Robert J. Maxwell There's a scene near the beginning of "The Maltese Falcon" in which Bogart as Sam Spade is staring down a hill at his partner's newly murdered body. A cop says to him, "Too bad, him getting' it like that. I guess Miles had his faults just like the rest of us but it's a shame, ain't it?" And Bogart, and director John Huston, do something extraordinary with the character of Sam Spade. Bogart puffs on his cigarette, pauses, says, "I guess so," in an almost indifferent tone of voice and then turns and walks away.I only describe that scene in order to provide a frame my judgment that there is no such originality in this story of an ex GI trying to find out why his decorate buddy was murdered after they return from the war.Most of the story is framed by Bogart's explaining his situation to a priest. It provides us with a narration by Bogart that is ripped fresh from the still-quivering flank of Raymond Chandler, only without Chandler's color or aberrancies. The lingo is plain pulp. "That's when your goons hit me with that sledgehammer cocktail," and the like.The plot is twisted, as such routine murder mysteries tend to be, and not worth detailing. Basically the writers have lifted everything possible from "The Maltese Falcon" without letting the audience in on the masquerade. Some of the dialog is almost identical. "When a guy's pal is killed you're supposed to do something about it." "Yes, Mike, you're going to fry for it." The performances are professional enough. I've always kind of liked William Prince as the knocked-off buddy, ever since he saved that kid's life by performing an appendectomy in Tokyo Bay. The story here indicates that Prince graduated from Yale. Actually he went to Cornell. Then there is the inimitable Bess Flowers as a party guest. I like extras who play party guests because I did it myself in the unforgettable cult classic -- "Windmills of the Gods." Or was it "Rage of Angels"? I forget.I don't think the movie is worth much more attention. Just another programmer.

ElMaruecan82 "To Have and Have Not" was a déjà-vu of "Casablanca"… with a novelty though, and not the least, it had Lauren Bacall in her first starring role. And she didn't just steal Bogart's thunder; she stole his heart too, revealing herself to be the perfect match for Bogie, in every meaning of the word and both on the screen and in real-life. The genuinely growing chemistry between them during the film was enough to cement the film's legend."The Big Sleep" was a déjà-vu of "The Maltese Falcon" and while it didn't have its colorful supporting cast (no Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre or Mary Astor) it did delightfully on the female casting department. Besides, as a Rubik-cube of plot complexity with one double-crossing, two lies and three false tracks by inches of celluloid that it was, it still had Bacall all the way. As long as she and Bogart ended up embracing, it was worth its ticket's price, the pop-corn box … and the little spot in Hollywood's firmament.Where am I going at with all these comparisons?"Dead Reckoning" suffers from the same déjà-vu syndrome but without any redeeming quality. It only exists on the basis that the stuff film-noir was made on already worked, that all it took was to place Bogart in his tough-guy routine and let him go through it. Well, as much as I admire Bogart, he never did without partners, lovers or fitting antagonists. Here, he carries the film alone, and while it's always a pleasure to watch him as his typical lone rider with a soft spot for a female outcast, there has to be something new we remember the film from. Take "Dark Passage" for instance, it had Bogart and Bacall, it was far from being a masterpiece, but it still had that Hitchcockian vibe sweating out of each frame, it had Agnes Moorehead and the memorable fact that Bogart's face isn't seen for two thirds of the movie. This is where "Dead Reckoning" fails, it has everything to satisfy its audience, except the most important one: something to remember the film for. Granted its contrived plot was easier to follow than "The Big Sleep" but the investigation didn't have that punch-and-guts dynamite style, these brief flirtatious moments (like that slutty sister or that nymphomaniac librarian), it didn't have a sidekick, some comic-relief to drown our bitterness on, it had only Bogart and Lizabeth Scott. But while we care for Bogart, we never really care for Lizabeth Scott, who seems like a poor man's Lauren Bacall. This is not to dismiss her talent or anything, she could pass as a fitting love interest to Bogie and I loved that beatnik fashion she was dressed in, in the last act, but there's an obviously intended physical resemblance to Babe, and it's so blatant it is distracting, you can't help but making comparisons : same blonde hair, same facial features, same husky voice although I hated her accent which made her sound like Kaa the Python. Sssssseeee what I mean? And the director John Cromwell didn't pull much effort to let her exist on another basis than being a Lauren Bacall's second choice.Take the 1950 film, "In a Lonely Place", there was something that Gloria Grahame brought to the screen that only belonged to her, not even to Bacall, she had that dignified look but average beauty, that sadness and melancholy graved in her face, that lack of glamor and superficiality that could make her fall in love with a loner like Dixon Steele. But in "Dead Reckoning", Scott never quite makes it as a potential love interest for Bogie, because she's never given the choice. When she's not Bacall, she becomes Mary Astor-like villain inspiring a "you're good" rip-off (among many other stolen lines) but the tears in her eyes are as artificial as that goddamn rain scene at the end of the confession.Speaking of it, what was the point of even making it a confession when the listener, a priest has nothing else to do than watching the hero disappear before raindrops start falling as if sky was urinating (the lousy effect of a garden hose) Nothing really makes senses from the beginning. Bogart investigates over his army-buddy's disappearance, but is the paratrooper or the taxi-cab owner who does it, in both cases, where did he achieve his Private-eye skills, why not making it a PI movie from the beginning? Never mind, Bogart is good, even very good, but is that enough when the supporting cast doesn't hold a candle to the heavyweights I mentioned, not even Elisha Cook Jr.Morris Carnovsky as the mastermind Martinelli and Marvin Miller as Krause, deliver remarkable performances and it would be unfair to blame them, but I couldn't buy baby-faced Krause as a thug with sociopath impulses, if one thing, it was Bogart who seemed to bully him and we're almost glad when he gets it and Martinelli was just severely underused. But that wasn't even the problem; it's just that the casting didn't help elevating the movie higher than its timid level of entertainment. And I know there's something wrong in the film when I start talking about other movies, and seems like I broke a new record with this one.Well, to conclude on a positive note, at least, there is Bogie, and he's good, but the rest is just an ersatz of all his previous films without something new to hang our hopes on.

PamelaShort At this point in Humphrey Bogart's career, he was now a well enough established actor to be given free rein of his choice of director while on loan to Columbia Studios. He came up with John Cromwell who had given him his first break in the play Swifty, back in the 1920s. Cromwell decided to work with him again, but there was a problem, they had no story. According to Cromwell; they finally got this one , a noxious sort of thing , but I felt perhaps we could make something of it.' The 'noxious sort of thing' in question was Dead Reckoning, which turned out- unintentionally, it seems- to be almost a parody of The Maltese Falcon. Just like Sam Spade, Rip Murdock ( Bogart ) is trying to avenge the death of his partner; in this instance they were formerly paratrooper pals. It also borrows shamelessly from the film Double Indemnity, the same idea of a narrative voice-over commentary by Bogart. Even to the point of Fred MacMurray's repeated references to the smell of honeysuckle, in Double Indemnity, while Bogart harps on the smell of jasmine in the hair of co-star Lizabeth Scott. Sadly there is not the same friction and chemistry between Bogart/Scott as with MacMurray/Stanwyck. Bogart in this movie does not really seem interested in his sexy leading lady Scott, and it shows on film. Sadly for Lizabeth Scott, as an actress she was not lucky enough to have been taken under the wing of a brilliant Svengali-like director, which had been the main factor in setting Lauren Bacall on the road to success. But I still found her performance is exceptional under the circumstances and more interesting than Bogart's. While not near one of his best films, it is still a curiosity to see for Bogart fans and Scott fans alike. Either you'll like it or you won't, I'll let the reader decide for themselves.

seymourblack-1 "Dead Reckoning" is an entertaining movie which contains many film noir characteristics. The urban setting, dark rainy streets, a flashback narrated by the main protagonist, interesting use of shadows, a femme fatale and a twisting storyline are just some. Humphrey Bogart's performance as a guy who's both tough and worldly but also gullible is impeccable and compelling to watch.After returning from military service in France, Captain Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) and Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince) are summoned to Washington DC to be awarded medals, but when Johnny realises that the ceremony is likely to be featured in the newsreels, he becomes agitated and when their train stops at Philadelphia and newspaper photographers want to take the men's pictures, he suddenly disappears. Rip is naturally shocked and decides to go after him.Rip goes to Johnny's home town, Gulf City, where he discovers that his friend had enlisted under an assumed name and is still wanted for the murder of Stuart Chandler, a wealthy local resident who was married to a cabaret singer called Coral (Lizabeth Scott). Johnny is subsequently killed in a car crash and Rip decides to do all he can to clear Johnny's name.At the "Sanctuary Club" Rip traces Louis Ord (George Chandler), who'd been a witness in the murder trial and he tells Rip that he has a letter for him from Johnny. Rip also meets Coral (the woman who Johnny had been in love with), club owner Martinelli (Morris Carnovsky) and also his sadistic henchman Krause (Marvin Miller). That night, Rip is drugged and framed for the murder of Louis Ord and this leads him into a determined pursuit of the missing letter and Chandler's murderer."Dead Reckoning" was made in an era which predated political correctness and as a result some of Bogart's utterances now seem rather anachronistic. He tells Johnny that "all females are the same with their faces washed" and also tells Coral the "women ought to come capsule size, about 4" high and when a man goes out of an evening he just puts her in his pocket........and that way he knows exactly where she is". He is then free to "swap a few lies with his pals without danger of interruption and when it comes to that time of the evening when he wants her full sized and beautiful, he just waves his hand and there she is........and if she starts to interrupt, he just shrinks her back to pocket size and puts her away". Coral's eventual positive take on these remarks would normally be regarded as astonishing but she is so duplicitous a character that nothing she says is genuinely surprising. She's cold, mysterious and remote and full of contradictions and although Rip is wary of her, he still finds her irresistible. Martinelli is also a puzzling character with his own contradictions as he's a brutal gangster who claims that "by nature I'm a gentleman, truly gentle". He also says that "brutality has always revolted me as the weapon of the witless" and seems to genuinely find seeing any violence deeply distasteful."Dead Reckoning" doesn't enjoy the status of some of Bogart's classics and is a bit narration-heavy, however, the strange complexities of its story and its characters are intriguing and make it thoroughly absorbing and enjoyable.