Dark Passage (1947)
Trivia
The actual Art Deco apartment building used in the film (located at 1360 Montgomery St in San Francisco) is still standing as of January, 2019. The apartment is marked by a cardboard cut-out of Humphrey Bogart, which can be seen from the street. The site is visited frequently by fans of vintage film noir.
The third of four films made by husband and wife Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The other three are To Have and Have Not (1944), The Big Sleep (1946), and Key Largo (1948).
The $900 that Vincent paid for his late wife's ring in the early 1940s would be equivalent to about $15,000 in 2021.
Warner Brothers studio head Jack L. Warner was not pleased to discover that the face of one of his biggest stars, Humphrey Bogart, is not seen for the first half of the movie. By the time Warner knew this, the film was too far along to be changed.
The photo of Vincent before surgery is shown in the newspaper and elsewhere. It represents the height of photomanipulation of the day, with carefully masked double-exposures and careful airbrushing. The lower half of the face is that of character actor [linkKenneth MacDonald. The upper half, from just below the bridge of the nose, is that of Bogart himself.
The first film in which Humphrey Bogart wore a full hairpiece.
When Vincent Parry looks at Irene Jansen's scrapbook he sees a newspaper clipping about her father dying in prison, having been convicted of killing his wife, Irene's mother. The photo in the clipping is of Delmer Daves, the director of the film.
On at least one of the days in which the crew were filming Humphrey Bogart's on-location scenes at the Golden Gate Bridge, more than 1,500 fans turned out to watch the filming process.
Humphrey Bogart's complete uncovered face is not seen clearly until 62 minutes into the movie, when his character finally removes his bandages and looks into a mirror. All previous scenes with the character are either shown from his point of view or have his face obscured with shadows or bandages.
Between the film's unorthodox first person perspective and Humphrey Bogart's negative press from his support of the Committee for the First Amendment established in the face of the hearings being done by the House Un-American Activities Committee, led to the film having a poor performance at the box office.
The playing on the phonograph of "I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan" as Vincent is recuperating at Irene's apartment after his surgery may have been an arcane wink to the audience. It was used in the previous Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall movie The Big Sleep (1946), when Vivian Rutledge (Bacall) paid off Marlowe (Bogart) at the gambling joint-nightclub.
Warner Bros. introduced the theme song, "Too Marvelous for Words," ten years earlier in Ready, Willing and Able (1937), sung by Ross Alexander to Ruby Keeler dancing on the keys of a giant typewriter.
Piata is a popular coastal Peruvian tourist destination, especially for surfers who make the most of its beaches.
Warner Bros. paid $25,000 for the rights to the David Goodis novel, which was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post from July 20-September 7, 1946.
"Dark Passage" was the second movie in which Humphrey Bogart played a man in trouble with the law who underwent plastic surgery to get a new face. The first was "Dead End" (1937).
After removing the bandages Vincent talks about leaving while Irene obviously does not want him to go. As this is going on, the music in the background is "Someone To Watch Over Me".
The policeman who shows up in the bus depot is the same one who was watching the cable car at the end of the line. He was played by Ian MacDonald, who is best known for portraying Frank Miller in High Noon (1952).
Viveca Lindfors was considered for the role of Irene Jansen.
After facial surgery Vince returns to George's apartment. Upon entering he switches on the light. Beyond the wall lamp note the two sets of juggling pins hanging on the back wall.
Baker tells Vincent Parry he should get into Mexico by taking a bus to Benton, Arizona. There is no such town. However it is likely a reference to Benson, Arizona, which is approximately 45 miles southeast of Tucson and about the same distance north of the border with Mexico. It would match the route described by the agent at the bus station (although he doesn't mention Tucson).
Hanging on a wall of the flea bag hotel room where Parry (aka Alan Lanelle) hides out is an art print of James Earle Fraser's famous sculpture "End of the Trail."
Towards the end of the movie when Vincent Parry is driving Baker around San Francisco while discussing how much Baker intends to extort from Irene Jansen, they start near the South end of the Golden Gate Bridge (Marine Drive). That road scene is spliced to a discontinuous location under the North end of the Bridge (Conzelman Road) without traversing the bridge, first.
Both John Arledge ("Lonley Man") and Clifton Young ("Baker") would die in the following 4 yrs.
Vince's explanation to Irene that Madge "accidentally" fell out the window is not supported by what did happen. There is NO basis for Vince to say she fell "by accident". He did not see how or why she fell. Madge taunted Vince, trying to convince him - and HERSELF - that she could not be proven guilty of the murder. She goes behind the drape, the window is heard breaking, and she falls out. Madge seems unable to have convinced HERSELF she couldn't be found guilty, and decided to commit suicide out of frustration over this realization. Madge knew the window was behind the drape, she certainly wasn't trying to hide from anyone behind it, and she could only have gone there to commit suicide by self defenestration.. Nothing in the film even implies she fell by accident, but the circumstances, above, strongly suggest this was a deliberate suicide.
Spoilers
The location where Baker falls to his death is also where "Madeleine" jumps into the bay in Vertigo (1958) and where Dr. Thorndyke and the killer fight in the phone booth in High Anxiety (1977).
Exactly 15 years prior, Bogart starred in another film with an equally shocking defenestration scene, with Three on a Match (1932).
