TCM Noir Alley Dead Reckoning (1947)

TCM Noir Alley: A cloud of smoke wafting through an obliquely lit room, the camera tightly framing a gun-wielding hand, an urban landscape as the backdrop for a tension-filled tale of crime—these are the signs that you are watching a film noir. Though the stories may change, the mood is always the same within the frame of this influential cinematic style of the 1940s and 1950s. Each week, host Eddie Muller will guide you through the lingo and tropes of this definitive era of cinema. Whether you're a hardboiled addict or newly initiated, Noir Alley is the place for all things film noir. Because you need noir, now more than ever.
Dead Reckoning is a 1947 American film noir starring Humphrey Bogart and Lizabeth Scott. Directed by John Cromwell, it was written by Steve Fisher and Oliver H.P. Garrett, based on a story by Gerald Drayson Adams and Sidney Biddell, adapted by Allen Rivkin.[1] It follows a war hero, Warren Murdock (Bogart), who begins investigating the death of his best friend and fellow soldier, Johnny Drake (Prince). The investigation leads Murdock to his friend's lover, a mysterious woman. Drake was accused of murdering her husband.
The film was originally intended to star Rita Hayworth in Scott's role as a followup to Columbia Pictures's successful Gilda (1946), but she refused the role over a contract dispute. Instead, Scott was loaned out from her contract with Paramount Pictures to team with Bogart, who himself was loaned out for the project by Warner Bros. Filming took place in the summer of 1946, largely on Columbia soundstages in Los Angeles, with location shoots occurring in St. Petersburg, Florida; Biloxi, Mississippi; Philadelphia, and New York City.
Dead Reckoning was first released theatrically in San Francisco on New Year's Eve 1946, expanding to a wide theatrical release in January 1947. The film received mixed reviews at the time of its release.