He compiled an impressive resume as a cinematographer in Hollywood from 1935 ( Dante's Inferno, Stella Dallas, The Adventures of Marco Polo, Foreign Correspondent, Pride of the Yankees, and Gilda, among others) until turning to directing in 1947. reflects the photographic roots of director Rudolph Maté. Rode notes Rudolph Maté's technical background, writing:ĭ.O.A. Tracking down his killer just before he dies - discovering the reason for his death - turns out to be the triumph of his life." Critic A. He wrote, "One of the film's many ironies is that his last desperate search involves him in his life more forcefully than he has ever been before. In 1981 Foster Hirsch carried on a trend of more positive reviews, calling Bigelow's search for his own killer noir irony at its blackest. O'Brien's performance had a "good deal of drive", while Britton adds a "pleasant touch of blonde attractiveness". The New York Times, in its May 1950 review, described it as a "fairly obvious and plodding recital, involving crime, passion, stolen iridium, gangland beatings and one man's innocent bewilderment upon being caught up in a web of circumstance that marks him for death". On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 88% based on reviews from 25 critics. Reception Alternate theatrical release poster Critical reception Michael Ross as Dave the bartender in San Francisco.Frank Cady as Eddie the bartender in Banning (uncredited).The police detective taking down the report instructs that his file be marked "dead on arrival".Ĭast Marla Rakubian threatens Bigelow when he comes to her for information.īeverly Garland as Miss Foster (as Beverly Campbell) Halliday draws a gun and fires first, but Bigelow fatally shoots him.īigelow finishes telling his story and dies. In the final scene, Bigelow tracks Halliday to the Philips company and finds him wearing the same distinctive coat and scarf as the man who switched the drinks. When they discovered that exonerating evidence of his innocence existed in the notarized iridium bill of sale, Halliday began disposing of anyone knowing about the document, and that led to Bigelow. To make it look like suicide, the pair insisted that Eugene had killed himself over his legal troubles. Philips affirms that during a confrontation that turned violent, Halliday threw Eugene over a balcony. Stanley Phillips, who has now been poisoned, reveals that Eugene discovered that his wife and Halliday were having an affair. That someone turns out, in a plot twist, to be Halliday. He realizes that someone seems intent on eliminating all evidence of this sale. He learns that Reynolds/Rakubian is now dead. The bill of sale would have cleared Eugene, but has gone missing, and that document had been notarized by Bigelow himself. As a result of this illegal sale/purchase transaction, Eugene Philips faced criminal charges. The seller was a George Reynolds (or Raymond Rakubian), Majak's nephew. Months earlier, Eugene had purchased iridium, a rare, platinum-like metallic element, which had been stolen by a criminal named Majak. Bigelow travels to Philips' import-export company, meeting Halliday, the company comptroller, who says that Philips has committed suicide.īigelow locates Eugene Philips' widow and brother Stanley Philips. A call to his secretary Paula provides a possible lead a Eugene Philips has been urgently trying to contact him. With only days to live, Bigelow embarks on a desperate search to discover the motive for his poisoning. Doctors determine that he had ingested poison, a "luminous toxin", for which no antidote is known. The next morning, he feels extremely ill. He ends up at a nightclub, where unnoticed, a stranger swaps his drink for another one. At the hotel, he is invited to join a group of conventioneers for a night out. Bigelow is a hard-driving accountant and notary public in Banning, California, who decides to escape for a fun vacation in San Francisco. From here to the end, the story is told in flashback. (1988), and Dead On Arrival (2017).Īn opening sequence features Frank Bigelow walking through the long hallway of a police station to report his own murder. Due to a filing error, the copyright to the film was not renewed on time, causing it to fall into the public domain: it was subsequently remade as Color Me Dead (1969), D.O.A. It was the film debuts of Beverly Garland (as Beverly Campbell) and Laurette Luez. A fatally poisoned man tries to find out who has poisoned him and why. is a 1950 American film noir directed by Rudolph Maté, starring Edmond O'Brien and Pamela Britton.
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