Vida Contra Vida

This noir whodunnit is manned by Burgess Meredith, who gives a textured performance, and an early career appearance of Claire Trevor, who would go to greater things. Even Sheldon Leonard, as a deadpan cop, is mildly amusing. The amnesia plot, however, wears a bit thin on the nerves, as it so cliched. and was done too often in noir.

For a B film, this is not too bad. It keeps your interest for over an hour and is decently paced by the director, Jack Hively. Initially, one thinks the protagonist is the target of gangsters, but we find out quickly it is just trigger-happy cops. There is no explanation, however, as to why Jack transforms into Naehring for a year, and dumps his loving wife for that same year. Despite that hole in the plot, the film is entertaining.

Burgess Meredith is hit in the head with some falling debris and when he comes to, he realizes he doesn't know why he's in that part of town. He also notices that his hat and cigarette case have the wrong monogram. He goes home only to be told that he wife moved a year ago.

Something happened to him and he's been suffering from amnesia. The blow to the head has restored his memory, but he doesn't know where he's been for a year. One thing he does know ... Sheldon Leonard is chasing him.

Meredith goes back to the part of town where the accident happened, and he runs into Claire Trevor who is his amnesiac self's girlfriend ... and who points out that he's wanted for murder.

This really early film noir has an intriguing set up, a nice mystery with a couple of interesting twists, and a fairly underwhelming conclusion. Still ... the mystery hinges on a paralyzed woman blinking while Meredith shouts out the alphabet. That's pure entertainment.

I can also never get enough Sheldon Leonard.

Frank Thompson (Burgess Meredith) is hit on the head and knocked unconscious by some debris that falls from a building under construction. He comes to and doesn't realize where he is and why he is there, but he is across from town from where he lives. When he gets back to his apartment he discovers it is no longer his apartment and that his wife moved away a year ago. He finds her and discovers that he went to work one day about a year ago and never returned until just now. So she moved and got a job in order to pay the bills. In spite of this she doesn't seem the least bit upset, which is strange. What is also strange is that Frank strolls into the company that he used to work at and gets his old job back. Even stranger is that on his way home from work on his first day back, he is pursued on foot by an angry man he does not recognize until he gets in a taxi and loses him. At this point Frank is not only thinking he had such luck to get his job and wife back with only the sparsest of explanations, but he is wondering what HAS he been up to this past year to cause this guy to chase him. Complications ensue.

This film treads some familiar ground - The guy who forgets who he is because of one head injury, leads some alternate life, then gets hit on the head again and remembers who he was originally but nothing about what went on in between head injuries. And what happened in between is never boring and even involves some danger.

This is a rare chance to see Burgess Meredith in a leading role, and he carries it off admirably. The one thing I wonder about is the title. In 1930 Paramount made a film with the exact same title that had a completely different plot - it was a vehicle for William Powell that was loosely patterned after the life of gambler Arnold Rothstein. If you go in realizing there is no relationship and that this film is more of a mystery, even a precursor to noir, you should enjoy it.

Prolific writer Cornell Woolrich, who wrote Rear Window, No Man of Her Own, and many other mysteries, is the author of "Street of Chance" from 1942. The movie stars Burgess Meredith, Claire Trevor, Frieda Inescort, Jerome Cowan, Adeline De Walt Reynolds, Louise Platt, and Sheldon Leonard.

Frank Thompson (Meredith) is hit by part of a building at E. 22nd and Third Avenue, and when he comes to, has a lighter and a hat with the initials DN. He returns home to his wife (Platt), only to find out she moved away a year earlier. When he catches up with her, she's shocked to see him but welcomes him back. It doesn't take long for him to realize someone (Sheldon Leonard) is after him.

Desperate, he sends Virginia to her mother's and returns to 22nd St., hoping to find someone who knows him under this other name. Turns out his name is Danny Nearing, and police are searching for him, suspecting him of murder.

Though Danny's girlfriend (Trevor), who works for the man whose brother was murdered, tries everything she can to keep him hidden, Frank/Danny knows he didn't kill anyone and wants the truth.

This is a pretty good film, thanks to the performances of Meredith and Trevor. It was easy to figure out, but after you've seen as many of these as I have, they usually are.

Of interest was the old woman who can only communicate with one blink for yes and two for no, Adeline De Walt Reynolds, who began her career at the age of 78, in 1941. She graduated from college at the age of 64. I guess I'd call her a late bloomer. She lived to 99.

Burgess Meredith does well in this straightforward Noir. It's short sweet and to a good point.

Not the greatest example of the genre but (did I say short). A couple of good twists and at times eerie and suspenseful.

It's also interesting to see Sheldon Leonard as a hard boiled cop.

So, if you are Noir-addicted it is worth the time to watch. It could have been longer, there were some gaps to fill but...

I liked it. Especially Burgess.