Paul Henreid starred and produced this okay film noir crime drama. This is Henreid's movie as he dominates most of the scenes obviously looking to escape his nice guy-good guy image for something far darker. He's not bad but the preposterous script did not provide much assistance; It's just too much of a leap of faith for the viewer to accept for this storyline to work. Henreid no sooner is let out of prison than he can't wait to organize his gone-soft mob to knock off the biggest gambling racket in town run by feared gangster Rocky Stansyck. The heist is a surprisingly low budget shoot; it goes wrong and Henreid is on the run from Stansyck's crowd. He happens upon a look alike shrink except for a facial scar and plans to steal his identity. In the process of stealing the identity Henreid accidentally scars the wrong side of his face. No matter - nobody notices! Tough Joan Bennett is the shrink's secretary in a good role. Lovely Leslie Brooks has a throw-away role. Herbert Rudley as Marcy is quite good though as Henreid's right hand man in his mob. The rest is fairly predictable. The exceptionally dark nourish shoot and atmosphere were very good and bailed out the mediocre script and plot to some degree. This is okay for film noir buffs.
Review of Hollow Triumph
