Most intriguing beginning with escape from San Quentin shown almost entirely with a subjective camera (including a great shot with a camera mounted in a barrel which rolls down the hill). Then our escaped convict meets a most annoying man (well played by Bruce Bennett), shortly followed by Betty Bacall...
The device becomes a bit wearisome though, and halfway through this opening section I think it would have been a great trick to actually show our convict with Bogie's voice perfectly lip synced over it (being the pro he was I'm sure he could have pulled this off).
Most interesting plot from David Goodis novel, published the year before (his writings were the source for Shoot the Pianist) as convict meets extremely helpful cabbie (Tom D'Andrea) who just happens to know a backstreet plastic surgeon who's happy to start work at 3 a.m. (Houseley Stevenson). And Bogie keeps getting set up for crimes he didn't commit - including closest friend Clifton Young - in increasingly spirally nightmare which isn't in fact resolved (despite happy ending). Agnes Moorehead is the femme fatale, Douglas Kennedy the detective.
Really rather good, benefits from lots of interesting San Francisco locations, shot by Sid Hickox (who also lit Betty in The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not) with music (though not much of it) by Franz Waxman - Warner Brothers.
Unlike our previous film, the kisses in this are guaranteed not screen kisses.
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