![]() ![]() Michael Caine plays Harry Palmer in this adaptation of Len Deighton’s classic spy debut, a story of foreign agents kidnapping scientists and ransacking their brains for data. ![]() From the eponymous novel by Richard Condon. This classic story of brainwashing, mother love and political assassination, based on the novel by Richard Condon that owes perhaps a little too much to Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, was made into a masterful thriller by director John Frankenheimer and stars Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury and Frank Sinatra – and later into a rather less amazing flick by Jonathan Demme starring Denzel Washington and Meryl Streep. THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (John Frankenheimer, 1962) From the novel ‘From Among the Dead’ by Boileau-Narcejac. Hitchcock s classic movie sees James Stewart as an ex cop hired to shadow an old school friend’s wife (Kim Novak) who seems obsessed by the life and death of an old relative even though she claims to have no knowledge about the woman. I reviewed the original book here and the amazing movie in my post, Vertigo – Best Film Ever?. But just who is kidding who? Enormously entertaining is highly disjointed at times (it was seriously messed around in post production), this is scene by scene and shot by shot a fascinating and endlessly entertaining melodrama. This extravaganza by Orson Welles (he writes, directs, produces and stars in the title role) ducks and dives all over the Continent as a small time criminal is entrusted with discovering if there are any hidden skeletons in the previous life of Gregori Arkadin – a powerful and wealthy man who cannot remember what he did in his youth and wants to protect his daughter from finding out anything bad about him. It was one of director Roy Baker’s first films and one of his best. Mankiewicz, this is highly entertaining and available in a very decent and inexpensive DVD.Įric Ambler wrote the screenplay for this terrific murder mystery in which John Mills plays a man released from an asylum who starts to be assailed by past events he cannot yet remember. This is a classic film noir rendition of the story, with John Hodiak as the GI who returns home with no memory of who he is but soon realises that there are those who are out to get him. From the novel ‘The House of Dr Edwardes’ by Frances Beeding. Based on the Francis Beeding novel The House of Doctor Edwardes (to be reviewed at Fedora very shortly), this movie is perhaps the best-known of its kind even if the analysis is more than a little simple-minded – just marvel at the allure of the stars, the beautiful cinematography and the Salvador Dali inspired dream sequence. Ingrid Bergman is the new doctor at a psychiatric hospital who starts to believe that her new boss, Gregory Peck, may not be who he says he is – and it turns out he isn’t too sure either. From the eponymous novel by James Hilton. Not sure if this can really be classed as a mystery but there is a moment, at the halfway mark, when Greer Garson walks though a door that counts as one of my favourite surprises in all of cinema which, in the cuckoo-land logic of the story, makes total sense. The plot is utterly and charmingly insane with a man falling in love and then forgetting it as a result of shell-shock and his innamorata going to ludicrous extremes to get him back again. This classic romance of forgotten identities from author James Hilton was turned into a plush four carat star vehicle for Greer Garson and Ronald Colman in the grand MGM manner. For many this is the best of the Chans from the 1930s and with its great guest star and plush production values, it’s easy to see why. Now he is on the run and as his memory starts to return, goes back to the opera house to perform his old standby (composed by Oscar Levant no less) to uncover a murderer, with the help of Warner Oland as Chan and Keye Luke as his number one son. The following is offered as part of the Tuesday’s Overlooked Film meme hosted by Todd Mason over at his Sweet Freedom blog and you should head over there to see the many other fascinating titles that have been selected.īoris Karloff plays Gravelle, a once famed opera star who has been locked up in an insane asylum suffering from amnesia for the past thirteen years. So, in strict chronological order, we begin with … I’m not sure they are necessarily the best, but they are some of the most distinctive that I’ve seen over the last 40 years or so. Here is a guide to my top 20 favourite movies dealing with the theme of amnesia, real or feigned, medically sound or pure Hollywood moonshine. Whether it’s the intrigue of Jason Bourne adventures or the farcical escapades of the Hangover films, memory loss remains a popular narrative device in fiction in general and at the cinema in particular.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |