Recently I discovered that there are a few Roku channels showing public domain Film Noir movies. Many of the films made by smaller and independent productions fell into the public domain when the companies failed to file for a renewal of the copyright and one such movie was 1949’s D.O.A. The 1988 Remake starring Dennis Quad and Meg Ryan borrowed the central conceit of the film but invented its own plot and mystery.

1949’s D.O.A. centers on Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) an account who is unwilling to commit, that is marry, is long time girlfriend and secretary Paula (Pamela Britton.) Frank scampers off to San Francisco without Paula for a hedonistic vacation. The fun transforms into fear when he discovers that he has been poisoned and has at most a few days to live. Utterly at a loss to understand who would do such a thing or why anyone wants him dead, Frank begins a desperate search for answers as his hours dwindle.

With a strong compelling premise D.O.A. should have been a better movie, and certainly I have better memories of the 1989 remakes than I do for the original production. While boasting a good cast with the talent Edmond O’Brien carrying the weight of the film, the execution of the movie is flawed and undercuts what could have been a true classic. The directions are not up to even journeyman standards. Scenes of composed of shot/reverse shot that center frames the subjects robbing the sequences of emotional heft and power. The soundtrack carries an unfortunate element when Frank arrives in San Francisco looking for female fun and has not yet been poisoned. Each time Frank gives a woman his up and down elevator stare the score lampshades the emotion is an intrusive slide-flute ‘wolf call.’ The unpleasant sound pulled me out of the film every time it played. Worse yet that terrible tone was utterly uncalled for, Edmond O’Brien fully convened his character lecherous leer with conviction that required no assistance from the soundtrack much less such a ham-handed one.

Aside from the intriguing concept D.O.A. also has good cinematography with several night shoots that were not day-for-night but shot at night on the city streets giving those scenes a reality that enhanced the Frank’s danger as he dodged criminals and assassins.

Over all I enjoyed watching D.O.A. but ultimately this represents a good candidate for being remade as the original contained enough flaws to warrant taking another bite at the apple. After all it took Hollywood three tries to The Maltese Falcon right.