D.O.A.

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.

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.

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.

A skin flute that can play a slide whistle!

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

In addition to being poisoned, the lead character of "D.O.A." suffers from a strange condition that causes him to impulsively make a slide-whistle noise whenever he sees an attractive woman. I was not aware of such an ailment and can only imagine the advancements in medicine since the 1950's have eliminated the disorder. What would happen today if this man headed to the coast and observed shapely, scantly-clad women playing beach volleyball?

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.

Solid noir with a great premise.

It has the single best logline in all of film-noir, pushing the genre's fatalistic tendencies to the hilt. Unfortunately, that brilliant concept mostly serves as a springboard for a kinda dull thriller which has a number of flatout bad touches (worst of all is the whistle sound effect that occurs whenever a pretty woman is on the screen). I guess noir is B-movies so it makes sense, but I don't have to give it a pass for that.

Maybe the most obnoxious use of music in any noir. Moments that could have been tense are ruined due to the blairing soundtrack. The dialog and acting are clunky, but story is original enough to be memorable

That's one very resourceful notary.

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.

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

An original film noir that could have been elevated more if it had just slowed down a bit. I found myself struggling to put everything together as it happened.

Well-paced noir which plays out like a long gag. An excellent high concept which is let down (but only slightly) by the plot - which goes from a web of political intrigue and as it unravels reveals something a bit simpler and a bit less interesting. The concept is solid though, and there's a fair few great performances - especially from O'Brien as our innocent and unlucky protagonist, and Neville Brand as a psychopathic gangster. Excellent use of location shooting too.

Huge fun. Great story that has everything--shoot-outs, poisonings, chases through city streets, suave crime lords, deranged henchmen, femmes-fatales. Well-paced, decent script, and some imaginatively composed camera shots. Some miscalculations, yes, like the awful slide whistles. And the needy, overbearing fiancée could have been eliminated from the story completely. Still, memorable noir.

In most noirs you expect the karmic justice to be dished out to murderers, blackmailers and the like, but here is a rare example of a completely innocent guy (apart, maybe, for a wandering eye) getting totally screwed over by fate. Harsh. The film has its problems, sure, but it works because of how pacey it is. Some scenes are exhilarating (the shootout in the disused factory, the dash down the busy street), some are hilariously OTT (the hospital diagnosis), but there are never any dull moments.

Com as Horas Contadas tinha sua première há 70 anos em Los Angeles. Um dos roteiros mais originais e interessantes dos noir B dos anos 40, mas cuja inspiração veio de filme alemão de Robert Siodmak com roteiro de Billy Wilder, engendra um homem tentando desvendar o próprio assassinato e mesmo o público já sabendo o final, é uma jornada e tanto. DVDRip Regret.

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.

The plot has some holes in it but the pacing and the suspense make up for it quite well.

An intriguing premise but the film lacked a sense of tension and the characters were all pretty bland.

That famous opening scene is unfortunately the high point of the movie, but this is a decent film noir all the same.

Noir with an irresistible premise and lightning fast pacing (perhaps faster paced than anything else I've seen from this era) that really captures the urgency of the protagonist's predicament well. It is unfortunately dragged down by the unnecessary scenes with Paula (his girlfriend), the slide whistle effect in the first act, and the lack of a good primary antagonist. I thought the girl from the bar would come into play again. Fun and it absolutely flies by, but flawed.

Highly exaggerated. Almost cartoonish, but with actual suspense! Edmond O'Brien running around looking for who had poisoned him to death was a entertaining and desperate murder investigation worth joining.

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!).

I could not keep track of how Phillips, Rakubian, Reynolds, Foster, Halliday and Majak were connected with Bigelow. However, Neville Brand as Chester was fun to watch.