Hollow Triumph (1948)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Steve Sekely

Writers:

Murray Forbes (novel)
Daniel Fuchs (writer)

Release Date:

16 December 1949 (Finland)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

HIS SCAR marked them BOTH!!

Plot:

Pursued by the big-time gambler he robbed, John Muller takes a new identity, with ironic results.

Plot Keywords:

Irony | Psychiatrist | On The Run | Prison Release | Punched In The Face

Cast

Paul Henreid	...	John Muller / Dr. Victor Emil Bartok
Joan Bennett	...	Evelyn Hahn
Eduard Franz	...	Frederick Muller
Leslie Brooks	...	Virginia Taylor
John Qualen	...	Dr. Swangron D.D.S.
Mabel Paige	...	Charwoman
Herbert Rudley	...	Marcy
Charles Arnt	...	Coblenz
George Chandler	...	Artell, Photo Shop Assistant
Sid Tomack	...	Aubrey, Photo Shop Manager
Alvin Hammer	...	Jerry, Garage Attendant
Ann Staunton	...	Blonde
Paul E. Burns	...	Harold, Prison Clerk (as Paul Burns)
Charles Trowbridge	...	Prison Deputy Warden
Morgan Farley	...	Howard Anderson

Also Known As:

The Man Who Murdered Himself (USA) (reissue title)
The Scar (UK)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Angel's Flight Railway, Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bryan Foy Productions

Trivia:

Debut of Thomas Browne Henry.

Quotes:

[Evelyn kisses Muller by mistake]
Evelyn Hahn: What can I do for you?
John Muller: What more could any reasonable man ask?

Terrific hard-boiled double-identity thriller in the noir genre

Paul Henreid produced this film in which he starred, eerily portraying a totally amoral man who does not see anything at all wrong with the occasional murder, as long as he 'needs to do it'. John Bennett delivers an equally powerful performance of a woman who, although not good, is certainly not bad, and it is curious that this study of a woman's fixation on a bad man through infatuation was made in the same year as 'Force of Evil' which showed an even more extreme form of that. It must have been 'beauty and the beast' year. The ingenious plot concerns a double-identity, so there are two major threads of intrigue going on at once. Needless to say, Joan Bennett is involved with both Henreids, but prefers the baddie because he is more spellbinding and, let's face it, far from boring. This is a well-directed, sometimes brutal, atmospheric thriller which is something of a lost classic. It is now available on DVD under its alternative title of 'The Scar', which is a most unfortunate title, as people don't like scars (even though there is one in the story). Joan Bennett was really made for these films, as she proved in 'The Woman in the Window' and 'Scarlet Street' for instance. There is something ambiguous about her, something hard that is soft, you can't quite figure her. That's just right for noir. You should never be able to figure noir, everything should stay in the shadows where it belongs. The thing about a good thriller like this is, the mystery goes beyond the story itself and becomes the mystery of people themselves, what is it that goes on inside heads, those impenetrable citadels of secrets.