The black adder (1947)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The black adder |
| Original title | Dark passage |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1947 |
| length | 102 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Delmer Daves |
| script | Delmer Daves |
| production | Jerry Woods |
| music |
Franz Waxman Max Steiner |
| camera | Sid Hickox |
| cut | David Weisbart |
| occupation | |
| |
The black adder , much better known under the title The Unknown Face (original title: Dark Passage ), is an American feature film in the style of film noir with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall from 1947. It was based on a novel by David Goodis .
action
Vincent Parry, wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife, escapes San Quentin . A young woman, Irene Jansen, reads him up, recognizes him, but still helps him on the run and even puts him in her home. Parry undergoes facial surgery and then solves the murder of his wife on his own. He eliminates a small blackmailing crook and also clarifies the murder of his only friend. For the happy ending, Parry and Jansen meet in Peru to start over.
background
Like most of the films in the black series, The Black Snake shows an amoral and gloomy image of society full of violence, crime, lies and murders, but also that of lonely people. Other film noir elements such as the antihero, psychologically deformed characters or perpetual chance come into play. In the end, the happy ending wins.
The special and innovative thing about the film is that the viewer does not see Bogart's face a single time in the first 35 minutes - Bogart can only be seen from behind or the viewer sees the scenery from Bogart's point of view. After The Lady in the Lake , starring Robert Montgomery based on the novel of the same name by Raymond Chandler , this was one of the first Hollywood films to use the subjective camera in such a style-forming way. Even after the facial operation, you can only see a bandaged face for a long time, until Bogart's face is not revealed for the first time when the bandage is removed until the 60th minute. Bogart / Parry steps in front of a mirror to examine his new face.
In Germany, the film was first shown in 1950 under the somewhat misleading title The Black Snake . At the time, the film was shown in Austria under the title For Your Own Life . Since a movie re-release in the 1960s and various television broadcasts (from the 1970s), the film is now known as The Unknown Face , even though Warner Bros. used the old title for its DVD release.
Reviews
For the lexicon of international films , The Black Snake was “a well-crafted crime film from Hollywood's 'Black Series' with an intelligently thought-out plot”. Die Zeit wrote in July 1977: “Daves succeeds in staging an atmospheric crime thriller from a rather implausible plot with tight direction and an abundance of interesting characters.” The Protestant film observer spoke of a “crime film with a good psychological approach, but also with numerous motifs Improbabilities, after all, something more than an average pastime ”.
Web links
- Dark Passage in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Dark Passage at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ The black adder. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Film tips . In: Die Zeit , No. 30/1977.
- ↑ Evangelical Press Association Munich, Review No. 230/1950.