Capt. Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) and his buddy Sgt Johnny Drake (William Prince) are headed to Washington DC to receive a pair of medals when Johnny jumps a different train to avoid the publicity. Rip follows and quickly discovers Johnny had enlisted under a false name as he was on the run from a murderer rap. Johnny ends up dead and Rip decides to find out who did it and why. His leads are Johnnyâs girl, Dusty Chandler (Lizabeth Scott), local criminal boss Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky), and a hulking thug (Marvin Miller).
Itâs like clever kids stole the contract of the best Film Noir actor of all time, so decided to make a movie. Adults couldnât have made the choices on screen. It is amazing how many wrong turns this thing takes.
OK, Dead Reckoning has Humphrey Bogart, and this isnât uncertain or undeveloped Bogart. This is Bogart at the height of his career being asked to be Bogart. Thereâs no way that isnât going to be worth a look. But from there, it all goes haywire. The plot is made up of pieces from other Noirs without any regard for how they fit together. Elements are pulled from Double Indemnity, Murder My Sweet, Gilda, The Big Sleep, and, The Maltese Falconâin that final case, with âborrowedâ dialog. Thereâs a love triangle involving a casino owner, but it is vague and impossible to figure how it is supposed to work. Rip falls for the girl when it makes no sense to. He gets knocked out (twice) at the wrong times and for the wrong reasons. He tells the story as a flashback, but the flashback ends two-thirds of the way throughâand the character he was speaking to vanishes from the picture. Police come and go willy nilly throughout.
There are five writers and I wonder if they ever interacted. The flashback begins with all sorts of stuff about Rip and Johnny having been wounded and traveling to get their medals, etc. Why? Why doesnât the film start with Rip showing up in town and finding his friend dead? Thatâs clearly the beginning. But then Rip himself makes no sense. Outside of a tendency to bend the rules, he appears to be an upstanding guy who owned a taxi company (that was somehow destroyed by Pearl HarberâŚ?). OK. Great. So heâs a normal, good guy with military and business skills. But when needed for the âplot,â he’s suddenly best friends with âgoodâ mobsters who can get him in touch with a friendly safecrackerâone who has retired but is instantly loyal to Rip and who happens to have napalm grenades and all the guns anyone could need. Rip, the mob boss, and Dusty all have âplansâ but none of them are coherent and it is laughable that even theyâd think they would work
And thatâs just the start of the nonsense. Thereâs no getting around how derivative Dead Reckoning is, but a good deal of the foolishness could have been forgiven if the characters worked. After all, The Big Sleep didnât make much sense (although the characters did) and it is a masterpiece. But then the leads would need chemistry and there is none. I put that on Scott, who is some kind of lifeless doll-thing. I think she was trying to do a Lauren Bacall imitation, assuming she was human and so, could have intentions. Sheâs a beautiful woman, but I donât believe for a minute that all these men would fall for her. Or that she is a living being.
Iâm not sure if I laughed more at the stolen dialog (âWhen a guyâs pal is killed, he ought to do somethingâ) or the newly written gibberish. Thereâs this weird conversation that is supposed to be playful, romantic banter but is just bizarre:
âI’ve been thinking: women ought to come capsule-sized, about four inches high. When a man goes out of an evening, he just puts her in his pocket and takes her along with him, and that way he knows exactly where she is. He gets to his favorite restaurant, he puts her on the table and lets her run around among the coffee cups while he swaps a few lies with his pals… Without danger of interruption. And when it comes that time of the evening when he wants her full-sized and beautiful, he just waves his hand and there she is, full-sized.â
So, thereâs that.
Dead Reckoning is shot well. Nothing is outstanding, but overall the crew all knew their jobs. And this is Bogart, so I have to say see it, but donât spend your nickels.