Fran from the moment of Frank's arrival. The St. Francis Hotel is crawling with
head-turning women—Frank’s sexual interest is registered via an intrusive slide
whistle audio clip. Despite the oft-criticized whistle gimmick, even today D.O.A. remains an efficient thriller,
complete with the patented flashback structure for which the noir film is noted.
Other noir tropes find compulsory treatment
throughout a sequence at a waterfront night club called The Fisherman. This
urban scene is so alien to Frank he does not always understand the hip
discourse. Black musicians play jazz music energetically before a white
audience that looks free of inhibitions. The intensity of the music is rivaled
only by the sexually-charged cellar jazz scene in PHANTOM LADY (1944). Most of the patrons at The Fisherman seem
completely entranced by the up-tempo music; one patron in particular appears to
be in a spaced-out state of mind. Temptresses surround Frank at the packed
club, specifically Sue (Cay Forester), the wife of a salesman he met at the
hotel, and a hot-looking blonde (Virginia Lee) who shows up at the club alone
nightly. Both women appear more than willing to spend some one-on-one time with
Frank later that evening. The chaotic sequence at The Fisherman contrasts with
the earlier scene at an uneventful bar in Banning where Frank and Paula grab
food and drinks after work. At this establishment, the only other customer is a
uniformed police officer, who might have been a more helpful presence at The
Fisherman, where a killer serves iridium poison for which no antidote exists.
 |
| Luminous toxin |
D.O.A. provides an unmitigated indictment of the
American urban landscape, where dark clouds may approach from any direction.
Urban complexity is underscored by a sequence in an abandoned refinery that
closely resembles the labyrinthine industrial settings found in other noirs such as THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942), APPOINTMENT
WITH DANGER (1951) and CITY THAT
NEVER SLEEPS (1953). But in the hopeless case of 33-year-old Frank Bigelow,
urban decadence and omnipresent femme fatales are mere distractions to the
matter at hand. The film's chilling message about the benign indifference of
death is best expressed by Frank, who recognizes the absurdity of a simple
routine that marked him for death:
"...all
I did was notarize one little paper, one little paper out of hundreds."
Plentiful
location footage captured in San Francisco and Los Angeles by Ernest Laszlo
serves to authenticate the story conceived by Russell Rouse and Clarence
Greene, the writing team who would bring us the innovative "silent noir" THE THIEF (1952) and the exposé noir
NEW YORK CONFIDENTIAL (1955). Their D.O.A. screenplay is intricate and well
written, if not the easiest to follow, especially after a second opinion
convinces Frank he is indeed a goner. At this juncture, he instinctually undergoes
a dramatic personality change and morphs into a no-nonsense, hard-boiled PI on
the trail of the person who fed him the luminous poison. Majak (Luther Adler)
understands Frank is playing for keeps, "He's not afraid...You can tell
from a man's eyes when he is afraid. Look at his eyes." In one of the
film's many ironies, our protagonist is flanked by LIFE magazine on one side of
a newsstand, and a message that reads "Brighten your morning..." on the
other. In another irony, a pharmacist
intervenes on Frank's behalf during a shootout. And when time is up for Frank,
instead of being surrounded by friends and family, his only company is the
indifferent homicide division at a police station!
 |
| LIFE |
Director
Rudolph Maté maintains a torrid pace to Frank's investigation, an absolute
necessity given the protagonist's abbreviated life expectancy. The experienced
cinematographer turned director Maté also helmed THE DARK PAST (1948) and UNION
STATION (1950), both very good film
noirs. Editor Arthur H. Nadel deserves mention, especially for his superb
handling of the jazz sequence. He also edited other effective film noirs of D.O.A.'s era, including IMPACT
(1949), CHICAGO CALLING (1951) and WITHOUT WARNING! (1952).
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| Come on, talk |
Edmond
O'Brien, excellent here as Frank, left us a vast assortment of quality work in
the film noir field, including THE KILLERS (1946), THE WEB (1947), A DOUBLE LIFE (1947), WHITE
HEAT (1949), BACKFIRE (1950), 711 OCEAN DRIVE (1950) and THE HITCH-HIKER (1953). The other D.O.A. players combine to enrich the noir atmosphere of corruption and
uncertainty. Majak embodies foreign evil that sometimes invades film noir, i.e. THE BIG SLEEP (1946), PANIC
IN THE STREETS (1950), PICKUP ON
SOUTH STREET (1953). Chester (the debut of Neville Brand) is an example of
the noir psycho inspired by Richard
Widmark's Tommy Udo character from KISS
OF DEATH (1947). Majak says of Chester, "He's an unfortunate boy. He's
psychopathic. He's unhappy unless he gives pain. He likes to see blood." D.O.A. also features Beverly Garland,
here credited as Beverly Campbell, in her debut. Garland later appeared in
director Jack Arnold's THE GLASS WEB
(1953), a noir film that was
sometimes shown in 3D at the time of its original theatrical run.
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| The noir psycho Chester (Neville Brand) |
O'Brien
recreated his role for a 60-minute radio adaptation of the film, broadcast June
21st, 1951. D.O.A. was remade twice for
the screen, first as COLOR ME DEAD
(1969) and once again as D.O.A.
(1988). In 2011, D.O.A. A NOIR MUSICAL played to sold-out audiences for five
weeks. The production received an ATAC Globe Award in 2012 for "Best
Adapted Script."
A
public domain title, D.O.A. would be
a terrific film noir to target for restoration.
In the meantime, most of the viewing options look about the same, including the
HD presentation that sometimes airs on Turner Classic Movies.
