Wednesday 13 March 2024

Hollow Triumph (1948 Steve Sekely)

Paul Henreid produced this indie in which he's a determined but impulsive robber who's pursued by a mob he stole from. John Qualen tells him - stops him in the street, no less - that he's a dead ringer for this Doctor chap and Henreid realises to be safe he could dispose of the doctor and become him. Yes, you can kind of guess the ending. Whilst doing this he romances Joan Bennett (who's already having a thing with the doctor, but this seems to disappear from the script), who somehow knows nothing's going to end up well - and of course, it doesn't. And it isn't because the photo shop has made a mistake with the negative, causing Henreid to scar the wrong side of his face. No - no one notices that - something which I find quite credible, thinking of at least two gentlemen I know who shaved off their moustaches and I didn't notice - except for a cleaning lady Mabel Paige, and in a lovely touch, he just takes her hand and reassuringly says 'No'. (Perhaps something of this psychiatry he's pretending to administer is rubbing off on him - maybe more could have been made of that aspect).

So a not uninteresting film, worth more than a Hitchcock Half Hour (of which - I didn't realise in his later career as a TV director -Henreid ended up directing multiple episodes).

With Eduard Franz, Leslie Brooks (the doctor's GF, from the delightfully named What's Buzzin', Cousin?)

Photography from John Alton, music by Sol Kaplan (slightly derivative), written by Daniel Fuchs from a novel by Murray Forbes. According to IMDB Henreid sacked the director and completed it himself.





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