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.

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.

"Stolen Identity" was produced by none other than Turhan Bey and filmed in Vienna, his home town. It's loaded with dark atmosphere. The movie stars Francis Lederer, Donald Buka, and Joan Camden. Lederer is Claude Manelli, a well-known concert pianist who is married to Karen. She's miserable. She says she married him after knowing him one week and was happy - for one week.

She has planned to leave the country with one Mr. Mortimer. She is to meet him at his hotel.

Buka plays Toni Sponer, a man without a passport or a taxi license, who illegally drives a cab. He picks up Mortimer, but when he speaks to him and gets no answer, he realizes the man is dead and bloody. He tries to report the crime, but it's New Year's Eve and there is a lot going on. It finally occurs to him to take the man's identity and get rid of the body. Which he does.

When Karen sees that he's not Mortimer, she gets the police. But her husband convinces the police that she's delusional, and Buka is released. But is he? And what is really going on?

Very neat noir, well done and well acted by Lederer, one of my favorites, and Buka, a big Broadway actor whom I've seen in many roles but not in leads.

Post-war Vienna still looks like pretty much of a mess - I remember being told the roof of St. Stephen's church "burned up like paper" during the war. Still, it was great to see it.

Turhan Bey, who lived to be 90, was an actor turned photographer, producer. and back to actor again. I once needed to speak to a casting person who was on the phone - he put his hand over the receiver and said, "It's Turhan Bey. We're talking about Tyrone."

After the leading men returned from WW II, Bey knew his time was up and left Hollywood. returning to Vienna circa 1953, only to start a second acting career in 1993 in Hollywood. Interesting man.

I thought this was a good film and fun to watch.

When I hear about Turhan Bey, I remember the various movies (mostly B-pictures) he appeared in during the 40s and 50s. When I turned on "Stolen Identity" I was rather shocked to see that this actor produced this film. Interesting.

The story is about a murder. A very jealous and cold husband, Claude Manelli (Francis Lederer), has reason to be jealous as his wife is cheating on him. So, he murders the guy in some poor sap's cab. The cabbie, Toni (Donald Buka) is in a bind. He could tell the police-- and he even tries once. But he is an illegal alien and doesn't want to be deported. Plus, the dead man in his cab has a passport! On impulse, Toni steals the passport and assumes the dead man's identity. This is a problem...especially when the dead man's lover meets Toni!! What's next?

The best thing about the film is the originality of the plot. So much of it is new and unusual. Plus, the film ended very well and was very satisfying to watch. This is a real plus--especially since the film wasn't very expensive to make and has few big stars (Lederer being the biggest star in the cast). Well worth seeing.

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.