Man in the Dark

1953 "TERROR STRIKES IN 3 DIMENSIONS - NEW...IMPROVED! - ...AS THE KILLER TAKES OVER THE CARNIVAL!"
6.2| 1h10m| en| More Info
Released: 09 April 1953 Released
Producted By: Columbia Pictures
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Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

A prisoner undergoes experimental brain surgery in order to get early parole. He released but has no memories. Things get dangerous when a group of thugs go after him in search of loot he hid before his amnesia.

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Reviews

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.
Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
mmcgee282 Some one had bad mouth this picture labeling it no different than the three stooges film that was in 3D ,Spooks,but, This wasn't.The story was strong The focus on the 3d was the depth.The sepia tones were not restored .It did have few throwing on your face sequence ,but, it was sticking to the plot ,except for the bird sequence.For some reason there were a few shots that were flat.They were only a few seconds .Once again I'm guessing that the left or the right eye version of those shots were missing or have been damaged.It did not mess the whole film up Edmond is having half of his brains removed so he can get out of prison for robbing a security company.It works,but ,as he is recovering ,the old gang shows up and kidnaps him.Back at his ex girl friend apartment ,played by Audrey Totter ,Queen of the Noir flicks,everybody thinks he's the same .The gang individually tries to make him tell where the money is.They even use his girl friend,but, he doesn't remember.It isn't till later after some of his gang beat him up in an attempted to escape, that his girl friend realizes he does not remember.Then he start having a dream which causes him to remember where he had gotten the money, after the gang took him to his old house and he found a sticker number.Then he and Audrey escape the gang into a carnival ,where he had hid the money in a box at a place where you have your stuff deathwatch.He's going to get it and keep it for himself ,instead of giving back to the insurance company .Audrey had reform she mad that he doesn't want to be honest.It's an irony that there is a roller coaster scene where the gang chases him up there .Unfortunately it's screen with props for the roller coaster ride ,so you don't feel the effect .It's very obvious than Columbia took this from the film that was made a year earlier,This is Cinerama,the roller coaster ideal into the plot.Excellent 3D noir. 02/6/12
kidboots The 3D "Bwana Devil" had proved a surprising success and Hollywood now felt it had a secret weapon in it's fight against the infiltration of television. "Man in the Dark" was one of only two noirs filmed in 3D (the other being "I, the Jury") and it was quite an expensive process for what was really just a programmer. From the start, with punches flying and guns exploding in front of the camera, it was quite different to the usual Lew Landers production. Mobster Steve Rawley (Edmond O'Brien) is due to be operated on as part of a unique brain experiment to see if his murderous criminal tendencies can be stopped. It reminded me a bit of "The Crime Doctor" - you know, the first one of the series where Warner Baxter, originally a crime boss, is hit on the head and wakes up in hospital, not knowing who he is or what happened to the stolen money.Only Edmond O'Brien, being a much superior actor is able to imbue this gritty little noir with much edginess. In his case it is $130,000 and both his old gang and the insurance assessors are all eager to find out where he has hidden the loot. The only thing is he has lost his memory so even though his old gang get to him first and give him a thorough beating it does them no good. His old girl friend, hard boiled tough girl Peg (as only Audrey Totter can play her) is bought in to try to soften him up but she likes the new, gentle Steve and now wants no part of the money.Just so you don't forget it was originally a 3D movie, there are punches thrown, a bird flies toward the camera, an exciting gun fight from a speeding car with guns levelled right at the cameras and a man hurtling feet first toward the camera from a roller coaster ramp which must have given the original audience a few thrills. Steve starts to regain his original hardness and through a vivid dream, his memory of a chase through an amusement park. The roller coaster ride could have been inspired by the opening shot in the recently released "This Is Cinerama" but a couple of years previously in "Woman on the Run" (1950), the climax came with Ann Sheridan in a particularly scary roller coaster ride filmed at the same Pacific Ocean Park. Peg, now aligned with the police and assessors can only watch as Steve battles his greedy partners atop the ride.This is a pretty excellent movie with O'Brien, seemingly still on the run (like he was in "D.O.A"). In the original prints Columbia advertised the movie as made in "glowing monocolor" - in reality it was sepia, but prints don't even have that now, just plain black and white.Recommended.
blanche-2 Edmond O'Brien stars in "Man in the Dark," a 1953 film also starring Audrey Totter. O'Brien plays Steve Rawley, a prisoner who undergoes experimental surgery that's supposed to erase the criminal elements of his brain. It also wipes his memory of past events.Unfortunately Steve and some other thugs committed a big robbery and Steve hid the money. Now that he has no memory, he doesn't know where he put it. His old gang kidnaps him and tries to find out his hiding place. His old girlfriend Peg (Totter) is around, and she wants him to forget the whole thing and go away with her.Steve starts remembering things in the form of bizarre dreams. He and Peg attempt to follow the clues in the dreams to track down the money.Edmond O'Brien made a lot of these B films for Columbia. This one is no better or worse than many of them. The last part of the film takes place in an amusement park, and it's very good.Originally this film was in 3-D, and like some other films, it was filmed in the seen-better-days area of Ocean Park near Venice, CA. I always like seeing the old LA, and this film has lots of shots of it.I had one major problem with this film, and it's a major plot hole. If you had stolen a lot of money and hidden it, why would you agree to a surgery that is going to clean out your memory so that you don't remember where you hid it? I don't know the answer.
paluska Originally made in 3-D, this is another of Columbia's black & white releases of this genre (like Vincent Price in the Mad Magician). 3-D process and numerous subjective camera techniques (like scapels used in operation coming out at the screen, bullets firing at speeding cars, whirling around car rides at an amusement park, etc.)make this interesting viewing and out of the ordinary story about a thug who can't remember anything about his $130,000 heist after brain surgery.