Identity Unknown

There were four corpses in the farmhouse, burned and dismembered beyond recognition, their dog tags scattered, because they were -- had been -- American soldiers fighting in France. There was also a fifth man, Richard Arlen, and he was alive, but he couldn't remember who he was. So when he was being transferred to a military hospital, he left the train, went AWOL, with the names and addresses off the dog tags, hoping that he was one of them, that familiar places and people would jog his memory, and he could return home and get on with his life.

It's a nice idea for a movie, and Arlen's low-key acting is spot on, as is the way that as he goes along, being disappointed in turn, he leaves the survivors of the dead soldiers a little better off in four vignettes. Of course, this is a Republic picture, and it's the first directorial job of Walter Colmes, so the subtext is pounded out pretty hard in four vignettes and an epilogue.

Still, there are good roles in it for Roger Pryor, as a patriotic hoodlum, as well as Forrest Taylor and Sarah Padden as an old farm couple trying to come to terms with the death of their son. It's all rather unsubtle for my taste, but its heart is so clearly in the right place that I willingly forgive that.

Right after WW2, Johnny finds himself on a hospital ship heading for home. There is only one problem; he doesn't remember who he is or where he comes from.

He was injured when defending a house completely surrounded by German troops together with three fellow soldiers, As the house was bombed the others perished whilst Johnny was wounded and in the process lost his memory.

Back in the states he goes awol, seeking out the families of the four men trapped in that house.

An OK 40's movie, but it does have some slight problems with logic in the script. The army doesn't know which of the four men survived, yet the families he visits all seem to know that their husband/father/son/brother has been killed; The army told them.

An interesting World War II psychological drama casting Richard Arlen, star of the silent epic, WINGS, as a soldier who survived a bombing in which three others, who were burned beyond recognition but who possessed similar physical descriptions, perished. Hospitalized, and suffering from amnesia as a result, he adopts the name of "Johnny March," goes AWOL, and sets out to visit the locales where service records indicated the four victims lived in hopes of establishing his identity. Especially poignant are his scenes with Bobby Driscoll, the talented child star, in one of his early roles. When "March" shows up at his doorstep, the boy believes him to be his father, who is missing in action. I give this film a rating of three out of a possible five stars.

A man who gave all and lost everything :when you return from WW2 and you suffer from amnesia ,what does life lay in store for you?

There are four possible identities, thus the movie is roughly divided into four parts; the film does not pass over in silence the sufferings the amnesiac soldier leaves in his wake: the scene in the restaurant where friends seem to recognize Sally 's husband , the little boy (young Bobby Driscoll ,a child actor who was also featured in the excellent 'the Sullivans") who needs a father so bad ....the fourth part restores balance:The soldier ,who delivers a superb speech , comes to the rescue of the old couple about to sell their house because dad cannot stand the place where his dead son used to live (a deeply moving performance by Sarah Padden as the mother who would like to keep memories of this house so much).

In my book ,the third part in Chicago is less gripping and there's a slight sag in the tension and emotion in "Johnny March's" search ; but by the segment in the Anderson 's house, it's back for good. And the denouement is not what one expects : besides ,considering Johnny's childhood, it's thoroughly plausible.

The following year ,Joseph Mankiewicz would do "somewhere in the night" with an amnesiac in search of his past ;the budget was bigger ,but it was a film noir whereas "identity unknown" is a simple drama.

An odd amnesia story: in France, a barn is bombed containing four American soldiers. Only one survives but without a memory. In order to reconnect with his earlier life and identity, he decides to visit the closest of kin to all these four casualties, hoping that he might be recognised somewhere. He ticks them off one by one and finally reaches the conclusion that he was none of them. Here is the mystery.

But in each of the four places he visits he unconsciously performs some miracle, saving the parents of one of the four soldiers from selling their home, forming an intimate relationship with the son of one of the others, saving the position and future of the brother of one of the others, and consoling the widow of the fourth. But there is more to it than that.

Like most amnesia stories, it's a fascinating mental journey of discovery into the unknown, and like so often in such cases the final rise of the curtain is a stage-opening to an astounding surprise. The conclusion is as welcome as it is totally unexpected.