Dead Reckoning

Humphrey Bogart is outstanding as Captain "Rip" Murdock, a paratrooper on his way to Washington DC to be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. When his buddy, Sergeant Johnny Drake (William Prince), learns that he too will be publically awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, he goes AWOL. Rip heads South to Johnny's home town to dig into his pal's past and try to uncover the mystery of why he fled. He discovers murder, mobsters, cover-ups, plenty of rough stuff, and the girl Johnny loved—a singer named Coral Chandler (Lizabeth Scott). The twisty plot is a lot of fun to follow but Scott (The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Desert Fury, Too Late for Tears) doesn't create a great femme fatale in Mrs. Chandler. Her singing and the way she carries herself never come off as sultry or mysterious. Her romantic scenes with Bogart in the second half are more effective, but their chemistry never totally gels, and it pales in comparison to the two Bogie and Bacall pictures this followed, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep.