Mirage
Mirage
| 29 October 1965 (USA)
Mirage Trailers

In New York City, David Stillwell struggles to recover his memory before the people who are trying to kill him succeed. Who is he, who are they, and why is he surrounded by murder?

Reviews
Actuakers One of my all time favorites.
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
grantss After an office party, David Stillwell discovers that he has no memory of certain people, people who should be familiar to him, or of anything about his life from more than two years previously. Then he discovers that the same night his boss, the famous businessman and philanthropist Charles Calvin, committed suicide by jumping out of his office window. Now some violent thugs are out to get him. They work for a shadowy figure known simply as The Major.Interesting, but not compelling. The plot has a Hitchcockian feel to it, but the movie lacks a few things to get into Hitchcock's league. The plot isn't watertight and often feels contrived. Things happen rather conveniently and sometimes without much plausibility. Director Edward Dmytryck doesn't really build the suspense well (Hitchcock was superb at this) and the movie seems to just be on auto-pilot at times.This said, it is reasonably intriguing. Gregory Peck puts in a solid performance as Stillwell though at times seems miscast, especially during the tough-guy scenes. Good supporting cast which includes Walter Matthau and George Kennedy.
Robert J. Maxwell Diane Baker, mysterious former lover of amnesiac Gregory Peck, is awfully appealing in this film. Man, she is comely, resplendent. She looks like the girl in high school that all the guys dreamed about before they went to sleep -- only she was hooked up with the captain of the football team. Those kinds of looks often fade rather quickly, but hers didn't. She was elegant in "The Silence of the Lambs." I don't want to go through the entire plot here because it's rather complicated and must have been covered elsewhere. Peck is a cost accountant at a firm in New York. Only he's not. He just thinks he is. But clues -- major and minor -- lead him to believe that something is very wrong with the fit between him and his milieu.When a gunman shows up in his apartment insisting that he, Peck, is due to take a flight to Barbadoes at the order of "the major", Peck decides he must do something about his elective ignorance, which looks like retrograde amnesia. He goes to the police but when they ask him for his DOB and place of birth, he storms out -- because he can't remember. A shrink throws him out of the office. Finally he latches on at random to Walter Matthau as a novice detective who takes Peck seriously in a comic way.Diane Baker shows up periodically to reluctantly give him tantalizing clues to his identity.. She'd give her life for him, she claims, not unconvincingly. But then why the hell doesn't she tell him what's going on, because she apparently knows all about it? Instead her answers are elliptical. Peck is complicit in the rather clumsy writing. Peck: "Who is this 'major' and why does he want to talk to me. I can't remember anything!" Baker: "But don't you understand? That's the only thing that's keeping you alive!" Neither Peck nor the viewer are standing under a Niagara of information about this puzzle. The logic behind his investigatory techniques is weak. When Peck's first shrink throws him out, why doesn't the tormented Peck go to a different, more accommodating shrink? It's the fault of the writer, Peter Stone. The general aroma of paranoia -- some terrible plot is at hand -- is characteristic of the work of Howard Fast ("Seven Days in May," etc.) The climax straightens everything out but at times it seems like it's been a long slog with too few set ups. I won't spell it all out but Peck turns out not to be a cost accountant. Peck could never be a cost accountant, anymore than he could be a short order cook.
ringfire211 Wow!! A real treat this one turned out to be! I was quite underwhelmed by Edward Dmytryk's (who's a Ukrainian by the way - like me!) THE CAINE MUTINY but Dmytryk really impressed me with this obscure gem. I already sang quite a bit of praise for Stanley Donen's mystery/spy/comedy films like CHARADE and ARABESQUE but I gotta say that Dmytryk's MIRAGE actually trumps them both! It's now one of my favorites from 1965 - only THUNDERBALL, DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, and FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE are better. Anyhoo, Gregory Peck does a great job playing an amnesiac while Walter Matthau delivers another superbly humorous performance (as he did in CHARADE) as a private investigator whose first case just happens to be Peck. Throw in a solid supporting cast consisting of Diane Baker, Kevin McCarthy, Leif Erickson, Jack Weston, and George Kennedy and a nice jazzy score by Quincy Jones and you've got one heck of a mystery thriller!!
kenjha A man suffering from amnesia must elude killers while trying to remember why he is being targeted. This thriller is a little frustrating to watch because, like the protagonist, the viewer has no clue what is going on for much of the movie. While somewhat intriguing initially, it soon becomes tiresome. When the truth is finally revealed, it is not only stupid and underwhelming but also undermines some of the plot points from earlier in the film. Peck is OK if somewhat dull as the amnesia victim. Baker is alluring as the love interest. Mathau is terrific as a private detective but his role is too brief. The cinematography is drab and the direction is uninspired.