D.O.A. (1950)
Frank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why. (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Rudolph Maté
Written By: Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene
Starring: Edmond O'Brien, Neville Brand, Beverly Garland, Luther Adler, William Ching, Cay Forrester, Pamela Britton, Laurette Luez, Lynn Baggett, Jess Kirkpatrick, Henry Hart
Country: USA
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D.O.A. belongs to 31 collections
1. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)
2. Film Noir (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 55 stars)
3. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
4. They Shoot Pictures 250 Quintessential Noir Films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
5. National Film Registry (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
7. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 16 stars)
8. B-Movie (collaborative - 15 stars)
9. Doubling The Canon (collaborative - 13 stars)
10. Public Domain (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 12 stars)
11. List: Essential Noirs in The Rough Guide to Film Noir's Canon (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 10 stars)
12. 1,000 Noir Films: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn't They? (collaborative: moderated by lisa- - 9 stars)
13. BFI 100 key Noir films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 8 stars)
14. David Thomson's 1000 Films (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 7 stars)
15. Doubling The Canon (2010 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 5 stars)
16. Remade (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 4 stars)
17. List: Noir of the Week (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 3 stars)
18. Paste Magazine: The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time (public: TychoCelchuu - 2 stars)
19. Doubling the Canon (2011 update) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 1 star)
20. Doubling the Canon (2012 update) (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 1 star)
21. Films available in HD (supplement) (collaborative: moderated by Jorg - 1 star)
22. Moviedrome: Alex Cox (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 1 star)
23. Coheed's Celluloid Pit (public: Coheed - 1 star)
24. List: TSPDT's 100 Noir Films (public: KasperL - 1 star)
25. Fav Noirs (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika)
26. Incorrect criticker release dates (collaborative: moderated by JooJoo)
27. To see (public: pcalado)
28. Edgar Wright's 1000 Favorite Movies (public: coldesser)
29. Edgar 256 (public: caffe)
30. 100 essential thrillers (public: rocketrac19)
31. Movies Mentioned in "The Long Take" (public: TychoCelchuu)
Browse the full list of collections
| Stars | User | Rating | |
| 5 |  |
TonythePony | 59 29th |
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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.
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| 3 |  |
MartinTeller | 57 14th |
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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.
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| 3 |  |
Alex Watkins | 2 15th |
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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.
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| 3 |  |
Paxton | 70 63rd |
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A skin flute that can play a slide whistle!
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| 2 |  |
Shmendrek | 2 33rd |
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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.
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| 2 |  |
tonydal | 90 94th |
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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."
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| 2 |  |
KasperL | 60 50th |
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Fantastic premise! Clever though it is there's, regrettably, not much else here.
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| 1 |  |
Raoul | 75 56th |
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Confusing plot, but loved seeing Edmond O'Brien take it in the belly.
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| 1 |  |
Dorkovsky | 2 11th |
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Good premise, great premise actually, unfortunately it's just a bad film all around.
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| 1 |  |
Carpetgiant | 84 59th |
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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?
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| 1 |  |
PeaceAnarchy | 87 87th |
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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.
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| 1 |  |
JooJoo | 3 30th |
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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.
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| 1 | county_hell | 65 53rd |
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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.
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| Average Percentile 54.44% from 350 Ratings |  |