Identity Unknown

Walter Colmes' Identity Unknown (1945) is a handy little drama that slipped between the cracks of the movie industry at the end of the war. A product of Motion Pictures for Television (the same outfit that later distributed the first season of The Adventures of Superman), it's been handed down to us through Alpha Video in an uneven but watchable edition. There is some occasional frame jitter, and at an hour in it appears that the source shows some actual damage to the tape stock being used in the center of the frame, but it's never so bad that the picture is unwatchable, and given the budget price, the obscurity of the movie, and the unusual content, the disc is still worthwhile. The usual six chapters standard to the latest Alpha releases are more than adequate for this plot, which is very simple and straightforward. The disc opens to a simple four-selection menu, which includes the "Coming Attractions," consisting of a trailer from a relatively recent movie licensed by Alpha. It's not half as entertaining, judging from the content, as the varied drama in front of us which lovingly recalls -- in the time in which they made their mark -- what has become known as the greatest generation.