Dead Reckoning (1947) is Easter noir. The incongruity of Easter and film noir melded together might be why the movie has such an offbeat, almost comic touch to it, more than one accepting that life is hopeless. It’s more than just shadows from window blinds; there’s a psychological reason for the shadows.

There’s the image of an Easter lily and a Medal of Honor on the title credit, but Easter is not thrown right at us like Judy and Fred in their Easter bonnets strolling down Fifth Avenue. It’s only hinted at, and we have to connect the dots.

The action starts with Bogart darting through darkened, rain-soaked streets, obviously on the lam, and as he stops by a florist’s shop to mix with a small crowd observing the display of lilies, a newsstand guy’s voice hollers for us to get our Sunday paper. Then Bogie ducks into a Roman Catholic church before early Mass. It’s Easter Sunday, but we won’t know that until the inevitable noir flashback plunks us a few days earlier when he registers in a hotel on April 17, 1946, and remarks in a later scene when interrogated by cops inspecting his room that if they’re looking for Easter bunnies, it’s a day early. (Easter fell on the 21st in 1946, just as it does this year.) His flippant remark is the only time Easter is mentioned.

But these touches are only add-ons; the real Easter reference is in the flirtation with an afterlife, if not exactly resurrection, with a few poetic symbols of parachutes for a soft landing into whatever awaits.

Parachutes, silken, billowing, harrowing are the image and emblem of the film, more than the lilies and the Medal. Bogart returns from the war, a captain in the paratroops, getting the VIP
treatment with his pal and sergeant, played by William Prince. He and his sergeant are bound for a special appointment in Washington, D.C., because he recommended Prince for the Medal of Honor.

But Sarge jumps off the train and runs away and leaves Bogie with a mystery. Sarge has something to hide, and Bogie spends the rest of the movie figuring out what it is. Bogie gets drugged, beaten up, but nothing deters him from finding out the truth. The search takes him to a newspaper morgue (one of my favorite places for research), a real morgue (I’ll pass), and a streamlined moderne nightclub where he meets noir queen Lizabeth Scott, “Cinderella with a husky voice,” as he says.

Bogart is not his usual grim anti-hero in this one; he doesn’t play it with the bitterness and dissatisfaction of his returning vet in Key Largo, or Rick in Casablanca. His quips are less sarcastic than they are simply funny. He’s got some great lines in this movie, and his character is less haunted than his other roles.

He plays well with Lizabeth Scott. She had a really fine way of appearing both vulnerable and yet as inscrutable as noir dames were supposed to be, so that we don’t know whose side she’s on. One of the most beautiful shots of Lizabeth Scott is at the end when she’s sitting in the car with Bogie, her hair stringy from the rain. The camera view is from the back seat as she turns sharply to Bogie, her eyes bright and intense, and her expression taut, fire in her soul and murder in her heart.

Bogart tells his troubles to a Catholic priest in church at the beginning of the movie, jump-starting the flashback. The priest, played by James Bell, is in uniform. He, like, Bogie, has just returned from overseas and is also a paratrooper, so Bogartfeels a kinship with him. Bogie hides in the shadows as one making Confession. At the end of the movie, Father will return, softly intoning a Latin prayer for the dying, and one last image of a billowing parachute in the blackness is seen, carrying the weird juxtaposed themes of afterlife, parachuting, guilt and punishment, but oddly without of any suggestion of redemption, which would be all we need to tie up the Easter message. But this is where the noir finally kicks in: there is no redemption in film noir, just settling scores.

May I wish all who celebrate, a Happy Easter. If you like noir, remember, jelly beans also come in black.

Jacqueline T. Lynch is the author of Ann Blyth: Actress. Singer. Star., available online at Amazon, from CreateSpace and the author. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .

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