Dead man running

D.O.A.

(1950)

One of those classic high-concept films that is far more clever than actually good, and the way it is most not good is in the unbearably clichéd and mechanically simplistic love story. That element is unnecessary to the story of man poisoned by a person unknown for a reason unknown--but fortunately with a "luminous toxin" that will take "a day, two days, a week at most" to kill him, giving him time to solve his own murder. The only conceivable reason for the romance is that the film runs only 83 minutes as is, and without the kissing and the reluctance to commit, it would have fallen dangerously close to an hour.