D.O.A. (1949)

A public notary from a small town decides to take a few days off in San Francisco and, while there, has his drink switched with a poisoned one at a bar. He then has only a short time left to live, and devotes that time to finding his killer. The first clue comes from his secretary and girlfriend: she had phoned to tell him that a man was looking for him. He had refused to take that call, and now that man is dead.

Ingenious thriller which, for some reason, is labelled as a film noir, although I fail to see enough noirish elements in the film. There are some weak points in the plot, but overall it abides by logic. It is a fairly entertaining movie. I had watched the 1988 remake long ago, and liked it too. Christopher Mulrooney (1956-2015), a writer whose Internet-published film reviews I enjoy reading, wrote a somewhat hallucinatory yet interesting review of this film.

Rating: 51