In spite of the good cinematography, Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall, "Dark Passage" succumbs to a weak plot - too many coincidences and hitches.
Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) runs away from the San Quentin State Prison. He's on the road to hitch a ride and he must be out of the area quickly before the police start searching for him. He is picked up by a woman (Lauren Bacall) who knows his name and more about him. She wants to help him. As he said: "I don't get you". We also don't understand it. Mystery! But it's all right, puzzles are welcome. My interest was raised.
But the script was written in order to keep up a continuous interest - characters are linked together without any concern for logic, people behave in a way that only a script-writer could imagine and so on. After a while the story ceased to interest me and I followed the images and Bogart & Bacall instead. That for me was good enough. Anyway the camera work is interesting, especially in the beginning when we see the action through the eyes of Vincent Parry.
If you don't care too much about logic the film will surely entertain you. But I think that after a very interesting beginning (let's say the first 30 minutes) the film goes a bit down. The story goes on with its own logic till the amazing happy ending. The producers wanted to satisfy the public and I think they reached their aim at the time. This was Hollywood after all.
Vincent Parry (Humphrey Bogart) runs away from the San Quentin State Prison. He's on the road to hitch a ride and he must be out of the area quickly before the police start searching for him. He is picked up by a woman (Lauren Bacall) who knows his name and more about him. She wants to help him. As he said: "I don't get you". We also don't understand it. Mystery! But it's all right, puzzles are welcome. My interest was raised.
But the script was written in order to keep up a continuous interest - characters are linked together without any concern for logic, people behave in a way that only a script-writer could imagine and so on. After a while the story ceased to interest me and I followed the images and Bogart & Bacall instead. That for me was good enough. Anyway the camera work is interesting, especially in the beginning when we see the action through the eyes of Vincent Parry.
If you don't care too much about logic the film will surely entertain you. But I think that after a very interesting beginning (let's say the first 30 minutes) the film goes a bit down. The story goes on with its own logic till the amazing happy ending. The producers wanted to satisfy the public and I think they reached their aim at the time. This was Hollywood after all.