In High Wall (1947), an extremely noir-y noir, Stephen Kenet, played by an unusually glamorless Robert Taylor, suffers from a fully credible traumatic amnesia. Did he, or did he not kill his wife. He can't remember. So far so good. But he's cured of his affliction in a most unlikely, most unscientific , manner. He's injected with "truth serum" -- sodium pentathol -- and what was once lost is found.
The gimmick spoils an otherwise grainy, hard-edged film.
Here's Kenet (Taylor), and Ann Lorrison, played by Audrey Totter. They're good as patient and doctor, but unpersuasive when they emerge as lovers in the last scene.
The scenes in the asylum are painful especially when they're supposed to be amusing. To me, it's more like a concentration camp than a therapeutic institution. It's scary that it might reflect reality.
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