Hollow Triumph

Moviecut—Hollow Triumph

source: Hollow Triumph

SPOILER ALERT! Well, I just finished watching this on DVD (St. Clair Vision "Classic Film Noir" collection), and numerous questions came to my mind. Initially, I was going to rate this movie as a "3", but I will change that to an "8", simply because the critical error in this movie may be deliberately intended to mock the viewer of average intelligence. I will describe this critical error later....(but if you haven't noticed it after watching this film, you ought to feel like a first rate idiot).... John Muller is a "smart guy" just out of prison - there's a contradiction right there - and his buddies are willing to get in on his plan to knock over a casino, and that shows how dumb they must be. Muller gets away with the dough, but his brother leads the mob to his doorstep, so John is looking for somewhere to hide. Enter Dr. Bartok, a twin for Muller except for a scar. Muller hatches a plan to assume Bartok's identity, but think...if another doctor and Bartok's secretary can mistake Muller for Bartok, why would Muller think that the mob wouldn't make the same mistake? Bartok happens to be a psycho-analyst, and psychology plays heavily in this film and I believe this movie makes the point that the movie viewer is no more observant than the asinine characters in this film. Muller gets a good view of Dr. Bartok from his office window, where it can clearly be seen that his scar is on the left cheek. He also dates Bartok's secretary and could easily get information from her. He also follows and stalks Bartok to learn his manners and plan his murder. He even takes Bartok's picture, a process which should have afforded him a good view of the doctor's face at the time of taking the photograph. So it should have been plainly evident to Muller that Bartok's scar was on his left cheek. Then comes the surgery, and the critical error in the film...Muller is using Bartok's photo as a reference in front of a mirror as he cuts himself. The photo clearly shows that the scar is on Bartok's left cheek, but Muller cuts himself on the right cheek in the mirror. The photo is not incorrect, so I assumed that Muller's error in failing to account for the mirror image was simply due to "nerves". Yet, we have the photo lab explaining that they had reversed the negative, which in fact they had not done. When Muller kills Bartok and assumes his identity, he notices his error, and has doubts of his plan. Really, a smart guy like Muller would have simply put an identical scar on his left cheek, cut up his right cheek and then faked an automobile accident which "further scarred him and affected his memory" and taken a few weeks off in the hospital as Bartok. This would have been safe, easy, and logical. Now, apparently no-one notices that the scar has moved, which to me would be the most obvious thing in the world to notice, but I am speaking hypothetically of course. Although this relieves Muller, it also breeds cynicism, and proves to be his undoing in the end as he finds out it is not so good to be Bartok either. Incidentally, when his brother catches up to him after not seeing him for about 2 months, his first reaction should have been, "How did you get that scar brother?", and not, "I'm sorry Mr. Bartok." That the audience in general fails to see these points justifies the film's premise that people are not very observant.

John Muller (Paul Henreid) robs a casino and gets away with it. However, the casino boss vows to catch up with him. Muller hides himself in a couple of jobs before taking on the persona of Dr Bartok, a psychotherapist, after killing him. He falls in love with Bartok's secretary Evelyn (Joan Bennett) and they plan to flee the country together. Evelyn doesn't believe that he will show up to sail away with her..... There is so much that is wrong with this film but yet it is still entertaining. The cast are good and there is a nice twist at the end. There are also memorable scenes that include the robbery at the beginning, the moment that a couple of contract killers show up at the garage where Muller is working - will they recognize him?, etc. However, the film has to lose a couple of points just because of the plot. John Muller puts a scar on the wrong side of his face and no-one recognizes! Once he becomes the scarred Dr Bartok, none of his work colleagues notice that his scar is on the wrong side of his face? His secretary doesn't notice anything either? Worse still, in her case, is the fact that she has had an affair with Muller before he becomes Dr Bartok and she doesn't suspect that it's the same person? As well as not spotting the scar on the wrong side of his face! It's absolutely ludicrous. His patients also don't notice anything. Neither does his girlfriend Virginia (Leslie Brooks) or any of his social crowd at the casino. Not even John Muller's brother can recognise him coz he's got a mark on his cheek! If you saw your brother standing infront of you with a mark on his cheek that you hadn't seen before, you'd still KNOW it was your brother. And if he said he wasn't your brother, you'd reply "what the f*** are you playing at?" It is truly laughably bad script-writing. Another point that you have to suspend belief on is that John can suddenly become a psychotherapist after a brief period of reading some books about it. Actually, now that I think about it, that is quite realistic. The film keeps you watching despite being completely unbelievable.

An escaped robber named Johnny Muller (Paul Henreid) in a desperate attempt to hide from the hired killers chasing after him decides to take the place of a look-a-like psychoanalyst named Dr. Bartok. The only difference is a scar Bartok has on his face...Johnny carries out his plan with surprisingly success except for one small detail. Along the way to becoming Dr. Bartok, Johnny meets and unexpectedly falls in love with Bartok's secretary Evelyn, who has lost faith in mankind, in one of the greatest film noir romances ever put to film. The best thing about this unlikely Film Noir film is its superb ending...with the close-up on Evelyn's face at the end and an ending we are aware of but she is not.

"If you think I'm going to get myself mixed up with you, you're crazy. You're pretty good and you've got style, but first comes you, second comes you, third comes you. You're one of those egotistical smart alecks with big ideas. You think you've got a right to get away with murder, and I imagine you often do, but not with me." That's Evelyn Hahn (Joan Bennett) speaking. She's standing under an awning while the rain buckets down. She's just had an evening out with John Muller (Paul Henreid), a man she met when he came to the office of Dr. Victor Bartok because he'd heard he looks just like Bartok. Bartok is a psychologist and Evelyn Hahn manages things for him. And Evelyn Hahn, unknowingly, has Muller pegged. He's a smart, me first, anti-social criminal who thinks he should have the best. Now he's on the run because a gambler he tried to rob is after him. After seeing Bartok, Muller realizes he's got an escape hatch handy. The two are as identical as twins, except that Bartok has a scar on his cheek. A little boning up on psychology, a little practice mastering Bartok's handwriting, a little self-inflicted scar-making with a scalpel, and a little murder...and Muller becomes Bartok. Getting to this point has been interesting, but now we have the rest of the movie to get through. Some of it holds up. Muller begins to learn that Dr. Bartok has some secrets of his own, including high stakes gambling. The Doctor was anything but a sympathetic man, and was unreasonable enough to have his scar on the other cheek than the one Muller gave himself. (A mirror and a flipped negative for a photo caused the problem.) Evelyn notices but stays quiet, which makes us wonder. But then suddenly we learn Evelyn, a woman we like, has had a rough time of it with past relationships. She says she doesn't feel sorry for herself, but, of course, she feels sorry for herself. "What's the use," she says, "because you can never go back and start again, because the older you grow the worse everything turns out. You don't see it happen to you, it just happens. You wake up one morning and anything goes and that's alright, too." Huh? This comes to us out of the blue. Like the coincidences in the plot and the journeyman storyline (Meeting an identical-looking stranger? Faking psychology counseling? Fooling the real doc's office manager?), the change in Evelyn becomes nothing more than slack story telling. With this development we're hip deep in soap opera noir, made even more irritating because it wastes Joan Bennett. With no idea Evelyn Hahn was going to become Stella Dallas, we have no emotional commitment to her fate, along with no illusions as to what fate has in store for Muller. Although the movie ends with what is supposed to be ironic justice laced with tragedy, Evelyn's teary eyes just make us shrug. The Scar (aka Hollow Triumph) features great John Alton cinematography. The movie is always a pleasure to watch. Alton often was able to make a B movie look like it might have A movie potential. Paul Henreid, who produced the film, wanted to shed his image of being nothing but a sympathetic nice guy. He does a fine, assured job as Muller, a self-centered, manipulating egoist for whom murder is just another solution to a problem. Briefly seen is Leslie Brooks, a scheming fixture of low budget films, as gorgeous arm candy with Muller/ Bartok. To see a real noir mellerdramer, watch her as the star of Blonde Ice, made the same year. Joan Bennett, however, has almost nothing to do. One can't help wondering why she took the role unless possibly as a favor to Henreid. To see just how good she was, watch her in Jean Renoir's The Woman on the Beach, made the year before with Robert Ryan, and Max Ophul's The Reckless Moment, made the year after with James Mason.

It's hard to write 10 lines of copy about this so-so film noir. There just isn't a lot to say about it. It is not memorable enough to add to your collection, and I have a considerable amount of noirs. Paul Henreid plays a tough guy in here. He's not one I would think of to play this kind of role, but he's fine with it. He's a fine actor, anyway. Everything, including the cinematography, is okay-but-not memorable. One thing that stood out: the abrupt ending. That was a surprise. It was also a surprise to see this under the heading "Hollow Triumph." I've never seen the film called that. It's always been called "Scar." If you read about a "tense film noir," etc., don't believe it. "Tense" is not an accurate adjective for this film.

Hollow Triumph finds Paul Henreid cast in the dual role of small time crook John Muller, recently released from prison and dreaming of a big score and his doppleganger, psychiatrist Dr. Victor Emil Bartok. Henreid the crook has been released and no sooner than he's out than he refuses to heed the warnings of his older brother Eduard Franz and go straight, but that he reassembles his old gang for a robbery of the gambling palace owned by Tom Browne Henry. Paul's the only one who gets away, but Tom's a mean dude when crossed and Henreid has to find a way to disappear. Providentially the psychiatrist appears on the scene and Paul's found a way. It's his idea to kill the psychiatrist and assume his identity. That unfortunately brings some additional complications, most of them in the person of Joan Bennett, the secretary of psychiatrist who falls for the crook big time. She proves his undoing as many a woman has. Henreid produced as well as starred in this film for the short lived Eagle-Lion studios, a hands across the sea project that was the brainchild of J. Arthur Rank and Universal Pictures. He does well in the kind of role his old rival from Casablanca Humphrey Bogart would have done. Bennett also did well in a part that makes her kind of the ultimate winner here. Hollow Triumph, released in the USA as The Scar is a stylish noir thriller, the kind that if someone like Fritz Lang had directed would have been a classic.

Yes, "Hollow Triumph" or "The Scar" is a very fine example of film noir. It is tough, gritty, full of duplicity, and identities that shift across screen time. But what really makes this film sing is the vivid low-key photography of John Alton. Yes, perhaps Sekely deserves some credit, but the look is all Alton. "HT" is shot the same year (1948) as two other excellently lensed films by Alton -- "Amazing Mr. X" and "He Walked By Night." Dark sets lit with single light sources, bizarre angles and strong uses of deep focus compositions characterize Alton's work. Alton knew well how to get along with less light, creating the nightmarish worlds we see on the screen. This film's look reminds me of another great noir work -- Welles' 1958 "Touch of Evil" shot by Metty. But as I think of the two cinematographers, Alton seemed to best encapsulate the noir look -- seamy, wet, claustrophobic and dead-ended. Of worthy mention here too, is: Henreid repeating the cigarette motif we saw earlier in "Now, Voyager," but here given a chain-smoking mania of its own, suggestive of insecurity and metaphoric of his attempts to "cloak" his identity, to shape-shift like a cloud of smoke into something new.

With a cast like Paul Henreid and Joan Bennett, you really can't go wrong. His distinguished looks and her sultry presence bring the right kind of film noir flavor to this movie. The moody elements which start this doppelganger thriller persist until the surprise ending. I am biased here because I simply cannot resist the melodramatic elements of these wonderful movies. Some part of me really wants to believe this kind of reality actually existed in those times. The fact is that the film technique so prevalent in these movies attracts our attraction for adventures which we, happily, will never face in our lives. They speak of events and happenstances that feed our hunger for knowing what happens in these lives of people we will never be. I intentionally do not speak of the plot in this review because I would not want to reveal any of the elements. Suffice it to say that you won't ever feel like you've been cheated. If you want film noir you're going to get it!