Independent Exhibitors Film Bulletin (1945)

IDENTITY UNKNOWN" ABOVE-AVERAGE DRAMA Rates © • + as dualler generally Republic 71 minutes Richard Arlen, Cheryl Walker, Roger Pryor, Lola Lane, Ian Keith, Bobby Driscoll, John Forrest, Sarah Padden, Forrest Taylor, Frank Marlowe, Nelson Tyler, Charles Jordan, Marjorie Manners, Eddie Raker, Charles Williams, Isabel LaMal. Directed by Walter Colmes. This interest-holding drama on a timely returning-soldier theme is one of Republic's outstanding programmers. The story of "Identity Unknown" is off-the-beaten-track and its four episodes, taking place in various portions of the U. S. A., are both suspenseful and poignant. As the war veteran hero, suffering from amnesia, visits Connecticut, West Virginia, Chicago and, finally, Iowa in an effort to learn his identity, the picture gives the audience a cross-section of American life. Although occasionally slow-moving and lacking in lighter moments, this remains a fine human interest picture. Richard Arlen, who gives a most convincing portrayal of the amnesia victim, is the best marquee name but the cast contains many familiar players, including Roger Pryor, Lola Lane and Ian Keith. The outstanding performances are those of Bobby Driscoll, as a fatherless boy, and Sarah Padden, as a bereaved farm woman. The attractive Cheryl Walker adds a believable romantic note. Will make an excellent dualler especially if coupled with a musical or comedy feature. Deserves extra selling. Richard Arlen, an American war veteran, returns to the U. S. fully recovered from his bodily wounds but suffering from a total loss of memory. Sole survivor of a bombing in France, after which four dog tags were found, Arlen takes the name Johnny March and goes A.W.O.I. in order to visit relatives of the four men in an effort to identify himself. He first contacts Cheryl Walker, widow of one of the four men, and she befriends him until he reveals that he never actually knew her late husband. Arlen next visits Bobby Driscoll, a youngster who accepts him as his lost father until he is forced to tell the boy otherwise. Then to Chicago where John Forrest, who has become mixed up in gangster activities, fails to identify Arlen as his brother. However, after a gang shooting. Arlen convinces the leader, Roger Pryor, that he should finance a career in medicine for the wounded Forrest. On an Iowa farm, Arlen learns that he is not the son of Forrest Taylor and Sarah Padden, a farm couple. After he persuades them not to auction their farm in order to escape memories of their son, Arlen is downcast and he persuades Miss Walker to meet him. By chance, he is recalled to camp where the Army makes him recall, at last, that he is actually a doctor who has been wounded while flying supplies to the four men who had been trapped and later killed in a French farmhouse. YOR'< 'THE HOUSE OF FEAR* ABOVE-PAR SHERLOCK HOLMES ENTRY Rates • • in action spots or as support Universal 68 minutes Basil Rathbone, Nigel Bruce, Aubrey Mather, Paul Cavanagh, Dennis Hoey, Gavin Muir, Holmes Herbert, Harry Cording, Florette Hiller, David Clyde, Sally Shephard, Doris Lloyd. Directed by Roy William Neill. One of the better entries in Universal's long-lived Sherlock Holmes series, "The House of Fear" will fully satisfy in action spots and make a good supporting dualler in the naborhoods. Based on the Conan Doyle tale. "The Adventures of the Five Orange Pips," this is laid in the shuddery setting of Drearcliff, a mysterious Scottish mansion inhabited by a half-dozen retired gentlemen each of whom receives a warning before meeting a violent death. Even Sherlock Holmes, who is aided by the loyal, blundering Dr. Watson and later annoyed by the bluff Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard, is stumped for a while, but he finally reveals an amazing solution — one that will come as a complete surprise to even the cleverest of the who-dun-it enthusiasts. Although the early scenes are slow-moving, the climax has both suspense and excitement and there is no romance to distract one's attention from the gruesome happenings. Basil Rathbone, as the imperturbable Holmes; Nigel Bruce, as the faithful Dr. Watson, and Dennis Hoey, as the not-quitebright Inspector Lestrade, give standard portrayals, while Aubrey Mather and Paul Cavanagh are excellent as the last two surviving members of "The Good Companions" club who have watched their cronies receive a death warning. The three women in the cast have minor parts. Each member of a group of English clubmen who live together in a somber old Scot ng dualler in naborhoods tish mansion has a large insurance policy upon himself, made out to the surviving members of the club. Shortly after a message containing only five orange pips is received, one of the members dies horribly in a car crash and, the next night, another is killed after receiving an envelope with four orange pips. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are called into the case but he is unable to stop the violent deaths of Holmes Herbert and Harry Cording, two of the other members. When only Paul Cavanagh and Aubrey Mather are left, the murder of a village tobacconist leads Holmes to the solution. In a surprise move, Dr. Watson is kidnapped but Holmes discovers an old smugglers' tunnel which leads to a cave where he finds the club members all very much alive. Using Aubrey Mather as an innocent dupe, the others had intended to collect the insurance by robbing local graves and mutilating each corpse so that the authorities could not learn that it was not one of the club members who had, apparently, met a violent death. YORK BRIDAL SUITE OUT-OFBOUNDS FOR C. I. GROOM! Peter COOKSON • Arline JUDGE Frank JENKS ■ Jerome COWAN Produced by LINDSLEY PARSONS . Directed by PHIl K ARLSTEIN S"~"PI°» aa/oth€R #i0*ey *vr from mono&kam APRIL 16. 1945 19