Stolen Identity

This is actually a great thriller, if you can follow all the turbulent quick turns and violent happenings in this intricate web of complications for a poor immigrant taxi driver who works without a licence and on New Year's Eve instead of an American passenger finds a dead corpse in his backseat. This leads to complications. He finds a great opportunity for himself in the situation, since he can simply get away out of the country by stealing the dead man's passport and identity, which doesn't prove too easy, however, since the dead man had a mistress waiting for him at the hotel, they were eloping together, but when she finds the taxi driver with her lover's identity she reacts of course, which leads to further complications. The mess leads into a labyrinth of with no end of troubles, and finally the lady's jealous husband, a famous concert pianist, catches up with them, which leads to further complications, as the jealous husband naturally acts like a fool.

As could be expected, the music is excellent throughout the whole film, you will be able to enjoy the best parts of Schumann's piano concerto, and that's just a sample of this whole symphonic film. The photo is dark and directly associating to Robert Krasker's famous photo in Carol Reed's "The Third Man", but you see nothing here of the political situation - just a few ruins. It is fast action all the way, so you had better fasten your seatbelts.

Previous commentators have noted the similarity in appearance between this film and The Third Man, director Carol Reed's classic film noir starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten. This similarity strikes the viewer almost immediately. It is, indeed, high praise to be compared to Robert Krasker's academy award- winning cinematography in The Third Man.

The plot of Stolen Identity also has been delineated fairly accurately but in rather ordinary terms. I found it highly creative and entertaining. As common as the "Mistaken - or Stolen - Identity" device is in both theater and cinema, it is only a device and not to be mistaken for the plot, itself. Consequently, while the viewer may have seen this device "a thousand" times, the plot of Stolen Identity is full of surprises and twists based upon this device. It is the unexpected turns that make this film much fresher, more original and engrossing than a plot synopsis might convey. Stolen Identity doesn't rely on the kind of suspense that characterizes most film noire, because there is no real mystery here. Instead, it relies on constant, smaller surprises. In short, the Mistaken Identity device is rather common; but this plot is not.

Finally, although I was not familiar with the cast, I found the acting to be uniformly good, occasionally outstanding. I easily could have imagined other actors turning this film into a melodrama, with bombast, overblown gestures and obvious facial expressions. The acting is always more restrained and subtle. Donald Buka is especially restrained and credible, never "blowing his cover" with an obvious facial expression as we see too often in films that depend on the maintenance of subterfuge to sustain dramatic tension.

The only disappointment in this otherwise fine film was the very weak development of the love story sub-plot. As it stands, it seems like an afterthought - a mild surprise, in fact - tacked on to the end. Or perhaps during their shared ordeal, the actors simply couldn't convey a palpable level of chemistry that I could appreciate. This sub-plot should have been made more apparent as the story unfolded. All in all, I thought this film was a fine little gem, and I wondered why I had not seen it before. Try it, you'll like it.

A suspense B&W film from 1953 filmed in Vienna. A taxi driver (Donald Buka)working without papers (a common problem at the time as the Soviets wanted to repatriate all eastern Europeans who had fled to Austria) gives a ride to a man who is murdered in the cab. Buka takes his papers and disposes of the body.

There is some good suspense and some good red herrings. The wife (Joan Camden) of a jealous pianist entwines in the plot. She is trying to escape from her husband (Francis Lederer). The man killed in the above mentioned taxi was her ticket to freedom--it was her husband who murdered him.

There are a lot of close calls that are fun. However, I wished for a different ending---but Hollywood must have had a hand in this---bad things aren't allowed to go unpunished.

As another reviewer stated...somewhat wooden but kind of neat as it was indeed filmed in Vienna and has local actors and scenery.

Entertaining. 4 or 5 stars.

There's quite a lot going on in this complex thriller. Fairly quickly we realise that "Karen" (Joan Camden) is unhappily married to concert pianist "Claude" (Francis Lederer). Unfortunately, her maid isn't very trustworthy and so a note suggesting a rendezvous with a recently arrived American visitor ends up with her husband, who has no intention of letting her meet him. Amidst all these domestic machinations, local cabbie "Sponer" (Donald Luka) is dreaming of a emigrating to the USA. At this point, serendipity takes rather a menacing hand in the proceedings with "Buka" finding himself in possession of a corpse, an American passport and a plane ticket. Perhaps this is his chance to escape his drudgery? Before he can make too many plans however, "Karen" shows up at his (borrowed) hotel room expecting her friend, realises he's a fraud and with her husband using the police and virtually any means to keep her close we find quite a tight game of cat and mouse - and just a hint of romance - develops. It's quite a tightly delivered story with a decent amount of intrigue even though I felt the denouement felt a little rushed and flat. There isn't a star as such, a collection of competent B-listers do well enough with the script to keep this moving along for eighty minutes of Hogmanay celebrations that have just enough of a sense of mystery to be worth watching.

Its a good film set in Vienna about a cab driver, Toni (Donald Buka), who steals a passenger's identity when the passenger is shot whilst sitting in the back of his cab. This gives him an identity as he is an illegal immigrant, but he needs to play out the role of the victim until he catches a flight to the U.S. with a ticket in the victim's name. Mrs Manelli (Joan Camden) rumbles him but she is accused of having mental problems by her husband, Claude (Francis Lederer), a concert pianist. As a result, Toni is let off the hook. Claude does not want to part from his wife, but she runs away from him. There are several plot twists and eventually both Toni and Mrs Manelli make a run for it together - they are both trying to escape from their lives in Vienna. There is a tense, exciting build-up to the finale. Are they going to get away.....??...

Unfortunately, the picture quality isn't fantastic and there is a line that runs down the middle of the picture for a while. The cast are all very good in their roles, especially Francis Lederer's portrayal of Claude. Also important to the story are Heinth (Manfred Inger) as the cab company owner, Marie (Inge Konradi) as Toni's hometown girlfriend and the inspector (Hermann Erhardt).

Its a good film.