Hollow Triumph finds Paul Henreid cast in the dual role of small time crook John Muller, recently released from prison and dreaming of a big score and his doppleganger, psychiatrist Dr. Victor Emil Bartok.
Henreid the crook has been released and no sooner than he's out than he refuses to heed the warnings of his older brother Eduard Franz and go straight, but that he reassembles his old gang for a robbery of the gambling palace owned by Tom Browne Henry.
Paul's the only one who gets away, but Tom's a mean dude when crossed and Henreid has to find a way to disappear. Providentially the psychiatrist appears on the scene and Paul's found a way. It's his idea to kill the psychiatrist and assume his identity.
That unfortunately brings some additional complications, most of them in the person of Joan Bennett, the secretary of psychiatrist who falls for the crook big time. She proves his undoing as many a woman has.
Henreid produced as well as starred in this film for the short lived Eagle-Lion studios, a hands across the sea project that was the brainchild of J. Arthur Rank and Universal Pictures. He does well in the kind of role his old rival from Casablanca Humphrey Bogart would have done. Bennett also did well in a part that makes her kind of the ultimate winner here.
Hollow Triumph, released in the USA as The Scar is a stylish noir thriller, the kind that if someone like Fritz Lang had directed would have been a classic.
Henreid the crook has been released and no sooner than he's out than he refuses to heed the warnings of his older brother Eduard Franz and go straight, but that he reassembles his old gang for a robbery of the gambling palace owned by Tom Browne Henry.
Paul's the only one who gets away, but Tom's a mean dude when crossed and Henreid has to find a way to disappear. Providentially the psychiatrist appears on the scene and Paul's found a way. It's his idea to kill the psychiatrist and assume his identity.
That unfortunately brings some additional complications, most of them in the person of Joan Bennett, the secretary of psychiatrist who falls for the crook big time. She proves his undoing as many a woman has.
Henreid produced as well as starred in this film for the short lived Eagle-Lion studios, a hands across the sea project that was the brainchild of J. Arthur Rank and Universal Pictures. He does well in the kind of role his old rival from Casablanca Humphrey Bogart would have done. Bennett also did well in a part that makes her kind of the ultimate winner here.
Hollow Triumph, released in the USA as The Scar is a stylish noir thriller, the kind that if someone like Fritz Lang had directed would have been a classic.