The man with the scar
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The man with the scar |
| Original title | Hollow triumph |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1948 |
| length | 83 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Steve Sekely |
| script | Daniel Fuchs |
| production |
Paul Henreid , Bryan Foy |
| music | Sol Kaplan |
| camera | John Alton |
| cut | Fred Allen |
| occupation | |
| |
The man with the scar (Original title: Hollow Triumph , Alternative title: The Scar ) is a in black and white twisted American film noir of Steve Sekely from 1948. Daniel Fuchs wrote the screenplay based on the novel Hollow Triumph of Murray Forbes.
action
Freshly released from prison, criminal John Muller plans to rob the illegal casino of gang boss Rocky Stansyck. The robbery fails and Stansyck's men are able to prevent some of Muller's accomplices from escaping. After forcing her to reveal the names of the others, Stansyck has her murdered. Because Stansyck is known for ruthlessly tracking down and killing his enemies, Muller and his last remaining accomplice, Marcy, decide to split up to hide. Marcy plans to flee to Mexico, while Muller plans to go to Los Angeles, where his brother lives.
In Los Angeles, Muller takes an unpretentious office job that has been placed for him by prison. While on an errand, he meets the dentist Dr. Swangron. Muller points out that he is one of his practice neighbors, the psychoanalyst Dr. Bartok, looks confusingly similar. The only distinguishing feature is a large scar on Bartok's cheek. Curious, Muller went straight to Bartok's practice. Since no one appears to be there, he sneaks into the doctor's office to search it. He is surprised by Evelyn Hahn, Bartok's secretary. She confuses him with her employer and kisses him, but then realizes that he is someone else. Back in his office, Muller gets into an argument with his employer and knocks him down.
The following evening, Muller's brother Frederick visits him at his hotel. He informs John that Marcy was murdered in Mexico and that the gangsters are hot on his heels too. Muller then forges a plan to murder Bartok and take his place. He approaches Evelyn and starts going out with her. At the same time, he gets books on psychoanalysis and copies of Bartok's patient files to practice his role. Immediately before the planned murder, he takes a photo of Bartok unnoticed and uses it as a template to cut an identical scar on his face.
Unfortunately, the photo lab turned the negative backwards and the unsuspecting Muller added the scar on the wrong side of his face. Since he only realizes the mistake when Bartok is already dead, Muller has no choice and has to go through with his plan anyway. Fortunately, nobody notices the error, not even Evelyn or Bartok's patient. Muller eventually learns that Bartok has a lover named Virginia Taylor. Since she does not see through the fraud either, they both go to a casino that Virginia regularly visits with Bartok. Muller learns that Bartok has lost a lot of money there in the past.
In search of his missing brother, Frederick appears in Bartok's office to ask Evelyn where he is. Evelyn tells him that John wanted to go to Paris. Frederick then tells that John no longer has to hide because Stansyck was arrested and is to be deported.
Evelyn has now realized that Muller murdered Bartok and took his place. Although Muller admits this, she doesn't call the police, but lets them convince her to start a new life together in Hawaii. Both agree to meet on the ship to Hawaii that evening. Muller does a few more things in the office and then goes to the port. At the dock, however, he is pushed into a dark corner by two men who want to talk to him about Bartok's debts at the casino. When he knocks her down and tries to flee, Muller is shot and mortally wounded. Without knowing that Muller is dying only a few meters away, Evelyn leaves with the ship.
background
The Man with the Scar opened in US cinemas on August 10, 1948. In Germany it was released in cinemas on March 28, 1950.
criticism
The lexicon of international film found “Colportage-like crime stories” .
Web links
- The man with the scar in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward (Ed.): Film Noir. An Encyclopedic Reference to the American Style, Third Edition. Overlook / Duckworth, New York / Woodstock / London 1992, ISBN 978-0-87951-479-2 , pp. 131-132.
- ↑ a b The man with the scar. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed November 11, 2019 .