Long before blood tests and DNA research could identify someone's identity, someone with amnesia had to rely on the kindness of strangers to put together the pieces of the puzzle figure out who they were. Early 30's matinee Idol Richard Arlen, now King of the B's, plays a soldier with amnesia, having survived an explosion and only given a list of four possible identities, looking up each of the four to figure out who he is. He meets the pretty Cheryl Walker and it's love at first sight before he goes to each of the locations, finding various reactions including a young boy's belief that he might be his father, but of course, that's not the real story, much to the sadness of the young Bobby Driscoll. An encounter at a gambling establishment results in violence, a possible liason with the nightclub hostess (Lola Lane), and then with the grieving parents (Sarah Padden and Forrest Taylor) who welcome him into their home. As the number of possibilities ends, he's reunited with Walker who is there when he walks out, having regained a bit of his memory and an unsure future.
I doubt any major studio could have come up with such a complex storyline and make it work, but Republic, an expert at creating real human drama out of some impossible seeming situations, manages to do it, and the audience has to make up their own mind as to whether or not they find it conceivable as to how things turn out. One thing is certain however. Arlen's character is a man of high honor and he will not be discovering a secret that he desperately was trying to hide before getting amnesia. This is not a film noir so those elements are not present, just a post-war film with great character development and a desperation to escape from a nightmare. At just 70 minutes, this is the right length, and choices are made in the script that in my case I found a great way to provide a bittersweet ending, because as many people found at the end of the war, new possibilities were endless, and for someone in this situation, those best years were just around the corner.
I doubt any major studio could have come up with such a complex storyline and make it work, but Republic, an expert at creating real human drama out of some impossible seeming situations, manages to do it, and the audience has to make up their own mind as to whether or not they find it conceivable as to how things turn out. One thing is certain however. Arlen's character is a man of high honor and he will not be discovering a secret that he desperately was trying to hide before getting amnesia. This is not a film noir so those elements are not present, just a post-war film with great character development and a desperation to escape from a nightmare. At just 70 minutes, this is the right length, and choices are made in the script that in my case I found a great way to provide a bittersweet ending, because as many people found at the end of the war, new possibilities were endless, and for someone in this situation, those best years were just around the corner.