An amnesiac soldier (John Payne) tries to find out who he is, and in the process, finds a ton of evidence to prove why everybody who recognizes him instantly hates him. Treated on San Francisco but moving to Los Angeles, he is snagged by police the minute he walks out of Union Station. Both the law and the lawless seem out to get him for reasons he can't remember, and even an alleged ex-wife resents him for more reasons than just am obvious unhappy marriage.
This wasn't the first (or last) film noir dealing with the subject of amnesia brought on apparently by a war injury. It also wasn't the first or last where the hero seemingly had mob connections, in this case the ever uncharismatic Sonny Tufts who had the screen presence of a hair glued to the negative. At some points, it is unclear whether Payne is faking his amnesia, faking knowing who he is, or faking either his amnesiac identity or his perceived identity. Ellen Drew is the femme fatal ex-wife, while film noir regular Percy Helton adds spark as another one of his typical sludges of society. Long before he became one of T.V.'s most popular country store owners, Frank Cady was a regular in these dark dramas of the degradation of society at its smarmiest. Not really anything new by 1949 film noir standards, it still creates interest in finding out what Payne's story really is.
There's plenty of intrigue, dark shadowy photography and clever dialog spoke with glaring hostility and convincing power by everybody but Tufts who was handsome on the surface, but in profile looked like something out of a Dick Tracy comic strip. What really makes this above average is the obvious fact that there is a ton of possibilities as to how this could wrap up, and the writers are intent on not taking the easy way out. The ending, involving Helton and his huge cat, is both gripping and touching. Deliciously complex, this deserves higher marks than its gotten, resulting in a nice sleeper of a film noir, highly worth remembering.
This wasn't the first (or last) film noir dealing with the subject of amnesia brought on apparently by a war injury. It also wasn't the first or last where the hero seemingly had mob connections, in this case the ever uncharismatic Sonny Tufts who had the screen presence of a hair glued to the negative. At some points, it is unclear whether Payne is faking his amnesia, faking knowing who he is, or faking either his amnesiac identity or his perceived identity. Ellen Drew is the femme fatal ex-wife, while film noir regular Percy Helton adds spark as another one of his typical sludges of society. Long before he became one of T.V.'s most popular country store owners, Frank Cady was a regular in these dark dramas of the degradation of society at its smarmiest. Not really anything new by 1949 film noir standards, it still creates interest in finding out what Payne's story really is.
There's plenty of intrigue, dark shadowy photography and clever dialog spoke with glaring hostility and convincing power by everybody but Tufts who was handsome on the surface, but in profile looked like something out of a Dick Tracy comic strip. What really makes this above average is the obvious fact that there is a ton of possibilities as to how this could wrap up, and the writers are intent on not taking the easy way out. The ending, involving Helton and his huge cat, is both gripping and touching. Deliciously complex, this deserves higher marks than its gotten, resulting in a nice sleeper of a film noir, highly worth remembering.