Identity Unknown (1945 film)

Identity Unknown
Identity Unknown
Directed by	Walter Colmes
Written by	Robert Newman; Richard Weil
Produced by	Howard Bretherton (associate producer); Walter Colmes (associate producer)
Starring	Richard Arlen; Cheryl Walker; Roger Pryor
Cinematography	Ernest Miller
Edited by	John F. Link Sr.
Music by	Jay Chernis
Distributed by	Republic Pictures
Release date	April 2, 1945;
Running time	71 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Identity Unknown is a 1945 American war film starring Richard Arlen and Cheryl Walker, and directed by Walter Colmes.

Plot

Near the end of World War II in Europe a soldier who has recovered from his wounds but is still suffering from amnesia is heading back to the U.S.. He is told by Major Williams, a medical doctor, that he was the only survivor of four infantrymen defending a French farmhouse dive-bombed by German aircraft. All four of them had their dog tags blown off by the explosion; three of them died. The Army does not know which of the four the survivor is. The soldier, calling himself Johnny March, tries to discover his true identity. When the hospital ship docks he decides to visit the homes of the four different soldiers. Unthinkingly, he gets off the train taking him to an Army hospital when it makes a stop at the Connecticut town that is first on his list as his possible home. He is reported as having gone AWOL.

At the address he was given he meets Sally, whom he immediately learns was not his wife. Parrying, he introduces himself as a friend of her late husband, who was with him when he died. A warmth grows between them until Sally discovers that he really did not know her husband at all. Feeling she was taken advantage of, and grieving for her lost love, she attempts to commit suicide, but is stopped in time by Johnny. After he tells her the truth of why he stopped at her home they have a heart-to-heart reckoning, and grow closer than they were before. Still, Johnny is anxious to learn who he really is, and shortly returns to the road, headed for West Virginia.

Upon his arrival a young boy throws his arms around him enthusiastically, believing he is his father, returned from war. In spite of their immediate bonding, Johnny shortly determines he is not the father. Before he can leave, the boy's babysitter arrives and demands to know who he is. Johnny begs for a final moment together to let the boy down gently, telling him tells his father was a brave man who died in an effort to restore balance to a world that had lost it.

Johnny then goes on to Chicago, where he chases down that soldier's younger brother, only to reach another dead end. Joe is a ne’er-do-well, a cashier in a bookie joint who defrauded a local gangster out of $6000 by losing the money he was given to place on a longshot on a different horse. Now the gangster, Rocks Donnelly, is there to collect. A hitman shows up, gunning for Donnelly, but Joe ends up taking two bullets in his place. At the hospital, Johnny learns that more than anything the penniless Joe would like to become a physician, like his late brother hoped to be. A grateful Donnelly forgives the debt and offers to pay for his education. Donnelly throws a party to celebrate surviving the ambush. Johnny attends, and is introduced to Wanda, Donnelly's girlfriend. She instinctively realizes he is in love with another woman, and tells Johnny to call her and tell her so. Johnny does, renewing the bond between him and Sally.

Johnny realizes he must be the last soldier on his list, and invites Sally to join him at the upcoming reunion in Iowa. She would love to, but declines, saying he must at least find out whether or not he is married first. He leaves for the Anderson farm, arriving to an enthusiastic welcome from the family dog. In spite of this, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson do not recognize him. In mourning after having received a telegram a week earlier confirming the loss of their son, they are about to sell their farm in an open public auction, hoping that erasing any memories of their son will ease their pain. Johnny intervenes and stops the auction, convincing the Andersons that the greatest way they could honor their son’s legacy would be to perpetuate the happy times they had together on the farm.

Sally calls, saying she has arrived at a nearby train station, and a jubilant Johnny borrows the Andersons’ pickup to meet her. In mid-embrace he is apprehended for speeding and reckless driving by a local motorcycle cop. Before he can be hauled off to court, two MPs at the train station take him in custody, saying that the Army has precedence in rounding up their deserters. That he still doesn’t know who he is gets swept up in the hubbub. He is whisked off to an Army hospital. Sally is summoned to help authorities there break the news that they’ve discovered who is after all. Rather than tell him, they want him to discover his true identity for himself. The doctors prod him with a couple of seemingly obscure questions that he instantly has the correct answers to, triggering his full recollection of his prior life. He was a professor of history before the war, and a commissioned officer, a captain, in the Army Air Corps in it. He had been flying over the farmhouse in France in an attempt to drop supplies to the beleaguered soldiers when the German dive bombers struck. How he ever survived being blown out of his plane the Army still cannot explain. At this point, simply having his identity back, and being free to marry Sally, are all that matters to both of them.