Viewed on DVD. I decided to see this movie because it was one of the “unappreciated gems” covered in the (previously reviewed) Channel Z documentary and it is perhaps the only of the “good” Humphrey Bogart movies that I had not yet seen. I really liked the movie. Many regard it as a flilm noir classic, though it does not follow the classic film noir template. Although it appears a bit too dated to have the same impact that it had on original audiences, it sticks out as different from other films in its era. Indeed, it was directed by Nicholas Ray, who also did other unique, cult-classic films such as Rebel Without a Cause and Johnny Guitar; and it came out of Bogart’s own Santana Productions which allowed him to pursue projects that the “Hollywood system” would not allow him to. Although I could not take the movie at face value throughout (some dramatic scenes made me laugh because they were so over-the-top), it was completely engaging. As they discuss in the Out of the Past podcast, the film is also an indictment of Hollywood, and in that way is very similar to Sunset Boulevard, also featuring a screenwriter as protagonist.
