The plot may border on implausible but Steve Sekely’s Hollow Triumph (also known as The Scar) is a fast-paced, enjoyable watch with one of the darkest and coldest visual palettes in the noir cycle, thanks in large part to the collaboration of cinematographer John Alton. After medical school dropout and ex-con John Muller (Paul Henreid) gathers a few associates to rob an underground casino, big-time gangster Rocky Stansyck, who owns the casino, is determined to exact revenge. With mobsters hot on his trail and his options running out, Muller has a chance encounter with a dentist (John Qualen) who tells him he looks identical to a psychiatrist in his building, Dr. Viktor Bartok (also Henreid), so Muller jumps at the opportunity to switch his identity. Carving a scar in his face to match that of Bartok’s, Muller murders the psychiatrist (while listening to a Giuseppe Verdi opera) and takes over his practice, even fooling Bartok’s secretary Evelyn Hahn (Joan Bennett) and girlfriend Virginia Taylor (Leslie Brooks). Not surprisingly, the scheme will shortly begin to unravel. Without any noir credentials to speak of, Sekely (and Henreid, who replaced him as director over creative differences) clearly relied on Alton to add the noir visual splendor: Venetian blinds and flashing neon signs in abundance, shadows seeping into just about every scene, many shot cold and dark and practically devoid of any human life beyond the protagonist. Take note of the wide variety of camera angles employed, especially in the casino heist scene.