I have a special talent for looking at a movie and placing the year in which it was filmed/released. If I'm off, it's usually only by a single year. So when Carlos asked me what year Dead Reckoning was from, all I had to do was look at Bogie's worn face, the hair and clothing style, the cinematography and the noirish voice over of the film to land it around 1947 or 1948.
Dead Reckoning (1947)
reminded me of a few films. The self-destructive love affair between Bogie's Rip Murdock (::snickers::) and Lizbeth Scott's Carol Chandler was very much like the one between Mitchum and Greer in Out of the Past (1947)
. Many noirish elements, like the voice over and the flashback motif reminded me of Double Indemnity (1944)
. The druggings and POV sequences that followed reminded me of The Maltese Falcon (1941)
. Even though so many elements of the film were familiar and I felt deja vu on more than one occasion, this film still seemed very fresh and new to me.::spoiler alert::
I was particularly struck with one of the final scenes of the movie. Bogie's Rip provides death advice to a character about to cross over to the other side. The dying character is scared and Rip asks the character to just let go. I found it quite remarkable in its straight-forwardness. It provided no false hopes yet comforted nonetheless. I wish someone would say something like this to me when my time comes.
It's like going out the jump door. Hold your breath and just let go Mike. Don't fight it. Remember all the guys that have done it before you. You've got plenty of company Mike. High class company.
