rodrig58 Well, both ends in K, but Hitchcock has more letters...you know what I mean? I have read the other opinions here, all talking about the superlative movie. Of those 50 reviews, only 8 are correct about "Mirage": 1)Robert J. Maxwell ([email protected]) from Deming, New Mexico, USA, 2)tireless_crank from Maryland, 3)planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida, 4)worldofgabby from United States, 5)airfoyle from United States, 6)Muskox53 from Buffalo, NY, 7)kenjha, 8)J. Spurlin from United States. Only they approach the truth, even put the point on it. I've seen a lot of movies directed by Edward Dmytryk, usually honorable decent movies. The best, in my humble opinion, is "The Mountain", with Spencer Tracy, which I have seen many times with great pleasure. With this "Mirage" he tried to mimic Hitchcock, which can not be imitated. Many others have tried, no one can match the great master (Brian De Palma has come closest). "Mirage" has all the Hitchcock brand items, the same recipe, but not Hitchcock is the cook, you know what I mean? The actors all strive, but I'm sorry to say it, the movie is a failure. In vain we have the super-great Walter Matthau, the super-natural George Kennedy. Kevin McCarthy and Jack Weston are just OK, the same as in all their other films. Diane Baker is young and beautiful. She is also a very good actress, but unconvincing here because the script is chaotic and contradictory. Gregory Peck I never liked too much, in all the movies he's a constipated guy, like he's always got a big carrot in his ass. And then, the same verbal tics, pauses, eyes, moves, body language, the same, always the same. Sorry Peck lovers, I prefer Lee Marvin for instance. And the music by the great Quincy Jones, is not great. Instead of trying to copy Hitchcock, Mr. Dmytryk better have done "The Mountain Part 2". 4 stars, because of Walter Matthau and George Kennedy.

sonthert This movie certainly deserves to be called an action movie, albeit a 1965 action movie.Gregory Peck stars in this hidden gem, other notables such as Kevin McCarthy ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), George Kennedy ("Airport", "Cool Hand Luke"), Walter Matthau ("The Taking of Pelham 123", "Hopscotch") and even a small walk-on by Franklin Cover ("The Jeffersons" TV Series). This is one of five movies that George Kennedy and Walter Matthau overlap on. I like both actors, so this movie got instant extra points.The movie has the tone of a Rod Serling Screenplay. Its very reminiscent in style to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or the "Twilight Zone", addressing nuclear war, world peace, civil liberties and other humanistic themes. Its not a cowboy movie where a guy gets shot and the main characters just step over the dead guy.The story revolves around a physiochemist who invents a way to eliminate nuclear fallout and radiation. He realizes that big business will use it to make nuclear bombs get used more since the risk of fallout is what makes nuclear weapons unwise. His dedication to world peace and ending war makes him decide to make the formula disappear. Gregory Peck's character Stillwell finds himself caught up in a case of mistaken identity, somewhat like Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and confusion. He seems to remember some things very clearly, and other things he can't remember at all as if he had his mind wiped by hypnosis or some foul play. He continues to try and unravel how the events surrounding the disappearance of this formula and the death of a noted leader for world peace have in common. He goes to the police, who are uninterested in the case since he can't remember key elements about himself like where he is from. He goes to a psychiatrist who tells him that his story and symptoms are unbelievable. He then contacts a private detective named Caselle played by Walter Matthau who tries to help him, after Caselle decides that Stillwell's incredible story may be true. All the while a mysterious woman named Shela, played by Diane Baker who seems to know more about Stillwell than he does keeps dropping in, seemingly to keep Stillwell out of (or in) even more serious trouble.The acting is excellent, the story excellent. The ending is a little questionable, but obviously somebody's allegorical message about war or not submitting to authority. Well worth watching.

robert-temple-1 This is one of my favourite films, a true classic. I saw it in the cinema when it was first released, and have seen it many times since then. I would rate it as the best of the many 'amnesia films', and I believe I have seen most of them (and reviewed several). It has recently been released on DVD in a Gregory Peck box set, and it is worth getting the set just to get MIRAGE. It contains one of Peck's finest performances, in my opinion. (Perhaps his best of all was in ON THE BEACH, 1959, see my review.) This is one of the best-scripted and best-directed psychological thrillers ever made by someone who was not called Hitchcock, and it is not surprising that the brilliant Ed Dmytryk was the director, and here he really surpasses himself. He has tremendous fun with some expressionist scenes early on, when the lights of a New York skyscraper have been cut off and Gregory Peck is descending 27 flights of stairs. (I know what that's like, as I used to climb and descend 26 flights to my first American publisher in the Flat Iron Building.) The only aspects of the film which I find disappointing are the art direction and sets. Walter Matthau gives one of his finest sardonic performances, as a hopeless detective trying to sort out Gregory Peck's dilemma. And Diane Baker is at her absolute peak here, in a part that could have been written for her, she is so perfect in it. She glisters like diamonds. This film just 'clicks' in every way. It has a strong story, an overwhelming atmosphere of mystery and intrigue and suspense, and the harrowing dilemma of watching Gregory Peck try to remember who he is and why people are trying to kill him. The interesting twist is that Diane Baker knows perfectly well who he is, but refuses to tell him because she says that is the only way he can stay alive, for as long as the sinister and powerful figure known as 'the Major' thinks he can't remember anything, Peck is safe. We do not see 'the Major' until the latter part of the film. He is played by Leif Erickson, and is suitably menacing. Kevin McCarthy gives stalwart support as 'Josephson'. McCarthy was in just about every film that was made in English in those days, it seemed at the time. He was just 'everywhere', and he always did a good job, which I suppose is why he was 'everywhere'. The mysterious figure known as Charles Calvin, whose death in falling from the 27th floor begins the film (but he reappears in flashbacks), is played by Martin Abel, who was perfect for the part. I had the opportunity to meet and chat with him briefly the year after this film came out, and I was curious to see what he was like, as I was so keen on this film. Well, I can tell you. He was just like he was on the screen, a likable and smiley fellow of a certain age. We had no chance to discuss the meaning of life, as this was a brief encounter. He's the only member of this cast I ever met, which is a shame, as I was dead keen on Diane Baker and would have followed her across the Sahara on foot. The worst film Diane Baker was ever in (though she herself was charming as usual) was probably KRAKATOA EAST OF JAVA, if only because Krakatoa is West of Java. (True!!) I saw it in Cinerama. Does anybody remember Cinerama? The best thing about Diane Baker is that she is still around and doing great things. Well done! So many beautiful actresses die young (Natalie Wood for instance, aged 43), isn't a relief when one doesn't? George Kennedy is superb in this film as a really threatening 'heavy' called Willard. (Where do they get these names?) Willard would just as soon kill you as look at you. And that brings me to this question: why does the human species produce so many people of that sort? Aren't they the very opposite of a survival mechanism? It's enough to turn an evolutionist into a creationist, just thinking about all the Willards in the world, but then of course the world would have had to be created by The Great Archon, or Sakla, but I do not wish to discuss Gnosticism when Diane Baker is around, lest she and we blush at the thought that anyone less than perfect could have 'created' her, which would have been impossible (so that settles that theological argument!). I must just stop thinking about Diane Baker and her charms for long enough to say a bit more about Gregory Peck. We all know he was the 'Mr. Integrity' of the screen, all square-jawed and earnest and tolerant and with that look of reliability in his eyes. (Yes, I would buy a used car from that man.) But what is less realized is that it was because he was the kind of guy everybody felt they could trust that he could be so convincing about being an amnesia victim. Amnesia is one of the most fascinating of subjects, because it would seem that we only know who we are if we can remember who we are. (This is the dilemma faced by all those with relatives with Aldzheimers.) Amnesia is a never-failing recipe for a successful thriller film, especially when the person with the amnesia is on the run but can't remember who is trying to kill him or why. Just think about it: most nights when you go to sleep you cease to be you, and you become an anonymous dreamer. In other words: what does it mean to have an identity? And more to the point, what does it mean to lose it? MIRAGE is a film which really stirs up all of these deep anxieties.

J. Spurlin David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) makes his way down several flights of stairs in the dark after the lights suddenly go out in his office building. He is accompanied by an attractive woman (Diane Baker). Thanks to his flashlight, he can see her, but she can't see him. Still, she assumes she knows him by his voice and talks to him about someone named The Major, as if he should know who that is. The day becomes stranger when he gets outside the building and discovers that someone has apparently committed suicide by jumping out of a window. And then, when he gets to his apartment building, things get dangerous. Within the next two days, David will encounter a chubby gunman (Jack Weston), a rude maintenance man with horn-rimmed glasses (George Kennedy), an abrasive psychiatrist (Robert H. Harris, giving an off-putting performance) and an inexperienced but shrewd private detective (Walter Matthau). He'll also meet up again and again with the attractive woman. Most important, he'll encounter himself - because who he thinks he is and who he really is are two different things.The opening ten minutes of this mystery-thriller, directed by Edward Dmytryk, promise a great ride. But the story is structured so that things become murkier - rather than more tantalizing - as it progresses, until there are so many bizarre circumstances to explain that we're pretty sure by the end we won't believe the explanation or care. The likable Diane Baker, a girl-next-door type, is all wrong for a character who should be mysterious. Quincy Jones's awful score sounds like TV movie pap, further interfering with our pleasure.