Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Very disappointing...

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

If you've never been played by a woman like a Stradivarius violin, you might not get emotionally drawn in to this film. Don't watch superficially, as the sharp dialog is so witty and quick that it may be missed. Watch it twice, unless you have an excellent memory, because none of the dialog is throw-away - it all has meaning, be it flashbacks by allusion, classic metaphors, anthropomorphisms, and other artful word-play. It's Shakespeare steeped in crude and biting 1920s-1940s vernacular, which gives it the smell of wet city streets. It's intelligently scripted by hard-bitten crime genre aficionados. Don't compare it to the cartoon-like Maltese Falcon, which goes from point A to B to C, with cartoon characters being ushered in and out and blackbirds all neatly tied up in Christmas wrap. That was comic book panels. This has realism and smarmy characters played off against one another. There may have been previous stronger supporting actors, but sameness would keep you from focusing on the story and characters. "My first mistake was letting you sing that song..." From murder, to mayhem, and a femme fatale feline catting a ... mouse? This woman grows in his pocket, but he can't keep her there.

Rip Murdock (Humphrey Bogart) seeks the help of Father Logan as he recounts the last few days. Paratroopers Rip and Johnny Drake are sent to Washington to receive the Medal of Honor. Johnny seems concerned upon hearing the news and goes AWOL when the newspapers come to take his picture. Rip starts investigating and follows him to Gulf City. He discovers that Johnny's real name is John Joseph Preston and he's accused of murdering wealthy Chandler. There's a charred body with a melted ring that's probably Johnny. He talks to witness bartender Louis Ord, and Chandler's wife Coral. Coral keeps losing when the dice keep coming up 7 and 11. Rip takes over and wins back everything plus $16k more. The club owner Martinelli drugs his drink and he wakes up in his room with the dead body of Louis Ord.This does have Humphrey Bogart in his natural hard-boiled noirish thriller. Lizabeth Scott is a second rate siren. She has a tendency to smile which takes away from the tension. She also needs to control her hair. There are a couple funny moments when it flies in her face. Her chemistry with Bogie isn't great. The directing is not great. This lays out a fine setup but the story drags along in expositions. The writing has plenty of hard dialogue but the story struggles to pick up steam after a nice first act. There are a few too many twists in the end. This is mostly for Bogie aficionados only after finishing off his classics.

Humphrey Bogart's performance in this film is what makes it rise above a 5 or 6. Columbia is obviously trying to replicate the elements of the types of films that Bogart did so well in the 1940's over at Warner Brothers. The oddest thing about this film is Bogart's dialogue, especially during his voice-overs. At times it comes on so strong as to approach a parody of Bogart as Bogart. If any other actor were speaking this dialogue it might evoke laughter if not confusion, yet Humphrey Bogart makes it work.Here Bogart is paratrooper Rip Murdock, just recently home from the war with Sergeant Johnny Drake, who is to receive the Congressional medal of honor. However, when Drake disappears right before the ceremony, Murdock gets permission from his superiors to find out what happened to his usually reliable friend and fellow soldier. Murdock follows his buddy's trail to Gulf City, a bar and gambling joint there that is run by a mobster, the girl that stole Johnny's heart - young and beautiful - and wealthy - widow Dusty Chandler (Lizabeth Scott), and a trail of clues fraught with mystery and murder. It's rather obvious that Lizabeth Scott is Columbia's answer to Lauren Bacall in this one, and that gangster Martinelli and henchman Krauss are attempting to duplicate the types of roles played by Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in Bogart's successful Warner pictures. Although these three can't begin to match their Warner counterparts, and at times Scott painfully overacts, they do lend enough credible support to give Bogey a framework in which to play an interesting character in a rather intriguing mystery that has plenty of atmosphere.

Dead Reckoning (1947)"All females are the same with their faces washed." Or so says the Bogart role, dreaming of red heads in sloppy joe sweaters. This is a film about GIs coming home, and all they want is a girl. This is such classic noir attitude and situation, it's worth the ride just to appreciate the time. It's a defining movie because it not only implies the troubles of servicemen returning from war, it literally involves two of them, Bogart most of all. As he says, when stymied in his search for his buddy, "Stalled again, like a Jeep on synthetic gas."Nearly all is told as a flashback, until the final turns of events, and that's another common noir convention, and it works. I wish the movie was a classic, or that it built us up better before turning the tables on us. Director Cromwell is not known for being daring or especially memorable in his films, and we get a solid Cromwell movie, I think, good throughout, and sometimes vary good.Is Lizabeth Scott wooden and odd? Absolutely, but I've come to like her a lot. Is the writing a little forced (how many times can they push the code word "Geronimo" on us as a dramatic exclamation)? Yes, but as with many noirs, we take it in as part of the style. Is it sexist? More than usual, if you care. But again, we can write it off as a period effect.But is Bogart consistent (making a lot of a little)? Very much. We start to lose track of the original point of his mission there, and he's just the usual Bogart looking out for himself with a little reckless overconfidence. Which seems to work well for him. The story is strong enough, and filming nice, the pacing fast, the bit parts full of character, and so on. If it's not a great film, so what? Overlook the excess of narrative explaining and just get lost in the cross purposes and in Bogart's role. I mean, he's confused half the time, too!The end is terribly sweet and moving--by that I mean the last few seconds. A supremely subtle, sweet, and smart last move, bringing us back to what matters most.