Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 9-August-09
Spoiler Rating: Low

Mirage (1965)

Mirage is a good name for this Gregory Peck thriller since the plot is found to lack substance upon close inspection. Its entertainment value comes from sitting at a comfortable distance watching what will happen next without expecting major insights or surprises. Fortunately, casual observation is a pleasure with Peck on hand. He is introduced as a "cost accountant" who works in a skyscraper where the electricity has gone out as the movie begins. While his colleagues flock to common areas to fondle stenographers under cover of darkness, he decides to navigate the stairs using a small flashlight. En route he meets a pretty woman (Diane Baker) who speaks to him familiarly though he does not know who she is. This starts a series of strange occurrences which lead him to believe that he might be crazy and is definitely in danger.

The reality-gone-askew idea is an effective hook, and Peck (who explored it before in Hitchcock's Spellbound) manifests a solid mix of determination and confusion. He returns to his office and finds it missing (no door, just a blank wall) and reenacts his trip down the staircase only to find three basement floors missing as well. Prompted by a psychiatrist, he realizes that the last two years of his life are similarly gone; he cannot remember what he has been doing. Without friends or family (that he recalls, anyway), he reaches out to an untried private detective (Walter Matthau) for help. Initially humoring the nutjob for cash, the detective soon accepts that something sinister is afoot because Peck is followed by goons (Jack Weston, George Kennedy) and the woman from the stairs. They all claim fealty to a mysterious personage called "The Major," who wants something from Peck and is willing to kill to get it.

The pieces fall into place after chase scenes and flashbacks that flit through Peck's amnesiac mind. Borrowing liberally from a famous scene in The Third Man, the plot comes to rest on a Cold War/capitalistic point which allows Peck to emerge a hero and leaves room for a touch of romance. If Mirage were remade today it would end with more action at an impressive site like a national monument, which might be considered an improvement. Yet if it is not grand illusion, Peck's picture is at least agreeable fancy.

Copyright © 2009 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.