Ridiculous. I still kind of got hooked into it at points but there are numerous elements at play to remind you this a crummy movie.

Who knew that the life of an accountant/notary could be so suspenseful! recommended.....

Fantastic premise! Clever though it is there's, regrettably, not much else here.

A taut thriller with a frenetic pace, D.O.A. benefits from a particularly intense Edmund O'Brien performance and a very scary Neville Brand. This might have been really good, but the attempts at humor (wolf whistles on the soundtrack!?) are misguided, and Pamela Britton's portrayal of Paula, O'Brien's long-suffering girlfriend, is annoying and unintentionally comical.

Solid noir with a great premise.

This is another good film noir. I really liked the ending to this movie. This film also has a great opening. The music was a little bit over done at times.

Yes, it has some issues but the lightness of the first quarter is well worth the contrast it establishes for the rest of the film, a dark delirious ride through a man's prolonged death scene. The script is really good at creating suspense while still giving adequate answers to the mysteries it sets up. O'Brien may lack a that extra something but he does well with his character and the villains are wonderful. The low budget flaws are easy to get past and it looks pretty great restored.

the script is fantastic, tension and pacing are okay, but overall this falls short of the mark with silly dialogue and mostly shabby acting. shame bc this should have been a film noir classic. i can see this as having influenced Memento.

Wonderfully charged up and hyperactive--with O'Brien slamming doors all over the place. The last time I saw it I even actually managed to follow the plot. Has the great line: "I'm afraid you don't understand--you've been murdered." And a bit later the second-opinion doctor saying grimly: "Yep--you've got it alright."

Squanders a dynamite premise. Horrible dialogue, bad acting, and a convoluted plot. Stomach-churning stuff like the corny wolf whistles or the "hip" lingo at the jazz club. The story gets really confusing in the middle as the hero (a small town tax accountant who is suddenly transformed into a hard-boiled detective) gets a rush of information from about 10 new characters. However, the movie is mildly entertaining, if only to see Neville Brand's gleeful performance as crazy Chester.

Fantastic premise that plays out relatively well: it's tense where it needs to be, but there some pretty hokey stuff, too (e.g. those idiotic slide whistles!).

Confusing plot, but loved seeing Edmond O'Brien take it in the belly.

Good premise, great premise actually, unfortunately it's just a bad film all around.

The premise is outstanding - a man investigating his own murder - and it's mostly a pretty good film, hurtling through its semi-convoluted plot and keeping a nice level of tension, though it has its weaker qualities (the awful slide-whistles, Neville Brand's obnoxious performance and some other weak acting, and an overbearing score). It's got some solid photography as well, but I was expecting more out of it. Decent, but it could have been great.

With a premise as creative as DOA's, you'd expect it to be an instant budget noir masterpiece. Instead, it's a tremendous disappointment. O'Brien is a class A doofus, and the acting is terrible. A creative, unique script squandered.

Great ticking-clock premise that's poorly executed. The pacing and tension are good courtesy of said premise. Sadly, the acting and dialogue are poor (every scene with his girlfriend is excruciating), direction lame, the score overbearing and those fucking whistles are pathetic.