Rating of
2.5/4
"Dead Reckoning"
Yojimbo - wrote on 05/05/12
When a demobbed paratrooper disappears rather than face the publicity of accepting The Medal of Honour, his friend and captain disobeys orders and picks up his trail.
Humphrey Bogart and Film Noir had a very successful partnership and this example follows very much in the footsteps of his earlier successes. It does seem rather a weak link compared to his best however, as the script and direction perhaps try a little too hard to capture their hard-boiled style. The narration is rather clumsier, the dialogue less witty, the plot a little more predictable and the characters more stereotypical than the likes of The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep; Marvin Miller's heavy in particular comes across as something of a cartoon villain. The whole "putting women in my pocket" schtick goes beyond the quaint and dated into outright sexism and the relationship between Bogie - who is saddled with the absurdly macho monicker of Rip Murdock - and Lizabeth Scott never really rings true; she herself may look the part but her performance is wooden and never captures the sultry chemistry of the likes of Lauren Bacall whom she is so obviously trying to ape.
Dead Reckoning does have its moments and Bogart is always worth watching, but there are much better examples of gumshoe Noir out there.
