Great Film overall

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Yeah, OK, the IMDb rating system only goes to 10, but I was trying to make a point. The point is that this film is one of the most unusual, technically perfect, and entertaining suspense thrillers ever made, and deserves to be remembered as such. I also "get" that for the younger generation, the fact that it is B&W, and the fact that it stars a guy who in his later years used to hang around the Oscars a lot, backstage, is not a sterling endorsement. Tough. This little gem, directed by the incomparable Edward Dmytryk, is a thrill ride from the open. Not a thrill ride with CGI, but with acting, and personality. Within moments off the top, you, the viewer, are "sympatico" with Peck, and you begin the voyage of discovery he is on, trying to figure out what is what, and who is who. Walter Matthau in a rare non-comic part, wonderfully menacing, and Diane Baker being feminine and mysterious without disrobing .... this is one not to be missed.

Mirage is directed by Edward Dmytryk and adapted by Peter Stone from a book written by Howard Fast. It stars Gregory Peck, Diane Baker, Walter Matthau, Kevin McCarthy, Leif Erickson and George Kennedy. Music is scored by Quincy Jones and cinematography by Joseph MacDonald.David Stillwell (Peck) finds he is suffering from Unconscious Amnesia and that he has blacked out the events of the previous two years. That's rare, but Stillwell must find out what happened because he might have a lover, has shifty characters after him and he may even have committed murder?20 years after appearing in the tricksy and turny psychological thriller Spellbound for Alfred Hitchcock, Gregory Peck jumps into the same type of shoes with a modicum of success. It's a little too contrived for its own good, with the odd character serving to the plot as god knows what? Seriously, what is Baker doing here? While the weak ending doesn't pay off on the suspense and mystery that had previously been well orchestrated by Dmytryk. On the plus side is the shadowy black and white photography by MacDonald, giving the film an edge, and the use of real New York locations lend the film some serio worth.Matthau slips in and steals the film from an efficient Peck, and Kennedy and McCarthy score well as muscle and shifty respectively. It's not essential as a Peck or Dmytryk piece, or as a politico/mystery thriller, but enough interest within to keep it above average and Matthau more than makes it worth while. 6/10

Once you watch this movie about a mysterious amnesiac you will never forget it. It has some of the snappiest dialog this side of Casablanca. The script is fantastic and the imagery is iconic. In this and other respects it follows in the Hitchcock tradition, most of all North by Northwest, in which Cary Grant Grant must figure out who he is, or rather who the bad guys think he is. And, like Mirage, there is a beautiful femme fatale who is on the side of the bad guys, more or less. A key part of this Hitch formula is to take a fairly normal guy and put him in James Bond's shoes, so to speak, and see how long he stays alive. This shows up again in Silver Streak.As the viewer watches this unfold, the movie lays down a challenge: How could these seemingly impossible things have happened in a way that makes sense? Behind it all is the maguffin, the spy deus ex machina. I see some posters have complained about the weak ending, but I think the maguffin in Mirage is actually much stronger and relevant than that in North by Northwest which was nothing more than some xxxxxxx. (No, I'm not going to tell.)Every character is strongly etched, without becoming caricatures, like some more recent movies, particularly the menacing George Kennedy as Willard, and the often comedic Jack Weston as Lester. And who can forget House Jameson as the senior citizen hit man? But it is Walter Matthau who steals the show as newbie private eye with common sense and a conscience. Talk about avoiding stereotypes! He tries to give back half his fee, saying he's not worth it. This is one of Matthau's earliest major film roles, and still one of his most memorable. Another reason I love this film is the setting in Manhattan in the mid- 1960s, perhaps at its most picturesque point in recent history. I lived in a suburb, and often came into the city back then. The movie brings back the feel of the city at the time. And then there is the allusion to the great Northeast Blackout, a strange nightmarish experience that really happened.Obviously, I am trying to avoid giving away the plot, but don't worry, even after you know the ending, you will still enjoy watching the movie again. If you are lucky enough to find this on DVD, buy it because this is a rare movie, and one of those rare movies that you can watch over and over again over the years.

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.