Dead Reckoning

Frank Mancuso Jr. is the son of former Paramount head Frank Mancuso Sr. While he definitely had an advantage, he did start working various jobs in the business, before landing the role of associate producer on Friday the 13th Part 2. He would get promoted to producer for Part 3, and executive producer by Part 5. He would steward every sequel in the Paramount era save one (Part 8) and helped create the Friday The 13th TV show. He was once asked about why he kept approving sequels to such a low-rent movie series with little critical approval when he could be involved in movies with more prestige and better reputation. He would explain that it was a smart business decision; they were low budget and always made back their investment and then some, so it was foolish not to make more. "An exercise in commerce" were his exact words. Dead Reckoning is the Friday The 13th sequel of film noir movies. That's not to say this is a low-grade movie. It has all the style and panache of film noir at the time. It has Humphrey Bogart playing the kind of role he was born to play, a cynical man with a clever mind in a bad spot. Lizabeth Scott looks the part of every femme fatale in one of these movies, mysterious, alluring, secretive, and gorgeous. There's a sneaky crime syndicate boss who always seems one step ahead, and his brooding, malevolent henchman. A complex mystery of murder, lies, money, and someone in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is also nothing more than that. This movie clings to the genre's formulas and tropes like a bat clings to a cave ceiling. I wasn't expecting anything unique, not by a long shot, but Dead Reckoning is almost robotic in its precision of playing the familiar beats. It felt like a noir script crossed a studio head's desk, they said "put Bogey and a blonde in it and get it out the door", and that was it. An exercise in commerce. And hey, it works, it's got everything a noir fan would want. But it can't be denied it feels almost cynical in its design. The movie's plot is also far too complex for what should've been a much simpler story, to the point that Bogey literally has to ask how the movie's main antagonist fits in, and the rationale feels like a narrative shoehorn. And then there's Lizabeth Scott. She certainly has the look of the mysterious dame all these movies have, but she doesn't radiate that icy sense of danger that is somehow beguiling even as it sets off every alarm bell. She's closer on the spectrum to Teresa Cotton than Rita Hayworth (the original choice for the movie), and this movie needed someone on the latter end of the spectrum. Someone sultry but could play sweet and innocent. There's a reason Dead Reckoning isn't listed among the greats of the noir genre, and that's because it does nothing to really stand out among its peers. That doesn't mean it should be forgotten, though. Not every movie needs to be amazing to work. Sometimes, a movie can just be a decent entry in its field that does nothing amazing but does everything well, and that's good enough. That's Dead Reckoning.