JohnHowardReid Always specify John Alton if you want moody, inventive lighting, and this movie highlights Alton at his best. What Alton can do to an empty movie sound stage has to be seen to be believed. But even when used on actual locations, his camera-work is just as startling. It's hard to believe the director is Steve Sekely, but maybe the old Hollywood adage that even the lesser directors had at least one good movie in them, is true. Of course, the acting is really memorable too. Paul Henreid does most capable work with his dual role, and even lesser lights like Mabel Paige have their memorable moments. In fact, the movie is chock-a-block full of fascinating character vignettes. I could list them all here, but why not just make your way back to the credits!

seymourblack-1 "Hollow Triumph" (aka "The Scar") is a dark thriller about a conceited criminal, a bungled heist and an incredible sequence of events that lead to an extremely ironic conclusion. The moral of the story is that no-one can deny their fate and that any attempts to do so will inevitably prove to be futile. This is a movie that's thoroughly absorbing and enjoyable to watch but one that also contains its share of bitterness and tragedy.John Muller (Paul Henreid) is a college educated con-man who, in the past, studied at a medical school and for some time after practised without a licence as a psychiatrist. When he's released from a prison sentence, the warden arranges for him to be given an office job at a medical supply company in L.A. in the hope that it will encourage him to settle down to an ordinary life and go straight. John has no such intentions and before taking up his job reconvenes his old gang and convinces them to take part in a high-value casino heist.The heist doesn't go according to plan and only John and his old friend Marcy (Herbert Rudley) escape. Marcy is terrified because casino owner Rocky Stansyck (Robert Browne Henry) is a vicious gangster with a reputation for hunting down anyone who crosses him. After the two men share their stolen money, Marcy heads off to Mexico and John leaves to take up his job in L.A.Shortly after beginning his new job, John discovers that he has a double called Dr Victor Bartok who's a successful psychologist and learns that the only obvious distinction between them is that Bartok has a prominent facial scar. John goes to Bartok's office where he meets the doctor's secretary, Evelyn Hahn (Joan Bennett). Although she's involved in a relationship with Bartok, Evelyn also strikes up a friendship with John which he uses to gain access to a number of Bartok's documents.John gets fired from his office job and then goes on to make a scar on his own face before murdering Dr Bartok and assuming his identity. Despite cutting the wrong cheek, no-one seems to notice and John seems to have made himself safe from being killed by Stansyk's men.Paul Henreid is extremely good as Muller and Bartok and convincingly conveys Muller's over-confidence and his disdain for anyone who sees any merit in being employed in a routine job. Joan Bennett is also excellent as Evelyn whose experiences with love have left her terribly disillusioned and the extinguishing of her last hope of happiness is a particularly poignant moment.Despite its lack of box office success, "Hollow Triumph" is a very well written movie with some memorable lines and also John Alton's wonderful cinematography.

Roger Burke Billed as "film-noir", Hollow Triumph (HT) is an interesting character study of a man who has distinct sociopathic inclinations. As John Muller/Dr Bartok, Paul Henreid gives a chilling performance as the leader of group of robbers who sets up a job to rob a casino of its take (an idea given the comedy treatment in Oceans 11, twelve years later). The heist goes badly wrong though, forcing Muller to flee from the mob and two hit men who are ordered to kill him, regardless of how long it takes (another idea already used in The Killers from 1946, from an Earnest Hemingway story).Muller's gang goes separate ways, and Muller flees to a city a long way from that casino and mob.With the killers on the hunt, Muller is saved, so to speak, by deus ex machina: he stumbles upon a doppelganger who looks exactly the same, except for a large scar on one cheek. At the same time, Muller also finds a fast-talking, breezy secretary – Eveln Harn (Joan Bennett) – who is attracted to, yet somewhat also repulsed by, this smoothie chain smoker who has a mysterious background. Women are always too curious, no?Anyway, Muller, always the pragmatist, concocts a scheme to hide from the hit men by posing as Dr Bartok. That involves killing the good doctor – too bad, it's him or me, Muller reasons – and taking over the practice. Conveniently, Muller has a psych background, having studied psychology long ago. He works out how to get the proper scar onto his cheek – and he's in, safe and sound, and making more money to add to the loot he stole from the casino. He even goes to a local casino where Dr Bartok is well known, and has a swell time at the tables – and loses big time, as the real Bartok mostly did.But, the hit men are still searching, and closing in (check out Jack Webb's film debut as one of those bad guys). So, Muller arranges with Evelyn to scarper – leave on a boat to Hawaii and set up there. Muller forgets one crucial thing, however...This story and movie, although clichéd and predictable to a point, is nevertheless an excellent example of a thriller, and well acted by the whole cast; Henreid is perfect casting for the roles – his expressionless face is well suited to a cold, implacable killer and cool, detached psychiatrist. Joan Bennett – not a femme fatale in this story, but a victim of her gullibility and greed – plays the quick-witted go-getter with aplomb.Of special interest are the photography, editing and direction, all three of which are just excellent, with great, dark visuals that evoke appropriate suspense and edge-of-seat anticipation. The movie should be seen for that alone.Give this one eight out of ten. Recommended for all.February 28, 2013

Robert J. Maxwell You can be forgiven if your heart sinks a little when the titles roll: "An Eagle-Lion Film." The plot could have been cooked up in its outlines during a bull session of a few hours. Nothing is likely to discourage the impression that this is a pretty slow and not very interesting second feature -- except maybe the photography by John Alton, which is pretty good, full of noirish shadows and sometimes odd angles. And there's a touching moment near the end when a charwoman apologetically asks if Henreid's scar isn't on the wrong cheek.Paul Henreid is one of those smart crooks who started out well -- medical school -- and then turned back and was finally convicted for a stick up from which he's now being released. Maybe he's not so smart after all. Giving up a career in medicine for the life of a hold-up man? In any case, the moment he's out of the slams, he gets his old gang together for a big heist at some gambling casino. Something goes wrong, as usual. The guy who runs the casino is unforgiving and he soon learns Henreid was behind the deal. Mister Big knocks off the other three gang members and Henreid is on his own. He hold various menial jobs, like gas station attendant. (No mention of all the dough he made off with after than big heist. Maybe he lost his wallet.)In Los Angeles he stumbles across a curious coincidence. He has a Doppelganger who is a psychoanalyst. The only difference is that the psychiatrist has a scar on his, the shrink's, left cheek. Henreid, desperate to change identities, looks into the shrink's background then knocks him off and takes his place. He romances the shrink's secretary and hangs out at the shrink's clubs. So far so good, except that, at the end, there is an O. Henry twist that satisfies the Breen Office or whatever the Cinematic Superego was called at the time.Paul Henreid's career certainly came like water and like the wind it went. He will always be Victor Lazlo and nobody else. The babe is Joan Bennett who is smoothly believable.There are some curious incidents. One is that, upon his release, Henreid is picked up by a friend who offers him a cigarette. Henreid brushes it away, saying, "You know I never smoke." But half-way through the movie, schmoozing with his secretary, all charm and guile, he gently removes a cigarette from her fingers and begins smoking it himself. He smokes like a volcano throughout the rest of the movie.Another thing is that, had the laws of physics been observed, Henreid would have wound up putting his scar on the correct cheek instead of the wrong one.Here's how he does it in the movie. He hold up a full-face photo of the shrink. The scar is near the right-hand border of the photo. Next to the picture, Henreid holds up a mirror and draws the scar on his own right-hand cheek to duplicate the one in the picture. The problem is that the image we see in the mirror is always flipped. In a mirror, our real right hand seems to be the left hand of the image we're looking at.However, nobody behind the movie REALIZES this! Later, Henreid shows up at the photo shop to collect the negative and they're afraid to tell him that they mistakenly flipped it when they printed it! In other words, he is creating a scar on the CORRECT side of his face, due to the incompetence of the two men at the photo shop and the ignorance of the film's writer.Got that? If the photo shop hadn't flipped the negative around, and if Henreid knew what the hell he was doing when he created that new scar, the scar would have been on the wrong side of his face. But because two mistakes were made, in real life the scar would have been accurately placed. And they say two wrongs don't make a right!