Mirage (film)
Encyclopedia
Mirage is a 1965 thriller directed by Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk
Edward Dmytryk was an American film director who was amongst the Hollywood Ten, a group of blacklisted film industry professionals who served time in prison for being in contempt of Congress during the McCarthy-era 'red scare'.-Early life:Dmytryk was born in Grand Forks, British Columbia, Canada,...

 from a script by Peter Stone
Peter Stone
Peter Hess Stone was an American writer for theater, television and movies.-Life and career:Stone was born in Los Angeles. His mother, Hilda , was a film writer, and his father, John Stone was the writer and producer of many silent films, including Shirley Temple and Charlie Chan movies...

 (based on a book by Howard Fast
Howard Fast
Howard Melvin Fast was an American novelist and television writer. Fast also wrote under the pen names E. V. Cunningham and Walter Ericson.-Early life:Fast was born in New York City...

), starring Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

, Diane Baker
Diane Baker
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...

, Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...

, and Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy (actor)
Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film, and television actor, who appeared in over two hundred television and film roles. For his role in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of...

, and released by Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...

.

Plot

After emerging from a blacked-out skyscraper from which a famous humanitarian apparently jumped to his death, cost accountant David Stillwell (Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

) is stunned to discover that gunmen are chasing him and he has no idea why. Stillwell gradually realizes that he suffers from "unconscious amnesia", and that this illness has caused him to apparently black out the events of the past two years. The problem is that a prickly psychiatrist he consults assures him that it is impossible for unconscious amnesia to last more than a day or two.

As he furiously tries to piece together the puzzle of his life, Stillwell comes across Shela (Diane Baker
Diane Baker
Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...

), who implies that they have been involved in a relationship. She is vague and evasive, insisting that not remembering is the only thing keeping him alive. He apparently has something a mysterious figure known only as "The Major" wants, but he doesn't know what it is. He recalls working as a "cost accountant" for Unidyne, the company Charles Calvin (Walter Abel), a wealthy (and apparently suicidal) humanitarian whose "nightmare ended just as [Stillwell's] began".

Nothing adds up. Stillwell's life is threatened by mysterious men (George Kennedy
George Kennedy
George Harris Kennedy, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke , airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and...

 and Jack Weston). He engages the private detective Ted Caselle (Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...

), who is more willing than able, this being his first case. The case? Find out who David Stillwell is and why strangers are trying to kill him.

When Stillwell seeks out Calvin's widow to ask what killed him, she replies: "You did."

As his fog lifts, Stillwell comes to realize that he is not at all what he thought himself to be, "Cost Accountant" is a metaphor he used for his real work as a physical chemist. The Garrison Foundation he works for is actually a secret branch of Unidyne, and Stillwell's work is a method to neutralize radiation will allows radiation-free atomic bombs to be made. His amnesia was induced when he tried to burn the only existing copy of his work, with Calvin falling to his death during an attempt to grab it.

This Hitchcockian screenplay is written by Peter Stone
Peter Stone
Peter Hess Stone was an American writer for theater, television and movies.-Life and career:Stone was born in Los Angeles. His mother, Hilda , was a film writer, and his father, John Stone was the writer and producer of many silent films, including Shirley Temple and Charlie Chan movies...

 as a follow-up to the hugely successful Charade. Matthau and Kennedy are holdovers from Charade.

Cast

  • Gregory Peck
    Gregory Peck
    Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...

     as Stillwell
  • Diane Baker
    Diane Baker
    Diane Carol Baker is an American actress who has appeared in motion pictures and on television since 1959.-Early life:...

     as Shela
  • Walter Matthau
    Walter Matthau
    Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...

     as Caselle
  • Kevin McCarthy
    Kevin McCarthy (actor)
    Kevin McCarthy was an American stage, film, and television actor, who appeared in over two hundred television and film roles. For his role in the 1951 film version of Death of a Salesman, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of...

     as Josephson
  • Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

     as the Major
  • George Kennedy
    George Kennedy
    George Harris Kennedy, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke , airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and...

     as Willard
  • Jack Weston as Lester
  • Walter Abel
    Walter Abel
    Walter Abel was an American stage and film character actor. His eyes were brown and his height was five foot ten inches....

     as Charles Calvin
  • Robert H. Harris
    Robert H. Harris
    Robert H. Harris was an American character actor born in New York City, New York.-Career:...

     as Dr. Broden

Filming

Filming took place on a number of locations in the New York Financial District. The fictitious Unidyne company is headquartered at 2 Broadway
2 Broadway
2 Broadway is an office building located on Broadway in New York City.- History :The plot is located next to the historic Bowling Green. The building that used to stand there was the Produce Exchange Building, which was a representative structure constructed out of brick with terracotta decorations...

. Another key location in the film is the walk with Peck and Baker through Battery Park
Battery Park
Battery Park is a 25-acre public park located at the Battery, the southern tip of Manhattan Island in New York City, facing New York Harbor. The Battery is named for artillery batteries that were positioned there in the city's early years in order to protect the settlement behind them...

 to City Pier A
City Pier A
City Pier A is a municipal pier in the Hudson River at Battery Park near the southern end of Manhattan in New York City. It has also been named Liberty Gateway.- History :...

.
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