There’s something perversely appealing about a movie that stars Humphrey Bogart, voted the number one movie star ever by the American Film Institute a few years back, yet prevents the audience from seeing his face for 2/3 of the picture. Dark Passage does just that and, while it may not be among Bogart’s absolute best films, it does seem fresh and interesting nearly sixty years after it was made. The film shares a subjective camera technique, where the audience sees much of the action from the first person, with another noirish film released in 1947, Robert Montgomery’s Lady in the Lake. Unlike that film, however, Dark Passage uses the approach as a necessary plot device and strays from the first person point of view at times. Somewhere around the midway point, following Bogart’s back alley plastic surgery, we return to the usual objective camera work.

Adapting a novel by David Goodis, who would later have his book Down There brought to the screen by François Truffaut as Shoot the Piano Player, Delmer Daves effectively served as the director and, less successfully, as the sole credited screenwriter of Dark Passage. The film starts off with some unusual shots of Bogart’s character, Vincent Parry, escaping from a large barrel on a San Quentin delivery truck where the audience’s perspective is that of Parry looking out of the barrel. Parry’s cinematic luck leads to a rescue by Lauren Bacall, who just happened to be in the area and felt like giving a fugitive a break. We later find out that Bacall’s character had followed Parry’s case because of a similarity in her own life and that they have a mutual acquaintance, played by the always impressive Agnes Moorehead. Since Parry’s face is plastered across every newspaper in San Francisco, he eventually resorts to a disgraced plastic surgeon who warns that he can make someone look like a bulldog or a monkey if he doesn’t like them. Luckily for the audience, he likes Parry, who, after a week of wearing bandages over his face, comes out looking like Humphrey Bogart.

In many ways, Dark Passage is a nonsensical mishmash of coincidences, albeit one that I enjoyed. The subjective camera technique works for me because it’s a rarely used device, but I could also see the argument that it’s unnecessary here. The coincidental plot contrivances are a tad more grating, but the two leads manage to make up for it. A deviously sinister cast of characters helps as well. However, the most glaring head-scratcher for me was the detective in the diner who proceeds to interrogate Bogart because he mistakenly asked about the results from a racetrack which had closed down a month previous. Even that bit of absurdity doesn’t detract much from such a highly watchable film.

This was the third of four legendary collaborations between Bogart and Bacall and probably the most neglected. Delmer Daves wasn’t Howard Hawks or John Huston and David Goodis wasn’t Ernest Hemingway or Raymond Chandler. Regardless, Dark Passage is an entertaining film greatly aided by the pair’s obvious chemistry and Bogart’s terrific performance. He skillfully treads the line between the fugitive nature of Parry, such as when he’s pounding the first guy who offers to give him a lift following the escape, and his professed innocence. Bogart’s Parry isn’t exactly a tough guy, nor is he incredibly bright as he shows repeatedly in his encounters with the cab driver and the cop in the diner. Instead, he’s just a regular guy looking to keep his freedom and eventually make his way to a South American paradise.

Putting aside the often inane coincidences (did I mention the cabbie with a heart of gold who not only gives up a possible $5,000 reward for turning in fugitive Parry, but also conveniently knows a plastic surgeon who’s cheap, nearby and works in the middle of the night?), Dark Passage is a testament to classic Hollywood star power and the allure of film noir. Bogart was winding down his hero roles and Bacall was at the height of her powers. Even if it’s not a prototypical noir, Dark Passage has enough of its elements to mostly qualify, although the ending probably should have come a scene earlier.