The script is ridiculous. Gregory Peck plays the central character who has amnesia and wanders throughout NYC avoiding bad guys after him. Neither he nor the audience has any idea of the reason for anything in the pathetically poor script. However it's worth seeing for the actors and a good glimpse of Manhattan in 1964.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTY-L-l3KN8&t=4617s
I wasn't that impressed with the story either. It starts off intriguing then just develops into one big anti-climax. However, the supporting actors were awesome. I wish we got more of Matthau's character in this.
shareHowever, the supporting actors were awesome. I wish we got more of Matthau's character in this.
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Matthau's not in it nearly long enough. He noted that too, and noted that by killing off his likeable character so soon, the movie would lose box office.
Evidently , it did lose box office. But who knows why.
Quite a male supporting cast:
Walter Matthau -- whose name alone covers the screen "And WALTER MATTHAU AS TED CASSELLE." They KNEW he was about to be a star.
George Kennedy -- the epitome -- both here and in Charade two years before -- of ornery, seething anger and murderous rage. How funny that Kennedy would eventually put a blond toupee on and play nice, big likeable guys(Airport.)
Jack Weston -- the 60's funny/dramatic character guy personified (Martin Balsam may have had more gravitas, but couldn't play funny as well.)
Kevin McCarthy -- his "boobie baby" hipster corporate drone(who proves to be a SCIENTIST; a smart guy) flits around the story until called upon to be a hero, a great "reveal."
Leif Erickson -- a frighteningly formidable old military man -- the epitome of military-industrial complex evil.
I wasn't that impressed with the story either. It starts off intriguing then just develops into one big anti-climax
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This was exactly why film director Alfred Hitchcock told his interviewer, Francois Truffaut, that he quit a movie from a novel called "The Wreck of the Mary Deare."
Hitch told Truffaut that the story started with such a powerful mystery to be solved("Why is one man alone on a huge ship, with no crew?") that the more the story went along, the less interesting the solution was.
Hitch told Truffaut that the story started with such a powerful mystery to be solved("Why is one man alone on a huge ship, with no crew?") that the more the story went along, the less interesting the solution was.
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It's easy to come up with grand mysteries like that. Solving them in a way that doesn't feel cheap or banal is another deal.
I felt that way about Jordan Peele's US. Loved the premise, but when they explained everything it was such a letdown.
Hitchcock was against whodunnits for the same reason. "Its just a puzzle," he said, and when the killer is announced, the movie really never works again.
I disagree a little there. Guessing who dunnit is fun, and you only need to see the movie once.
Interesting: Hitchcock scuttled a sixties movie called "The Three Hostages" because the villain hypnotized people, and Hitch told Truffaut "I don't think hypnotism holds water with audiences. They don't believe it."
Hey, Hitch: GET OUT.
Though I agree with him...
I agree with you here too- I think we have similar tastes, any great mysteries/whodunnits to recommend?
shareAgreed, the setup and mystery are very intriguing but it doesn't live up to the premise.
shareFormerly ecarle...I had to change usernames to access the site.
But its the same guy responding to you:
I agree with you here too- I think we have similar tastes, any great mysteries/whodunnits to recommend?
My response:
That's hard to say. For instance, for many years I remembered this very movie here -- Mirage -- and its nightmarish premise, its "hip" flash cutting on flashbacks, and that great cast under Gregory Peck -- Walter Matthau above all.
So I would STILL recommend "Mirage" even though, in later years, I found various plotholes and/or weak writing(Matthau leaving the gun with the unconscious George Kennedy , leaving him on the floor -- and not calling the police!)
I'm not sure how many great whodunnits have been made for the screen, but I'll offer:
Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express(made twice)
Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile (made twice)
and the original whodunnit "The Last of Shiela"(1973) written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins -- both of whom had made their names in other arts.
The two "Knives Out" movies of recent vintage have their fans -- with Daniel Craig as the Southern Sleuth.
From the 60's, "Charade" is pretty good at hiding the identity of the killer and the location of stolen loot.
Alfred Hitchcock swore he didn't make whodunnits, but there are mysteries to be solved in North by Northwest and Psycho, anyway. And I would recommend ANY Hitchocck movie.
Aside from whodunnits and Hitchcock, these recommendations for thrillers:
Cape Fear 1962 (and 1991 remake).
The Manchurian Candidate 1962
Charade 1963
The Prize 1963
Mirage 1965
Arabesque 1966
Wait Until Dark 1967
Klute 1971
The Last of Shiela 1973
Jagged Edge 1985
Misery 1990
Silence of the Lambs 1991
Fargo 1996
Of your list I'd agree with
Cape Fear 1962 (not the reboot)
Manchurian Candidate (not the reboot)
Charade
Wait until dark
Jagged Edge
Yeah, the cast saved the movie. The plot is just too complicated for its own good.
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