Mirage (1965)

An accountant suddenly suffers from amnesia. This appears related to the suicide of his boss. Now some violent thugs are out to get him. They work for a shadowy figure known simply as The Major.

Director:

Edward Dmytryk

Writers:

Peter Stone (screenplay), Howard Fast (novel) (as Walter Ericson)

Stars:

Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gregory Peck	...	David Stillwell
Diane Baker	...	Shela
Walter Matthau	...	Ted Caselle
Kevin McCarthy	...	Sylvester Josephson
Jack Weston	...	Lester
Leif Erickson	...	Major Crawford Gilcuddy
Walter Abel	...	Charles Stewart Calvin
George Kennedy	...	Willard
Robert H. Harris	...	Dr. Augustus J. Broden
Anne Seymour	...	Mrs. Frances Calvin
House Jameson	...	Bo (as House B. Jameson)
Hari Rhodes	...	Lt. Franken
Syl Lamont	...	Benny
Eileen Baral	...	Irene
Neil Fitzgerald	...	Joe Turtle

Storyline

Walking down twenty-seven flights of stairs after the power goes out in the New York City office building he is in, David Stillwell emerges outside on the ground level to find that a man he didn't know either jumped or was pushed out a window to his death. That man was Charles Calvin, the head of Unidyne, a humanitarian organization that works toward world peace. David notices other unusual goings-on. What he considers his normal routine that others he knows should recognize, don't. People that he doesn't know seem to know him, such as the beautiful young woman with who he walked down the stairs but who ran off when they got to the bottom. And things that he thought he saw or thought he knew end up not being the case, such as the multiple sub-basement levels he thought were in that office building which don't seem to exist in the clear light of day. When he finally thinks about it, he believes he has some form of amnesia. As an example, he knows that he works as a cost accountant, but...

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Plot Keywords:

amnesia | paranoia | hitchcockian | scientist | conspiracy | 

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Taglines:

Is The Key In His Mind...Or In Her Arms?

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 September 1965 (UK)

Also Known As:

Espejismo

Filming Locations:

Battery Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

108 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The television set at David's (Gregory Peck's) apartment was the Zenith with mechanical wireless remote control. The spring-loaded remote produces commands via the ultrasonic clicks which are picked up and processed by the television. You can clearly hear the specific loud click when David turns it off with the remote.

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Quotes

David Stillwell: Wouldn't it be hilarious if you did know what you were doing?
Ted Caselle: Yeah and how come I don't know what to do next?
David Stillwell: Well, pretend you're James Bond, he always knows.
Ted Caselle: Maybe we ought to get something to eat. I'm dying for a peanut butter sandwich.
Ted Caselle: Forget James Bond.

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Connections

Referenced in Remington Steele: Altared Steele (1983)

User Reviews

Mirage vs. Spellbound

I saw "Mirage" on television shortly after its theatrical release (1965) and I never quite forgot it, especially the part about the stairs that lead to nowhere, and the dream scene where the two men are standing under the tree on the lawn. My earliest recollection of seeing "Spellbound" was a decade or two later. Both movies feature Gregory Peck in the role of an amnesiac that may have committed a murder, and even though I was greatly intrigued by the similarity, I was keenly aware of the fact that it was not the same movie that I remembered from the '60s. These two movies are each intriguing in their own right, and the unlikely similarity between them only adds to that intrigue. Eventually I saw "Mirage" again just a couple of years after seeing "Spellbound", and I was glad at having finally untangled these two movies in my mind.

Another similarity shared by these two movies is that in both movies, the character played by Gregory Peck is befriended by a charming young woman, played by Ingrid Bergman in "Spellbound" and by Diane Baker in "Mirage". Both movies also incorporate the use of surreal dream sequences. "Spellbound" is of course noted for its use of dream sequences that were created by Salvidor Dali.

"Spellbound" has the feel of a Hitchcock movie from an earlier era, whereas "Mirage" has the feel of a movie made in the middle '60s, and one that could have been made by Hitchcock at that later date. They are both good movies, but personally I prefer "Mirage", and I think that "Spellbound" would be largely forgotten were it not for the inclusion of the Dali dream sequences and for the fact that Hitchcock directed it. The dream sequences in "Spellbound" are far more surreal than the dream sequences in "Mirage", and they are brought to consciousness through psychoanalysis. In "Mirage" the plot is more intricate (which is to be expected of a movie that was made in the '60s as compared to one made in the '40s) and the dream sequences, which occur as spontaneous flashbacks, are more involved with the unfolding of that more intricate plot. In "Mirage", the character makes a couple of hasty visits to a psychiatrist while trying to understand what is going on with his mind, and it is during the first such visit that he comes to grips with the fact that he is suffering from amnesia. The psychiatrist helps him to understand what is going on with his mind, but there is no psychoanalysis. Interestingly, whereas psychiatry is treated with due respect in the movie made in the '40s, the psychiatrist is practically made fun of in the movie made in the '60s.

Both movies are certainly entertaining to watch, and anyone who has found either of these two movies enjoyable will almost certainly enjoy the other one as well. You may also derive some satisfaction from the untangling of your memories of these two uncannily similar movies.