D.O.A.

US, 1949, 83 minutes, Black and white.
Edmond O' Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, Neville Brand, Peter Graves.
Directed by Rudolph Mate.

D.O.A. is a short melodramatic thriller of the '40s which gained in reputation in succeeding decades. Cameraman Rudolph Mate began to make dramas and romances and moved into colourful adventure films in the '50s and '60s. This is a film noir where ordinary citizen Edmund O' Brien reports to the police that he has been poisoned. Before he dies he unravels the mystery of his own death. O' Brien is good in the central role, there is good location work in California and the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles. The supporting cast is not so strong - especially Pamela Britton’s all-too-talkative heroine. Peter Graves and Neville Brand appear in sinister roles. The film echoes the black thrillers and pessimistic tones of so many films of the time. It was remade by Eddie Davis in an Australian setting as Colour Me Dead (1970) with Tom Tryon and Caroline Jones and as D.O.A. in 1988 with Dennis Quaid.

1. An effective thriller? Film noir? A classic of its kind - allowing for the conventions of the period?

2. Black and white photography, California, the town of Banning, the use of Los Angeles and San Francisco locations, street and apartment filming? The summer atmosphere? The time span of a few days? Days and nights? A thriller of the cities? The brightness of the cities and the shadows?

3. Musical score - orchestration, jazz background? The over melodramatic tones of music? Thriller atmosphere?

4. The title and its ironies, with Frank Bigelow, the finale? The originality of the story and screenplay? The irony of the murdered man investigating his own death? How well did the film work within this framework? Bigelow's arrival, beginning to tell his story?

5. How well did the film work as a murder mystery, the development of the plot, the flashbacks, memory, experience, the possibilities, the clues, Bigelow's unravelling the plot and following leads? A satisfactory solution?

6. Frank Bigelow as an ordinary citizen? His office, work, the chatter with the hairdresser, Paula and her devotion? The heat, the holiday? His reaction to Paula's clinging? The move to San Francisco, the holiday atmosphere, his eyeing all the women (and the exaggerated siren effect for humour)? Parties in San Francisco, Paula's phone calls? Meeting people, going out to restaurants, the jazz, the dancing? His avoiding the wife of the businessman? The San Francisco convention parties? Audience seeing Frank as an ordinary character, puzzled about his death? The visualising of the sinister murderer and the spiking of his drink?

7. The next day, his illness, Paula's call, going to the doctor's for the tests, his violent reaction to their news, going twice? His trying to retrace his steps? The empty hotel? The phone calls about the Los Angeles business? The visit to Los Angeles, Halliday and his secretary in the office, the murdered man's wife, brother? The threats? Going to the warehouse and the chase and shootout? The girlfriend and the discovery of the sale, the bill of sale, the intricacy of the illegal business deals? His being taken by the hoodlums, the escape in the traffic, the shootout in the store? His eluding his pursuers?

8. The victim's brother and audience suspicion, his being poisoned - and able to be saved? The secretary and her information? The truth about the victim's wife, the plot with Halliday? The clash with Halliday - and the final shootout?

9. Paula as an over-talkative heroine, romance, miss ordinary? Her going to Los Angeles?

10. The finish of the story, Bigelow's collapse, the reaction of the police, his death - and D.O.A.?

11. The old-fashioned style of the film, melodramatic and focusing on incident for emotional response rather than plausibility? How well did it work?