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“Who was murdered?”
“I was.”

D.O.A. (1950)

Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien), an accountant, is a bit of a talker who likes the ladies and doesn’t realise how lucky he is. While taking a holiday from work and his clingy girlfriend Paula (Pamela Britton), he soon realises that one of his drinks has beenspiked with “luminous toxin”, which will kill him in a matter of hours. With only a short time to live Bigelow must solve his own murder and try and bring his killers to justice. There’s nothing like the main character realising he’s a dead man walking to up the stakes. D.O.A. plays out a bit like a 1950’s version of the Jason Statham vehicle “Crank”, but with a San Francisco setting and a narrative perhaps less clouded by glitz and action sequences.

There are some quite memorable villains, like the psychotic Chester (Neville Brand), who isn’t happy unless he’s inflicting pain and Majak (Luther Adler), the head of the film’s gangster sect.

For the femme fatale, D.O.A. is less forthcoming than a film noir like Gilda, whose central female character allows all the other characters and plots points to come together. There are two notable female roles in D.O.A. however, Paula, Bigelow’s doting girlfriend who he must learn to appreciate, and Marla Rakubian (Laurette Luez), a cold but beautiful mistress who presses a gun to his back.

While the comedy sounds when Bigelow enters the hotel and ogles the girls are grating, the rest of the film is not. There’s a conspiracy involving the notification of a bill leading to Bigelow’s poisoning and changes in his character as his time runs out. There’s a great feeling of this too, and Bigelow’s desperation as he fights for the truth with every last breath – though it is as much an exercise in his self-improvement before the end than anything else. A good, provocative noir.

“How shall I make out the report on him, Captain?”
“Better make it dead on arrival.”