Perhaps the most Hitchcockian Bogart movie ...

It's a sad thing that Hitch and Bogie, the best director and the best actor of their generation (they were born the same year), never paired up, what kind of films it could have made? Interestingly, many aspects of "Dark Passage" work like reminiscences or premonitions to what would become Hitch's greatest trademarks, whether in the form or the content.

1/ THE WRONG MAN / SUSPICION / NORTH BY NORTHWEST : The false identity or the wrongly accused man is common in Hitch movies, a generally harmless man taken for a dangerous criminal, yet the only way to prove his innocence is to take a risk or even dirty his hands a little bit. Also, in "Dark Passage", Vincent leaves Irene but soon discovers that she's in danger since she was seen with him, just like in "North by Northwest" when Thornihill is free but can't leave Eve alone with Vandamm.

2/ PSYCHO : The film, released with the Red Scare as political backdrop in America, is a showcase of how paranoia can be conveyed by a good writing and film-making, exactly like Marion Crane after she stole the money in "Psycho", every encounter is startling and unsettling, the less she wants to talk, the more talkative the guys are, the less suspicious she wants to appear, the more she does, exactly what Vincent go through during the film.

3/ VERTIGO: For an obvious reason : San Francisco. Perhaps after "Vertigo", this is the only film where I saw a significance for it being set in Frisco (AND not just for a CAR chase scene). The location is significant to the plot, it's constantly refered to, and is not just some screenplay blank fillers, like the scene where an exhausted Vincent climbs the stairs to go to Irene's house and his fight near the Golden Gate.

4/ SPELLBOUND : Of course, there's this brilliant piece of surrealism coming out of nowhere during the operation sequence but working like an original and creatively designed parenthesis and a great transition between the first third of the film (subjective camera) and the second (bandages) with a sort of mix-up of all the characters and the way they all confusingly interact in Parry's mind, who's with him? who's against him? what's with that wacky doctor! This is not Dali with his eyes and scissors, but it's still good.

5/ REAR WINDOW / VERTIGO : When Madge jumps out the window and falls to her death, visually it looks like Jeff's fall during the climax of "Rear Window" and it looks even more real, but it's closer to the unexpected falls in "Vertigo" ... with the shrill high-pitched female scream of course.

Naturally, many aspects can be mentioned, the directing innovations Hitch loved to make, like the first part of the film shot in subjective camera, that's the kind of tricks Hitch loved to do but the credit all goes to Delmer Daves. The romance between Bogie and Bacall and maybe other details I missed.

The film is still a film-noir, except for that sappy ending (it should have ended in the bus station in my opinion) but it's interesting how Hitchcockian it can get at times.

Darth Vader is scary and I  The Godfather