Identity Unknown

This film, ostensibly about a US soldier returning from World War Two with amnesia searching for his former identity, is actually about the effects of losing a loved one in the war. It surprisingly touching and has a low-key naturalness uncommon in low-budget Republic Pictures productions, probably thanks to screenwriter Richard Weil, as the rest of the production crew have few noteworthy accomplishments.

Richard Arlen, who in real life served in World War One, is thus about one war too old for the lead character and turns in his usual stiff performance, here suitable for one suffering from memory loss. The underlying gimmick is that he's told that could be any of four missing GIs. Yes, this could have been resolved by sending his photo to the four families involved, but the script manages to make his mission somewhat plausible. His traveling around the country for a week with nothing but his uniform, which remains clean and neatly pressed just as he stays well-groomed and clean-shaven, is less plausible but typical of Hollywood movies of all eras.

He encounters, respectively, the wife, the son, the brother, and the parents of the four men, each episode containing a small drama in itself related directly or indirectly to the missing soldier's absence. Some twists and turns along the way. No need to spoil them.

There have been lavishly produced better-known films about the war's effects on the home front and returning soldiers, yet somehow I felt this forgotten film better captures the bittersweet feeling of victory mingled with loss.

Best performance is by Bobby Driscoll, just beginning his career as a child star that was to end in tragedy. More surprising is that of Cheryl Walker, now almost unknown, as a soldier's widow. Walker was a SoCal beauty queen who had a brief film career before becoming something of a Bircher in later life. This may not suggest a major talent but her performance here is moving and sympathetic. Somehow she never got beyond B movies and stand-in work.

I'm not a big fan of movies relating to war, but this one struck a chord with me. Its naturalistic portrayal of ordinary people was more common in European movies at that time.

The part of the brother of one of the missing is played by one John Forrest. Watching it one would assume he was a well-known character actor yet he appeared in only ten other films, all in uncredited bit parts. I mention this because everyone involved seemed to performing over their heads. Nice score by another non-household word, Jay Chernis. Just one of those times when everything clicks.

Richard Arlen was one of those guys you never hear about, but always found great drama to be in, whether by agent or by his own choosing.

The story here is about an amnesiac soldier found in a farmhouse with three dead bodies. For dog tags are found. The bodies are burned, and no one from their unit is available for identification.

Our main character finds himself on a hospital ship and back in the states, and is given the names and addresses of the four men in hopes it will jar his memory. He is frustrated by his Amnesia so much that he runs out and visits each address on his own in order to find out his identity.

Arlen is great in such roles. The plot itself is full of some contrivances and holes, but the characters are multi dimensional and very credible, which makes for the best films, credible characters in incredible circumstances.

The low key atmosphere works great to help sustain our interest, because this is a mystery above all else, and we have a sneaking suspicion how it will turn out, but not the exact outcome.

Everything is done beautifully, and this works like a charm because you truly care about not only our unidentified soldier, but also about all the characters. A directorial achievement. A hidden gem.

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.

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.

Postwar drama about a soldier with amnesia trying to figure out who he is by visiting the families of four different soldiers. It's enjoyable enough, pleasant even despite the heavy themes of war and death. It moves along at a leisurely pace and most of the people in it talk in low tones. The cast is good and the script about as well as could be expected for a low budget B picture of its kind. Give it a look if you've got nothing better to do.