Dark Passage

Dark Passage is a 1947 American mystery thriller film directed by Delmer Daves and starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The film is based on the 1946 novel of the same title by David Goodis. It was the third of four films real-life couple Bacall and Bogart made together. The first portion of the film subjectively depicts the male lead's point of view, concealing the face of Vincent Parry (Bogart), until the character undergoes plastic surgery to change his appearance. The story follows Parry's attempt to hide from the law and clear his name of murder. Plot Vincent Parry (Bogart), convicted of killing his wife, escapes from San Quentin Prison and evades police by hitching a ride with a motorist named Baker. Already suspicious of Parry's appearance, Baker hears a radio news report about an escaped convict; Parry resorts to beating him unconscious. An apparent stranger, Irene Jansen (Bacall), picks Parry up and smuggles him past a police roadblock into San Francisco. She offers him shelter in her apartment while she goes to buy him some new clothes. Irene's acquaintance Madge comes by Irene's apartment, but Parry (through a closed door) tells her to leave. A former romantic interest whom Parry had spurned, Madge testified at his trial out of spite, claiming that his dying wife identified him as the killer. Irene explains that she had followed Parry's case with interest and that she believes Parry is innocent. Her own father had been falsely convicted of murder, and since then she has taken an interest in miscarriages of justice.