Dark Passage (1947)

IMDb plot summary: A man convicted of murdering his wife escapes from prison and works with a woman to try and prove his innocence.
Directed by Delmer Daves. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Tom D'Andrea, and Agnes Moorehead.

(Spoilers ahead.)

The first two-thirds of this are by far the most interesting. I loved the gimmick for the first third or so where most of it was told from the protagonist's camera viewpoint, never letting us see his face (though it became obvious later why that happened). I also liked that after only hearing his voice for the first act, he wasn't able to speak at all in the second act before getting both face and voice back at the end. The end, though, was where the movie faltered for me. After a really interesting opening and middle, it lost me around the time it tried to make it an actual mystery to solve. Frankly, I didn't really care who had murdered people, I just wanted to see him trying to escape. The ending didn't really work for me either -- not quite enough buildup for me to buy that she'd fly off to live in Peru with a convicted murderer -- but the first two-thirds of the movie were entertaining enough to make up for the disappointing finale.

3.5 stars.

How it entered my Flickchart:
Dark Passage > The Fall
Dark Passage < The Artist
Dark Passage > Strictly Ballroom
Dark Passage < The Green Mile
Dark Passage < The Thin Man
Dark Passage > Grosse Pointe Blank
Dark Passage > Stage Fright (2014)
Dark Passage > Divergent
Dark Passage < Once Upon a Mattress
Dark Passage < The Birds
Dark Passage < The Majestic
Dark Passage < The Incredibles

Final spot: #858 out of 2467, or 65%.