Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Excellent, smart action film.

Beautiful, moving film.

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This isn't as well known or as good as something as "The Maltese Falcon", but it's still great. It seems like noir just doesn't exist anymore and the only thing left of it are parodies and tributes. I've been watching "The Twilight Zone" so much that any black and white film that isn't a comedy seems like a long episode. This movie starts with a guy going to the police saying he's already dead. No, he's not a ghost, he's just drunken this poison that will slowly kill him. The whole movie is done through flashback. A lot of the first third is actually really mundane, with him just going to a party and having fun. He then goes to these doctors after feeling ill and they say he was poisoned. The protagonist is named Frank Bigelow. After seeing Roger Ebert's review of "Deuce Bigalo: European Gigalo", it's hard for me to trust a movie with a guy named Bigelow. I really love Bigelow's relationship with his girlfriend, Paula. It makes it all the sadder when you know he's going to die from the poison. ***1/2

DOA is an unendearing film-noir that is uneventful and contains countless drivel. The reason for the murder is pretty irrelevant. But apart from that I don't even see why I'm suppose to care about what happens to our main character Frank. He is as sleazy as can be and what's with the whistling siren noise? Then at the end you've got Frank talking with Paula, talking about how much they love each other, such a load of drivel. Everything after Frank is poisoned is a complete mess. No character was likable or stood out, not even Paula for wanting this sleazebag. Oh and Chester was so painfully awful, possibly the worst character of all time.

Frank Bigelow (Edmond O'Brien), told he has been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.The New York Times, in its May 1950 review, described it as a "fairly obvious and plodding recital, involving crime, passion, stolen iridium, gangland beatings and one man's innocent bewilderment upon being caught up in a web of circumstance that marks him for death". O'Brien's performance had a "good deal of drive", while Britton adds a "pleasant touch of blonde attractiveness".I do not know if it is "obvious", but i hardly found the film "plodding". This has to be one of the better film noir stories out there, and certainly among the best of its time. It should not be surprising that the film is preserved by the Library of Congress. This seems like a story that would be very influential. (Strangely, of all things, it reminds me of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".)

The film noir genre threw out plenty of gems during its peak in the 1940s and early 1950s and this is one of them, a solid detective story with a great premise. In it, a man must discover the person responsible for his own murder, a plot point realised thanks to the presence of a slow-acting poison that gives him only a day or two to live.D.O.A. presents a bleak and icy narrative that has a strong degree of pessimism to it, thanks to that excellent premise. But there's more to it than that, as the actual detective story is compelling in itself. The protagonist finds himself drawn into a murky world of smuggling and corporate corruption, while at the same time coming into contact with some decidedly shady characters.The best thing about the film, for me, (aside from that premise) is the presence of Neville Brand's Chester, a character who could have been portrayed as an ordinary henchman but who, thanks to his psychotic nature, becomes the real highlight; Brand effortlessly exudes an air of pure evil in what was his first role. The rest is good too, of course, particularly Edmond O'Brien's tough-but-sympathetic lead, leaving this one of the highlights in a crowded genre thanks to that perfect 'ticking clock' premise.