Intro: Dark Passage (1947)

Transcript

Hi, I'm Harry Marks and this is Let's All Go to the Lobby—your introduction to the film you've decided to watch. Up next is a thriller about a man who escapes prison after being convicted of killing his wife. No, this isn't the Shawshank Redemption.

I'm talking about Delmer Daves's 1947 thriller, DARK PASSAGE, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.

Though it was Daves's first time working with Bogart as a director, he'd co-written 1936's The Petrified Forest—the film that made Bogart a star.

DARK PASSAGE casts Bogie as escaped convict Vincent Parry, who undergoes plastic surgery to hide his true identity from both the cops and those who've wronged him.

And in some ways, Parry was more like Bogart than the actor may have realized. Not only did the character change his appearance in the film, but so did the actor. Bogart lost much of his hair during production as a result of alopecia areata and this performance marked the first time he was forced to wear a full hair piece onscreen.

Parry's love interest, Irene Jansen, is played by Bogart's real-life wife, Lauren Bacall. They'd been introduced to each other by director Howard Hawks, who was working on Bacall's screen debut, To Have and Have Not—adapted from the novel by Ernest Hemingway.

Bogie and Bacall went on to star in some of the greatest films ever made, including the Big Sleep in 1946 and Key Largo in 1948, their love for each other on clear display in every scene.

DARK PASSAGE is perhaps best known for its unique use of the "subjective camera" technique, in which the audience watches the first part of the film through the eyes of the main character as he makes his way through San Francisco to Irene's apartment. Though it had been used in other films prior, such as 1931's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, it seems to be used to greater effect here, making us feel as though we're also on the lam, with the watchful eyes of the law right behind us.

Keep your eyes peeled during the film for a few easter eggs. In one scene, as Vincent is reading a newspaper article about Irene's father, the accompanying photo is that of the film's director, Delmer Daves. And if you look closely, another scene features an 8 by 10 photo of what Vincent looked like before his surgery. Apparently he bore a strong resemblance to character actor Frank Wilcox, best known as oil exec John Brewster from The Beverly Hillbillies.

Also starring Bruce Bennett, Clifton Young, and Agnes Moorehead of future Bewitched fame, DARK PASSAGE is an exciting and mysterious look at how far one man will go to find out the truth. And so here it is…Bogie and Bacall in…DARK PASSAGE.