Dead Reckoning

Faced with the synthetic Scott instead of genuine Bacall, Bogart reacts with a hint of self-parody. Or maybe it's just that the film, cast in flashback form with a guilt-ridden narration by Bogart, tries too hard to maintain its note of doomed noir romance. Excellent hardboiled shenanigans as Bogart's ex-paratrooper sets out with a 'Geronimo!' on his lips to investigate the disappearance of his buddy, uncovering a web of duplicities at the centre of which is the alluringly equivocal Scott. But the relationship never quite convinces, leading to a faintly embarrassing emotional climax as death conjures one last 'Geronimo!' Highly enjoyable all the same.