The Man Who Walked Alone

US (1945): Comedy/Drama

Marion Scott (Dave O'Brien), honorably discharged WW II soldier, in "civies" and carrying a suitcase containing his uniform and medals, is hitch-hiking to the small hometown of a buddy killed overseas, intending to make it his home. En-route, he encounters wealthy society girl Wilhelmina Hammond (Kay Aldridge), who is running away from her stuffed-shirt fiancée, Alvin Bailey (Smith Ballew) and has taken his car without permission. Marion and Wilhelmina are bickering over a blow-out and an empty gas tank when the local cops appear and haul them off to jail on a car-theft charge. Wilhelmina establishes her identity and is released and, intrigued by Marion whom she suspects is a deserter, arranges his release also. She takes him to the Hammond estate and tells Marion, who does not know her true identity, she is Mrs. Hammond's secretary. Wilhelmina has no keys to the home and they are arrested again when they are caught crawling into the house through a window. This time reporters and photographers discover her identity and plaster the papers with a story of an heiress running out on her rich fiancée to take up with an unknown stranger. Over the objections of the Hammond caretaker, Wiggins (Walter Catlett), she hires Marion as a chauffeur and stands her ground when her irate mother (Isabel Randolph) and angry fiancée rush home from New York with their entourage, including: Aunt Harriet (Ruth Lee), an old maid who had an unfortuance love affir during WW I; Patricia (June Robinson), "Willie's" young and mischievous sister; Camille (Vicki Saunders), the family dressmaker, and Champ (Guinn "Big Boy" Williams), Alvin's physical instructor. It becomes a battle of wills as Mrs. Hammond and Alvin are determined to break up a romance that doesn't exist, as "Willie" and Marion are constantly bickering, and Aunt Harriet who is all for the pair getting together. (Les Adams, IMDb)

The story and direction are by William Christy Cabanne, who began his directing career at Biograph in 1912. He directed (or co-directed) almost 100 films before the advent of sound. His "talkie" career took him to Majestic Pictures, RKO, Monogram and other "low budget" studios, and his credits include Monogram's Jane Eyre (1934), with Virginia Bruce and Colin Clive, RKO's The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1937), with Preston Foster, Jean Muir and Van Heflin, Universal's The Mummy's Hand (1940), with Dick Foran, Peggy Moran, George Zucco and Wallace Ford, and Golden Gate's Scared to Death (1947), with Bela Lugosi, George Zucco, Nat Pendleton and Molly Lamont. Cabanne directed his last film in 1948. He died in 1950.

· Music Scoring Awards (Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture) 1945: Karl Hajos

1 nomination