My wife and I have recently been working our way through the films of Lizabeth Scott, one of our favorite Noir actresses, starting with our personal favorite THE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS. Others we have viewed include STOLEN FACE, TOO LATE FOR TEARS, PITFALL, DARK CITY, and now DEAD RECKONING. Of that group, we found DEAD RECKONING to be the weakest. It isn’t a bad movie, in fact parts of it are very good, but with a little tweaking here and there, it could have been really good. The direction by John Cromwell is solid enough although he could have paced the movie a little better. The biggest fault lies with the rambling screenplay by 5 different writers.
What’s good about DEAD RECKONING? First up there’s Humphrey Bogart. By this point in his career, he could play the cynical loner with a tender heart in his sleep. In keeping with that persona, the screenplay gives him several good lines to deliver. Several of these are contained in the Philip Marlowe style narration that Bogart’s character utilizes in the first two thirds of the movie. Then there’s the supporting performances of Morris Carnovsky as the shady nightclub owner and especially Marvin Miller as a baby faced strong arm man who enliven every scene that they are in. Finally there’s the cinematography by Leo Tovar which gives the movie the classic “Noir’ look.
Now we get to Lizabeth Scott who is the make or break issue for most of the reviewers regarding this movie. Many criticize her for not being Lauren Bacall and most of those who take that approach don’t appear to have seen her in anything else. Of course she isn’t Lauren Bacall (who, by the way, praised her performance in this) and isn’t trying to be. She was actually a last minute replacement for Rita Hayworth who had just scored big in GILDA the year before but was now tied up with THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI for then husband Orson Welles. The dress Scott wears in the nightclub scene along with the song she sings are straight out of GILDA. Considering this background, she does a creditable job.
The movie opens in classic Noir fashion, being told in flashback by Bogart to a Catholic priest. He’s an Army captain trying to track down a war buddy who runs away before he can receive the Medal of Honor. The trail leads to the fictional Gulf City (actually Tarpon Springs, Florida) where his buddy had changed his name after being involved in a local scandal. The girl he left behind (Scott) is mixed up in it but just how deeply? The final revelation is not a surprise but the ending to the movie is. This WB disc, first released in 2003, serves the film well. The picture is well defined, the sound is clear, and it comes with subtitles. DEAD RECKONING may not be a classic Noir but it’s well worth watching.
The Capsule Critic 