Movie Review: D. O. A. (1949)

Synopsis: Small-town accountant Frank Bigelow takes a vacation in San Francisco and after a night of partying with other hotel guests, wakes up feeling sick. He learns he has been intentionally poisoned with an incurable luminous toxin and will die. Ignoring advice to check into a hospital, Bigelow goes in search of the person who murdered him.

Who's in it? The movie stars Edmond O'Brien, Pamela Britton, Luther Adler, William Ching and Lynn Baggett.

Review: I have quite a few movies in my library I intend to watch but while trying to pick one last night, I ended up coming across D. O. A. It looked interesting and I'm always a fan of a good mystery, so I decided to give it a try this morning. While not quite what I was expecting, it was still a decent film.

The thing that made this movie interesting is Bigelow (O'Brien) was just an ordinary guy. Sure, he was a bit of a womanizer who, at least at the beginning, was leading his personal secretary, Paula (Britton) on, despite her clearly being in love with him. Outside of that, however, there didn't seem to be any reason anyone would want him dead, or why they would want to kill him in such an elaborate way.

His investigation, which led him from San Francisco to Los Angeles, was made more interesting as a result. While there were times when it seemed like he was on the right trail, especially when it came to the Mr. Phillips who kept calling him only to be killed before he returned those calls, there were some avenues that turned out to be red herrings but only got him into deeper trouble with the Los Angeles underworld and put him at risk of being killed before the poison did its job and he was able to solve the case.

I thought the love story between Bigelow and Paula added a little something extra to the story as well, by making his predicament seem more real and devastating. He was finally willing to confess his feelings for her but also likely wasn't going to live long enough for them to start a real relationship or for her to find out the truth before he died. Since the movie went out of its way to establish there was no cure, it just seemed so tragic (though I honestly still thought she could do better).

My only real complaint about the movie is it does reveal the motive for Bigelow's poisoning a bit too early for my taste. It wasn't overly difficult to figure out who poisoned him once the "why" was out there and it would have been better to keep that information a secret a bit longer. In fact, had he not been poisoned, giving him an excuse for not being clear-headed, I'd be criticizing Bigelow for not figuring out who the killer was sooner.

Final Opinion: While not perfect, it is a solid film with a good story and mystery. At minimum, it will remind you why you should always keep an eye on your drink when at a bar.

My Grade: B

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Here are some other reviews of movies with a character who has been poisoned:

Movie Review: I Killed That Man (1941)

Movie Review: Murder on a Honeymoon (1935)

Movie Review: Murder Ahoy (1964)

Movie Review: Another Man's Poison (1951)