romanorum1 The Unidyne building in Manhattan sustains a blackout. As folks slowly evacuate the premises, David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) and an elusive woman (Shela = Diane Baker) briefly converse. Their exchange appears awkward as we are in the dark about the situation (excuse the pun). Although Shela knows David he does not know her. Outside a man lies dead on the street; apparently he jumped out of a 27-story window. He was Charles Calvin (Walter Abel), who worked for world peace. Shela departs as David heads for a drink; the bartender tells him that he has not seen him lately. David, apparently a cost accountant at Unidyne, appears confused with a mental blackout. As David enters his apartment building, Lester (Jack Weston) pulls a pistol on him. In the apartment he tells Stillwell to pack some bags as he needs to catch an airplane to Barbados. Stillwell though is soon able to turn the tables against his opponent, who is knocked out. David drags him outside near the elevator. Then when David attempts to prepare his supper, he notes that his refrigerator is as empty as his briefcase. Josephson (Kevin McCarthy), a workplace associate, calls to inquire about his upcoming cruise, of which David knows nothing. When Stillwell goes to the local police station, he cannot remember key facts about himself, like date of birth and telephone number. Frustrated, he leaves. He then calls a consulting psychiatrist by the name of Broden (Robert Harris); on his way he runs into Shela at the Central Park Zoo. Their conversation is still stilted. As they separate, Shela warns him, "Be careful, David." A caged panther growls. Ah, more symbolism: David is in trouble.David tells the abrasive psychiatrist, Doc Broden, that he may be insane because of memory lapse. He feels he has had unconscious amnesia for two years. "Impossible," says Broden, who chides him and kicks him out as unconscious amnesia lasts only for a day or two. David, spotting the AAA Detective Agency, hires Ted Caselle (Walther Matthau). David is his first case. Back in the apartment David's refrigerator is now full although the coat closet is empty. Caselle surmises that David is being manipulated by someone, and reveals that he spotted a man following them on the city streets. Then there is a confrontation in the building basement with maintenance / hit-man Willard (George Kennedy), who shoots at them. But Willard is eventually cold-cocked. Caselle ties the beginning of David's dilemma with Calvin's suicide, as the two events occurred almost simultaneously. When David sees Shela for the third time, she says that they had previously dated. Shela also states that the "major" keeps him alive because he needs information. But she still does not answer all of his questions directly. Halfway into the feature we are still in the dark.Shela leads David to doorman Turtle's apartment building where Lester, the first gunman, awaits. Lester leaves and David finds the doorman dead in the bathtub. Shela returns as police sirens are heard. David is not happy that she set him up. Although she answers to the major, she retorts that the latter calls the shots. Shela also reminds him that she never left him alone. Both escape before further problems ensue. Caselle awaits at David's place. He tells David that he investigated his real employer: It is Garrison Laboratories of Brewster, California. Furthermore, the company is part of the Charles Calvin Peace Foundation, a non-profit organization. Dedicated to world peace, the head of Garrison Labs is Sylvester Josephson, formerly of Unidyne, a nuclear manufacturer. Meanwhile Shela, who obviously knows the apartment well, prepares coffee. After David leaves, the action picks up. Lester and Willard pull weapons on David but he escapes as psychotic Willard inadvertently plugs Lester. However, David is soon chagrined when he finds his confidante Caselle strangled in his office. Still pursued by Willard, David experiences flashback images. In a park tunnel David hears Josephson calling out. But Willard shoots at and almost hits David, who again flees. He bullies his way back to psychiatrist Broden, who reluctantly agrees to consult with him. David tells Broden about one particular flashback, the one with him under a tree in conversation with Calvin at Garrison Labs in California. He begins to remember that he is not a cost accountant, but a physio-chemist who works there. He only returned to NYC two days earlier, but remains uncertain why he traveled in the first place. Broden declares David really does not want to remember although he is really just bruised, not sick. David visits with Calvin's widow, who believes that he killed her husband. While David protests this allegation he discovers the name of the "major," a Unidyne executive named Crawford Gilcuddy (Leif Erickson). David immediately heads for Gilcuddy's quarters, where he confronts cohorts Willard and Josephson, and later even Shela; Willard assaults him before the major interferes, an action that clears David's amnesia. Previously David had discovered the formula for neutralizing radiation, to make a "clean" nuclear bomb. But David, a pacifist, has realized that a "clean" bomb may encourage its use by world powers. Therefore he will not share his secret even though Gilcuddy wants it, as did Calvin (but only for peaceful uses). We learn Calvin had accidentally fallen through the window after briefly struggling with David, who had burned the document containing his formula. The death so traumatized David that he became temporarily amnesiac. Meanwhile Josephson has Willard's gun. Gilcuddy orders Josephson to shield him to safeguard his future. David tells the indecisive Josephson to discount that statement, as Gilcuddy has already ordered the killing of two men ("Dammit ... Commit!"). Tortuously Josephson turns the weapon on Gilcuddy and the police are called. David and Shela are reunited. Although not everything is explained, the NYC setting is always a plus. And the marvelous Walter Matthau steals the picture. Despite a rather weak ending, this is a recommended suspense thriller.

Robert J. Maxwell Diane Baker, mysterious former lover of amnesiac Gregory Peck, is awfully appealing in this film. Man, she is comely, resplendent. She looks like the girl in high school that all the guys dreamed about before they went to sleep -- only she was hooked up with the captain of the football team. Those kinds of looks often fade rather quickly, but hers didn't. She was elegant in "The Silence of the Lambs." I don't want to go through the entire plot here because it's rather complicated and must have been covered elsewhere. Peck is a cost accountant at a firm in New York. Only he's not. He just thinks he is. But clues -- major and minor -- lead him to believe that something is very wrong with the fit between him and his milieu.When a gunman shows up in his apartment insisting that he, Peck, is due to take a flight to Barbadoes at the order of "the major", Peck decides he must do something about his elective ignorance, which looks like retrograde amnesia. He goes to the police but when they ask him for his DOB and place of birth, he storms out -- because he can't remember. A shrink throws him out of the office. Finally he latches on at random to Walter Matthau as a novice detective who takes Peck seriously in a comic way.Diane Baker shows up periodically to reluctantly give him tantalizing clues to his identity.. She'd give her life for him, she claims, not unconvincingly. But then why the hell doesn't she tell him what's going on, because she apparently knows all about it? Instead her answers are elliptical. Peck is complicit in the rather clumsy writing. Peck: "Who is this 'major' and why does he want to talk to me. I can't remember anything!" Baker: "But don't you understand? That's the only thing that's keeping you alive!" Neither Peck nor the viewer are standing under a Niagara of information about this puzzle. The logic behind his investigatory techniques is weak. When Peck's first shrink throws him out, why doesn't the tormented Peck go to a different, more accommodating shrink? It's the fault of the writer, Peter Stone. The general aroma of paranoia -- some terrible plot is at hand -- is characteristic of the work of Howard Fast ("Seven Days in May," etc.) The climax straightens everything out but at times it seems like it's been a long slog with too few set ups. I won't spell it all out but Peck turns out not to be a cost accountant. Peck could never be a cost accountant, anymore than he could be a short order cook.

A_Different_Drummer 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.

moonspinner55 A New York cost accountant realizes his entire existence for the past two years may be a sham, and that his "unconscious amnesia" may be connected to the apparent suicide of a World Peace advocate who fell from a window during a power blackout in the accountant's office building. Peter Stone's screenplay is fun at first, looping itself in knots and causing great consternation for our hero, appealingly played by Gregory Peck. The presentation is stylish, and there's some effective editing throughout (blending together the past with the present), but Stone doesn't play fair with the audience. As bodies (and plot-holes) begin to add up, our expectations for an exciting, satisfying wrap-up are increasingly dimmed. When we finally do get to the denouement, it plays like standard television stuff. Well-dressed and designed picture has excellent location work and a solid supporting cast (despite moments of over-acting). A near-miss. ** from ****