Rent D.O.A (1950)
3.7 of 5 from 77 ratings
1h 25min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Small-town accountant Fank Bigelow (Edomond O'Brien) takes a week's vacation in San Francisco prior to settling down with his fiancee Paula. But a night on the tiles leaves Frank with more than just a hangover...waking up he is informed by doctors that he has been injected with a mysterious toxin for which there is no known antidote. At the outside, Frank has no more than a week to live. With no clue as to who should do such a thing or why, Frank sets out on a desperate quest to unmask his own murderer...
- Actors:
- Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Beverly Garland, Lynn Baggett, William Ching, Henry Hart, Neville Brand, Laurette Luez, Jess Kirkpatrick, Cay Forrester, Frank Jaquet, Lawrence Dobkin, Frank Gerstle, Carol Hughes
- Directors:
- Rudolph Maté
- Producers:
- Leo C. Popkin
- Writers:
- Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene
- Aka:
- Dead on Arrival / D.O.A.
- Studio:
- Matinee
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Thrillers
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Reviews (2) of D.O.A
Snares and Symbols - D.O.A review by CH
It is a great opening – as is all that follows, and went before. This is D.O.A. (1949). In fact, Edmond O'Brien is still alive when he arrives at the San Francisco police headquarters to report a murder: “my own”. In his end is our beginning, for the story cuts back to proceed through the events which brought him to the police. A suburban insurance agent, who has left his secretary (Pamela Britton) behind, he is in the city for a holiday when he finds himself caught up in a neighbouring room's party which decamps to a brilliantly-filmed jazz dive, where he becomes ill.
This is no surprise, for, amidst some furious drumming, the camera has cut to the switching of the drink bought for him at the end of the bar. For a small-time agent, he is to discover that he has become unwittingly caught up in murderous events. Should he be asked, he can testify, with the aid of a document in his possession, that a jump from a balcony was a push. Time is not on his side. In what remains of it, he has to scour the city, and make a détour to Los Angeles, in a quest for his killer. All the while assuring his lovelorn secretary by telephone that he is all right.
The plot might sound preposterous, but there are slow-acting poisons and the fast pacing of this film leaves scant room for doubt. Written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, it is directed by Rudolph Maté in a way which makes full use of the city as seen by cinematographer Ernest Laszlo (some terrific runs through crowded streets) during day and night.
Film noir is a term which occludes its variety, and this one turns many of these upon the familiar retinue of Mr. Bigs and their mercilessly self-seeking, smartly-dressed women with a cigarette between manicured nails which also serve to scratch. Nobody is above suspicion. Malevolence pervades society. Even the viewer feels guilt by association.
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Fifties Noir. - D.O.A review by Steve
This has one of the most celebrated openings in pictures as a long tracking shot of a small town accountant (Edmond O'Brien) delivers him to the desk of a police detective where he announces he wants to report a murder: 'my own'. He swallowed a slow acting poison on a bar crawl in San Francisco and solved the crime in his last few hours of life.
And how noir is that... an ordinary Joe who steps out of line just once, and he sleeps the big sleep. Sadly, after the tasty appetiser, there is uninspired filler as the victim narrates how he figured out the unimaginative mystery. Though O'Brien as the desperate, despairing inquisitor gives the convoluted story the momentum of a charging bull.
There is one of the worst gimmick in pictures; during the wage slave's rare down time in the big city, every good looking dame triggers a kind of wolf-whistle on the soundtrack. Fortunately this soon goes away as his thoughts turn to his approaching death. There are some great locations in 'Frisco and LA, though the photography is only functional.
It's a very cheap looking B-picture, with a minor support cast, though we see Neville Brand's debut as the sadistic heavy he would play forever. And it's fun to watch Pamela Britton's Gloria Grahame impression as Ed's secretary/neglected love interest. This is more famous than it deserves to be, but still superior to the many remakes.
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