Author: womo

Just released from prison, John Muller (Paul Henreid) masterminds a holdup at an illegal casino run by Rocky Stansyck. The robbery goes bad, and the mobsters captured some of Muller’s men and force them to identify the rest before killing them. Stansyck has a reputation for tracking down and killing his enemies, no matter how long it takes, so Muller decides to leave town and hide. He takes an office job recommended by his law-abiding brother, Frederick (Eduard Franz), but quickly decides that working for a living is not for him. A chance encounter with dentist Dr. Swangron (John Qualen) reveals that Muller looks exactly like a psychoanalyst who works in the same building, Dr. Bartok, the only difference being a large scar on the left side of the doctor’s face. Seizing the opportunity, he begins researching Bartok, even slipping into his office to examine his records. He is discovered by the doctor’s secretary, Evelyn Hahn (Joan Bennett). She mistakes him for her employer and kisses him, but quickly realizes he is someone else. He persuades her to go out with him, though she has become embittered and claims to have given up any dreams of finding love.

Muller sets out to impersonate Bartok, aided by the fact he studied psychoanalysis in medical school before dropping out. He takes a photograph of the doctor and uses it as a guide to cut an identical scar on his own face. Unfortunately, the developers of the photograph reversed the negative, so now Muller has the scar on the wrong side. He discovers the mistake only after he has already murdered Bartok and is preparing to dump the body in the river. He has no choice but to go through with the plan anyway. Luckily, no one (except the office cleaning lady, whose suspicions he manages to lull) notices the difference, not even Evelyn or Bartok’s patients. Muller discovers “he” has a girlfriend, Virginia Taylor (Leslie Brooks), and that they frequent Maxwell’s, a high class casino. It also turns out Bartok has been losing heavily. When a worried Frederick Muller tries to contact his brother, the trail leads to Bartok. The scar convinces Frederick that the man he sees is merely a lookalike. Evelyn, previously unaware of the switch (but now very suspicious), reveals that John Muller said he was going to Paris. Frederick Muller tells “Bartok” that his brother no longer has to hide; Stansyck was convicted for “income tax problems” and is scheduled to be deported.

Afterward, Evelyn realizes that Muller is an imposter and that he must have killed the psychoanalyst. Though he admits to her he did, she does not turn him in to the police; instead she purchases a ticket to sail to Honolulu. Muller finds out and promises he will go with her, but she does not believe he would leave such an opportunity to enrich himself. Muller arranges for other doctors to take over his patients and heads to the dock. There, however, he is intercepted by two men who want to discuss Bartok’s $90,000 gambling debt. When Muller tries to break away, they fatally shoot him. Evelyn sails away, unaware that Muller lies dying on the dock.

This movie is also known as “Hollow Triumph”.

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Directed by Steve Sekely, produced by Paul Henreid, written by Murray Forbes (novel) and Daniel Fuchs, starring Paul Henreid as John Muller & Dr. Victor Emil Bartok, Joan Bennett as Evelyn Hahn, Eduard Franz as Frederick Muller, Leslie Brooks as Virginia Taylor, John Qualen as Swangron, Mabel Paige as Charwoman, the only person to notice the scar on the wrong side, Herbert Rudley as Marcy, Charles Arnt as Coblenz, George Chandler as Artell, Assistant, Sid Tomack as Aubrey, Manager, Alvin Hammer as Jerry, Ann Staunton as Blonde, Paul E. Burns as Harold, Charles Trowbridge as Deputy, Morgan Farley as Howard Anderson.

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Source: “Hollow Triumph” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 26 February 2012. Web. 02 September 2012. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Triumph.

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The film begins with what a BBC reviewer called “perhaps one of cinema’s most innovative opening sequences.” The scene is a long, behind-the-back tracking sequence featuring Frank Bigelow (Edmond O’Brien) walking through the hallway of a police station to report his own murder. Oddly, the police almost seem to have been expecting him and already know who he is. A flashback begins with Bigelow in his hometown of Banning, California where he is an accountant and notary public. He decides to take a one-week vacation in San Francisco, but this does not sit well with Paula Gibson (Pamela Britton), his confidential secretary and girlfriend, as he does not want her to accompany him.

Bigelow accompanies a group from a sales convention on a night on the town. At a “jive” nightclub called “The Fisherman”, unnoticed by Bigelow, a stranger swaps his drink for another. The nightclub scene includes one of the earliest depictions of the Beat subculture. The next morning, Bigelow feels ill. He visits a doctor, where tests reveal he swallowed a “luminous toxin” for which there is no antidote. A second opinion confirms the grim diagnosis, and the other doctor implies that the poisoning must have been deliberate. Bigelow remembers his drink tasted strange. With a few days to live at most, Bigelow sets out to untangle the events behind his impending death, interrupted occasionally by phone calls from Paula. She provides the first clue: a man named Eugene Philips had tried to contact him, but died the previous day, purportedly a suicide. Bigelow travels to Philips’ import-export company in Los Angeles, first meeting Miss Foster (Beverly Garland) (whose on-screen credit reads “Beverly Campbell”), the secretary, then Mr Halliday (William Ching), the company’s comptroller, who tells him Eugene Philips committed suicide. From there the trail leads to Philips’ widow (Lynn Baggett) and brother Stanley (Henry Hart).

The key to the mystery is a bill of sale for what turns out to be stolen iridium. Bigelow had notarized the document for Eugene Philips six months earlier. He connects Philips’ mistress, Marla Rakubian (Laurette Luez), to gangsters led by Majak (Luther Adler). They capture Bigelow. Since Bigelow has learned too much, Majak orders his psychotic henchman Chester (Neville Brand) to kill him. However, Bigelow manages to escape. Bigelow thinks Stanley and Miss Foster are his killers but when he confronts them, he finds Stanley has been poisoned too – after having dinner with Mrs. Philips. He tells them to call an ambulance and what poison has been ingested so that, in Stanley’s case at least, prompt treatment may save his life. Stanley tells Bigelow he found evidence that Halliday and Mrs. Philips were having an affair. Bigelow realizes that the theft was merely a diversion. Eugene discovered the affair and Halliday killed him.

Halliday and Mrs. Philips used the investigation of the iridium as a cover for their crime, making it seem that Eugene Philips had killed himself out of shame. However, when they discovered that there was evidence of his innocence in the notarized bill of sale, Halliday murdered anyone who had knowledge of the bill of sale. Bigelow tracks Halliday down and shoots him to death in an exchange of gunfire. The flashback comes to an end. Bigelow finishes telling his story at the police station and dies, his last word being “Paula.” The police detective taking down the report instructs that his file be marked “D.O.A.”

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Directed by Rudolph Maté, produced by Leo C. Popkin, written by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene, starring Edmond O’Brien as Frank Bigelow, Pamela Britton as Paula Gibson, Luther Adler as Majak, Lynn Baggett as Mrs. Philips, William Ching as Halliday, Henry Hart as Stanley Philips, Beverly Garland as Miss Foster, Neville Brand as Chester, Laurette Luez as Marla Rakubian and Virginia Lee as Jeannie.

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Source: “D.O.A. (1950 film)” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 9 March 2013. Web. 11 March 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film).

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