D.O.A. (1949)

Written by CinemaSerf on July 9, 2022

"I was to report a murder"... "Whose?"..."Mine!"... Edmond O'Brien is cracking in this dark and atmospherically paced thriller about a man who discovers that he has been deliberately poisoned by luminous toxin and may only have a few hours/days/weeks left to live. He can't understand who would want to do this and sets out to find the culprits. Much of the story is recounted via his "deathbed" explanation to an unbelieving police squad room and it is superbly directed (by Rudolph Maté) with loads of twist and turns in the plot; a tension-building score and more than one potential candidate for villain. Pamela Britton "Paula" is also great as his albatross-like girlfriend who would long since have driven me to bathe in a tub of uranium and the rest of the cast, especially a truly sinister Neville Brand as "Chester" keep us interested right til the death...