Product Description

Small-town accountant Frank Bigelow goes to San Francisco for a week's fun prior to settling down with fiancée Paula. After a night on the town, he wakes up with more than just a hangover; doctors tell him he's been given a "luminous toxin" with no antidote and has, at most, a week to live! Not knowing who did it or why, Bigelow embarks on a frantic odyssey to find his own murderer. Written by Rod Crawford {puffinus@u.washington.edu}

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44735 in DVD
• Published on: 2005
• Released on: 2005-03-21
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Collector's Edition, Flash, Full length, Full Screen, Original recording remastered, Restored, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 70 minutes

Review
I thought HP5 was fantastic. I heard a lot of people grumbling in the theater and asking each other when it would be over because they were bored, but that may have been because we went on opening night. I think the people who are looking for the same level of action and fight sequences as we saw in the previous films will be slightly disappointed, however in my opinion, the true Harry Potter fans should be just as pleased with this one if not more so, because this movie did the most storytelling of the HP series of movies so far. While Harry is struggling to come to terms with the pain of loss, the demons that haunt him at night, and growing up all at the same time the viewer can relate to Harry on a more of a personal level than ever before. The addition of the new headmistress was entertaining and outraging all at the same time. The scenery is gorgeous, the acting is superb, the storytelling is fantastic and you can feel the tension building as you know the series is moving on to something even more intense. Even knowing that, you do not walk away feeling cheated because this film wraps itself up nicely. I am so impressed with this series, and this film so far has been my favorite. --Netflix

From the Studio
This DVD set has the classic Edmund O'Brien playing an accountant who is out to find his own murderer. Experience this classic film noire, one of the true classics of the genre.

THE PLOT: Edmund O’Brien plays the perfect noir character, which emphasizes the unhealthy, shadowy and gloomy sides of the human experience. D.O.A. takes the victim of circumstances theme to its darkest peak. Here is a complete review of the film included in this incredible DVD. The film opens with the camera trailing the back of Edmund O'Brien as he walks into the L.A. Homicide bureau. Bigelow eases himself into a chair by the Homicide captains desk and proceeds to report a murder- his own. A literal whirlpool appears on screen to denote a flashback while Bigelow starts relating the final twenty-four hours of his torturous existence to a room of transfixed homicide. Bigelow is an accountant who takes a week off to visit San Francisco, ostensibly to get away from his secretary and incredibly needy, codependent, marathon-talking girlfriend Paula (Pamela Britton). While Paula broods, Bigelow goes out to paint the town red with a gang of his hotel neighbors, at a bar while trying to get another woman’s attention, a sinister stranger switches his drink, giving Bigelow a fatal dose of ‘luminous toxin’. He wakes up the next morning feeling less than healthy. A trip to the doctor's office instantly changes his entire perspective on life, for he finds out that he has been poisoned and there is no cure whatsoever. With anywhere from a day to two weeks to live, he starts off on a relentless quest to discover his murderer. His quest takes him to Los Angeles, where an importer had tried to contact him but has since committed suicide (maybe), and thence to a crawl through the city's underbelly. Bigelow has nothing to lose, though, and he refuses to give up as long as he has a breath in his body.

About the Actor
Oscar-winner Edmond O'Brien was one of the most respected character actors in American cinema from his heyday of the mid-1940s through the late 1960s. Born on September 10, 1915, in New York City borough of The Bronx New York, O'Brien learned the craft of performance as a magician, reportedly tutored by neighbor Harry Houdini. He took part in student theatrics in high school and majored in drama at Columbia University. He made his Broadway debut at the age of 21 in 1936 and later that year played The Gravedigger in the great Shakespearean actor John Gielgud's legendary production of "Hamlet." Four years later, he would play Mercutio to the Romeo of another legendary Shakespearean, Laurence Olivier, in Olivier's 1940 Brodway production of "Romeo & Juliet."

Edmond O'Brien worked with another magician, Orson Welles, in the Mercury Theater's production of "Julius Caesar," appearing as Mark Antony. He would later play Casca in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's 1953 film of the play.

O'Brien is erroneously said to have made his debut as an uncredited extra in the 1938 film Prison Break (1938), but the truth is his stage work impressed R.K.O. studio boss Pandro S. Berman, who brought him to Hollywood to appear in the plum supporting part of Gringoire in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), which starred Charles Laughton in the title role. After returning from his wartime service with the Army Air Force, Edmond O'Brien built up a distinguished career as a supporting actor in A-list films, and as an occasional character lead such as in D.O.A. (1950).

Edmond O'Brien won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) and also was received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nod for his role as a drunken senator ferreting out an attempted coup d'etat in Seven Days in May (1964). He also appeared as the crusty old timer Freddy who antagonizes Ben Johnson's character Tector Gorch in director Sam Peckinpah's classic Western The Wild Bunch (1969). Increasingly, he appeared on television in the 1960s and '70s, but managed a turn in his old boss Welles' unfinished film The Other Side of the Wind (1972).

O'Brien married and divorced the actresses Nancy Kelly and Olga San Juan, with the latter wife being the mother of his three children, including actors Maria O'Brien and 'Brendan O'Brien (II)'. He died in May 1985 Inglewood, California, of Alzheimer's Disease and was interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City, California. IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood

Customer Reviews

Great Flick, Terrible transfer
I've read some reviews of the other edition of this film and they also say that the quality is poor, so it's probably a problem with the available stock of this film for a transfer. There is no way that this "remastered" edition is any better, I couldn't imagine the quality being much worse for a film from 1950. And I've seen my share of noirs from the 40s, so I don't mean in comparison to modern DVDs. But, that being said, I don't regret my purchase because I do love this film that much. It pains me to not give it 5 stars.

Classic Film Noir
Film noir flourished during the depression as peole south to escape their daily lives with stories of darkness and impending doom.

DOA is one of the better examples of noir and featurers the classic noir elements (clipped dialogue, a murder, detectives and rejection of typical authority figures. )

The film's ending has a major surprise that makes the slow build up of hte plot worth it with a major pay off.