Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

clanciai Some have called this film the best of all noirs, and there are many reasons for it. Edmond O'Brien, who usually played seconds, is here the lead, feeling bad on a small vacation trip and learning he has been poisoned and having only few days left to live - and he can't understand why, since there is no reason. He starts pulling loose ends, which throw him into a maze of complications of what was originally only a minor intrigue, perhaps even only a mistake.The most impressing element of the film though is its composition. It starts very merrily with an extremely happy party with many lovely girls and charming women, leading eventually to a joint where the party continues, and where a strange man puts something into his drink. You only see his collar. There it begins. The collar will only reappear in the end.The race for him to find out what has happened continues throughout the film at a constantly higher gear, and there are some very nasty villains involved too, and many doubtful ladies. This film actually has everything associated with a noir and to the brim, and the conclusion is, mildly speaking, deadly.You leave the film shaken and very much disturbed, while perhaps the most rewarding lesson of the film is the insight into the fact that it is in death that you discover life. I would give 11 if it were possible.

Rainey Dawn This one plays out like a science fiction mystery-thriller with it's "luminous poisoning" idea. Seems they could have found real poisoning idea for this film - like he's being poisoned slowly over time and goes to the doctor because he's getting sicker or something. This film's fictional poison and it's cure are a silly idea for a realistic crime-mystery. I can easily buy into this idea for sci-fi but not for a supposedly realistic crime-drama. I also think the idea of a fictional cure is worse than the idea of a fictitious poison - I guess they wanted an "all's well that ends well" finale that didn't pan out for our lead. The film has it's good points: it's interesting watching this poor guy uncover who poisoned him and why. But that's about it. The film is not as good as it's made out to be in my opinion but worth a watch.5/10

Scott LeBrun The excellent Edmond O'Brien stars in this nifty story as Frank Bigelow, a small town tax accountant who goes on vacation in San Francisco. During a night of partying, he is stealthily administered a slow acting luminous toxin, which will kill him at any time during the next two weeks - possibly within the next 24 hours. Once he finds out, the panicked Frank becomes coldly determined to find out who could possibly want him dead. After all, who is he? A small time accountant. Soon he will be encountering an assortment of suspect individuals, and running for his life."D.O.A." benefits from a snappy (and not too hard to follow) screenplay by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, not to mention a real grabber of an opening. Frank goes to the police station, where the following exchange occurs: "I want to report a murder." "Who was murdered?" "I was." From then on, you know you're going to have a fun time with this briskly directed (by Rudolph Mate) and paced film. Its action scenes and atmosphere are top notch, and there's an undeniable tension building throughout the scenario. Once Frank learns that he has been poisoned, that's when the story really kicks into gear.O'Brien is completely believable as an average guy turned tragic hero. Pamela Britton is appealing as the co-worker who loves him, and the rest of the cast is equally fine. Particularly noteworthy are the charismatic Luther Adler as a smooth criminal named Majak, and the young Neville Brand - in one of his first films - as a trigger happy, psychotic, ultra creepy muscle man. Brands' character Chester is so eager to end Franks' life even earlier that it's scary. The ladies are lovely: Ms. Britton, Beverly Garland, Lynn Baggett, Laurette Luez.This is a real corker, one worth watching for any lover of classic cinema. It's just too bad that it ended up in the public domain, where the many bargain basement DVD releases don't do it any favours.Remade in the 1960s (as "Color Me Dead") and the 1980s.Eight out of 10.

poe426 D.O.A. has arguably one of the greatest opening scenes in the history of films noir: Edmond O'Brien stumbles into a police station and says he wants to report a murder- his own. In mere moments, we're hooked. He then proceeds to tell his tale. It's here that the movie loses its full-speed-ahead momentum, but it's justifiable: the groundwork must be laid before the monument can be built. There are a couple of odd moments, though, along the way- in particular, the wolf whistles that we hear every time a "dame" appears on screen. Once our hero gets the bad news from a doctor that he's been poisoned (which occurs in a bar scene that's oddly shot), things really pick up. O'Brien manages to convey a sense of life-or-death urgency as he runs all over the country trying to track down his killer. Along the way he encounters Neville Brand as a particularly nasty psychopathic killer (the kind of guy who might even give Richard Widmark a moment's pause) before the final but inevitable scene. It's a classic for a reason (or three).