With Mickey Spillane-esque dialogue, our feature today is one of the most definitive Film Noir films of the 1940s. The seedy fictional city of Gulf City (probably near Tampa) is dark, rainy, gritty, and teeming with corruption. What's worse for Bogart, a sultry blonde femme-fatale is ready to chew him up and spit him out. The only noble sort in this film is annihilated early on leaving prurient and twisted souls to sort through the carnage. Our feature today is 1946's "Dead Reckoning," directed by John Cromwell.
Two war heroes, Rip Murdock (Bogart) and his mate Johnny (William Prince) are summoned back from Berlin after WW2 so they can be decorated. Johnny has the Congressional Medal of Honor coming to him, but when he learns of this, he runs away. Why? Now Rip is concerned for his best-buddy and vows to find him. Some amateur sleuthing tells Rip that Johnny, under a different name, hails from Gulf City, so that's where he heads. After believing he has scheduled a rendezvous with his best bud, Johnny doesn't show. More investigation leads to a mob-owned nightclub where singer Coral (Lizabeth Scott) was the floor show. Now Rip's investigation reveals that Johnny was accused of murdering Coral's husband, fled, changed his name, and joined up to fight the Germans.
Rip moves in on Coral to the displeasure of mobster, nightclub owner, Mr. Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky). Martinelli wants Rip dead...as he asks too many questions. Rip suspects that there is more to the story than Johnny killing Coral's husband...and there is. Coral is quite a dish and even though he doesn't trust her one bit, Rip falls for her. Martinelli works at trying to murder Rip, and Rip resorts to army combat tactics to take on Martinelli and his gang, which include his main thug Krause (Marvin Miller). Passion and swapping spit await the new item, Rip and Coral. Rip is determined to find out the truth about Johnny even if it means...well, you'll see.
Is there any chance at all that Coral is pure as the white driven snow and really does love Rip? Okay, stupid question. Will Rip's investigation clear his friend's name and at the same time implicate someone also close to him? Is Mr. Martinelli really the one that Rip needs to worry about? This is one of Bogie's best and a lot more seedy and vicious than some of his other Film Noir gems. Before you are sweet talked by a sultry blonde, remember the film "Dead Reckoning" and get an AI girlfriend instead.
What a fantastic review, of a great movie, Bogart was simply the best of his time.
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