GRANTS, N.M. - Part I What do these movies have in common: “The Bourne Identity,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “50 First Dates,” “Hancock,” “The Long Kiss,” “Memento,” “Overboard,” “Regarding Henry,” and “The Vow.”
Did you realize the commonality? No more suspense – a character suffers from amnesia. The term “amnesia” dates back to Greece and was adopted by the following Romans. Today, the Webster’s International Dictionary defines it as 1: loss of memory due usually to brain injury, shock, fatigue, repression, or illness. 2: a gap in one’s memory. Is this a permanent problem? Can it be treated?
Part II Plotline
Setting – WWII (40’s), France, and American military hospital ship and the USA.
Characters- an injured, American serviceman – US Army personnel – relatives of dead soldiers – and a caring woman.
The question Who Am I? drives the action of writer Robert Newman’s story, “Identity Unknown”.
A wounded, American soldier is on a military hospital ship, headed back to the USA. His most severe injury is that he is suffering from amnesia. The US Army does not know who he is. They assume that he is one of four soldiers who were found in a French farmhouse, bombed by the Nazi’s. Three were killed beyond recognition, but four sets of dog tags were discovered in the wreckage. They are the only clues to their identification. After reaching the states, the Army goes on a quest to discover who of the four he is.
Meanwhile, the unknown soldier goes AWOL (absent without leave) on a quest of his own. He is driven to answer “Who am I?” Join the curious on Friday, July 24th in the college library at 1 pm to follow his search.
Part III Film Facts
• Writer Robert Newman also wrote The Adventures of Robin Hood.
• Actress Cheryl Walker was the ’38 Rose Queen for the Tournament of Roses Bowl parade.
• Worked as a stand-in for Claudette Colbert (Remember her as the rich run-away woman in “It Happened One Night”)
• Actor Richard Arlen served as a pilot in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps
• He played a tough, cynical hero and appeared with Gary Cooper in the Academy Award winning movie, “Wings”
• Became deaf but an operation restored his hearing
• He acted in 15 westerns, and appeared on television and in commercials.