Color Me Dead

As a big fan of the 1949 film noir D. O. A. I was looking forward to seeing this remake moving the action from California to 1969 Australia but it was so poorly done that it somehow diminished my enjoyment of the original. The strangest part is that both films were the work of the same pair of screenwriters.

The plot gimmick is that a man who was surreptitiously given a poison that has no antidote has only a few days to live and try to find out who did it and why. In the original he discovers the plot in bits and pieces as he goes along. This time around the authors decided to give away a good deal of the plot at the beginning, which only detracts from the suspense.

The original was in artistically composed and lit black and white. The remake is in that 1960s Eastmancolor that never looked as sharp or as bright as the Technicolor it replaced. The biggest problem is the two main actors. The producers must have thought that casting Americans as Australians in the lead roles would help at the box office. The clash of their accents with those of the Australians in the supporting cast is annoying if you're annoyed by such things, but the bigger problem is that Tom Tryon and Carolyn Jones can't hold a candle to Edmond O'Brien and Pamela Britton from 1949's D. O. A. Tryon seems incapable of cutting loose and showing the emotion required for the role. Jones was more versatile, but the slender and sexy Morticia of The Addams Family a few years earlier is lethargic and noticeably older and chubbier, perhaps due to health issues. Neither starred in any movies after this.

I watched this to satisfy my curiosity but I wish I hadn't.

This color remake of the noir classic (with Edmond O'Brien in the lead) may have been a mistake, but it is not a complete disappointment. If you know the original (a man tries to find out who poisoned him in the limited time left of his life), you may agree that black and white was essential to the mood. But since no one would book a B&W film in the late 1960's, it kind of makes sense that this story is expanded somewhat to an international glossy color film, so indicative of the period.

Tom Tryon was never much of an actor (and would soon abandon the screen for a highly successful writing career), and thereby cannot carry the sense of urgency needed to bring to the role of a man living on borrowed time. Nonetheless, COLOR ME DEAD is worthwhile for a pretty good sequence in shopping center, and an "of its time" psychedelic sequence featuring a lot of gels and topless women.

This is the first of the two remakes of Rudolph Maté's film noir classic and it does not hold a candle to the original;the beginning and the ending were modified,but not for the best: the villains are introduced too early and the viewer knows too many things too soon. As for the central part, that is to say the essential ,it's a scene-for-scene rip off of the original ;even the lines are the same, (I watched the original again just before the Australian version) , particularly the medical examination (the nurse who brings the fateful report) .Neville Brand , in his bad guy terrorizing part of Chester stole the show from Edmond O'Brien in his scenes ;his successor would not scare a ten-year-old ; the pivotal scene of the nightclub is botched : the hand with the ring does not make up for the man with the scarf who has his back to the viewer one hardly notices the first time one watches the film ; the score is absolutely horrible ,the kind of music which passed for pop in the late sixties .Strip tease and nudities are supposed to console the viewer.

The third remake (starring Dennis Quaid ,Meg Ryan and Charlotte Rampling), kept the main subject (the poisoning) ,but at least bothered to write a new screenplay (the hero is a lit professor ,and the bill of sale becomes a homework of sorts ); the 1949 version remains unsurpassed ,but at least it's entertaining.

"Color Me Dead" is an Australian remake of an American film noir classic, "DOA". It also stars Americans in the leads...though I'm not 100% sure why.

My expectations going in to see this movie were very low. Much of it is because I really hate remakes and only think they should be made when there's something seriously wrong with the original movie. On top of this, the film's two American stars aren't exactly box office draws, Tom Tryon and Carolyn Jones.

The story is similar to the original. The biggest differences are HOW the leading character is killed (in this version, the poison is radioactive), the locations as well as the adult portion. Yes, unlike the original film, you'll see a few boobies. It's not extensive...though you might wanna think twice before showing it to your kids or mother!

Overall, this film was shockingly good. It was very tense, the production values were very high for an Aussie picture and I am glad I watched it. Is it as good as the original? No way...but it IS still very good and enjoyable...and worth seeing.

I remember seeing Color Me Dead on Australian TV in the early 1970s. I finally tracked down a surprisingly good copy on Youtube with an equally good copy of the original D.O.A(1949).

Color Me Dead is a lot better than I remembered and I watched i it more out of curiosity to see locations in Australia as they were in the late 1960s. The story follows closely to the original script of D.O.A. which I believe is out of copyright. The film starts out in the country town of Mittagong in New South Wales and then moves to the Chevron Hotel, Surfers Paradise in Queensland and then to The Menzies Hotel, Australia Square, and the Roselands Shopping Centre (Australia's biggest shopping centre at the time) in Sydney.

Americans Tom Tryon, Carolyn Jones and Rick Jason were cast in the lead roles to encourage international film sales with local actors cast in supporting roles. I found Tom Tryon's acting rather wooden where as Carolyn Jone's acted her heart out. Sandy Harbutt who overacts in the role of "Chester" went on to create the 1974 Australian cult bikie film "Stone." Rick Jason was good as the heavy and former Australian child actor Gary Gray got a role as the bellboy. Also a surprising amount of topless nudity for the time.

Overall it was a good film and still worthy of a spot on TV. It seems it is quite rarely shown these days.

A another time capsule of Australian life in the 1960s caught on film.