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Does anybody recognise this film?

26 replies

Watchkeys · 02/10/2022 10:38

I watched it with my Mum when I was little. It was the first film for grown ups I 'understood', so it was a bit of a bonding thing for Mum and I. I can't remember what it was, though. Mum died years ago and I'd love to watch it again.

It's a bit Hitchcock (possibly actually Hitchcock?), feels very dark and ominous, and centres around a bloke who thinks he's going mad because his dreams and his waking life are crossing over. So, for example, he breaks his leg in a dream, and wakes up with his leg in plaster. It ends with him looking up at a street sign with an arrow pointing one way and an arrow pointing the other, and the two different place names make up the name of a person who's been part of driving him mad (Like 'Gwyneth' being on the left arrow and 'Paltrow' being on the right arrow)

Any thoughts? Gwyneth isn't relevant, it's older than her, and possibly black and white. I shall be eternally grateful if someone recognises this, it' been bothering me for years. Thank you!

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EmmaH2022 · 02/10/2022 10:44

I haven't seen it, but could it be Spellbound?

mrsjimhopper · 02/10/2022 10:50

Roughly what year did you watch it

nokitchen · 02/10/2022 10:53

Sounds like a Hitchcock to me

Interested in this thread?

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Films
LicoriceComfit · 02/10/2022 10:55

it sounds like a conflation of some Hitchcock ones, but Rear Window immediately popped to mind.

EmmaH2022 · 02/10/2022 10:56

LicoriceComfit · 02/10/2022 10:55

it sounds like a conflation of some Hitchcock ones, but Rear Window immediately popped to mind.

Oh yes! But doesn't he actually have a broken leg?

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Watchkeys · 02/10/2022 11:19

mrsjimhopper · 02/10/2022 10:50

Roughly what year did you watch it

Something like 83...

Thanks all, so far... :)

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nokitchen · 02/10/2022 12:01

Do you think it might have been a war film?

nokitchen · 02/10/2022 12:03

For some reason I'm thinking of the film 36 Hours

HairyMcLarie · 02/10/2022 12:05

All Sounds a bit Vanilla Sky to me but too late.

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Watchkeys · 02/10/2022 12:09

nokitchen · 02/10/2022 12:01

Do you think it might have been a war film?

I think it was more set in American city life... I can't imagine my Mum wanting to watch war films, really.

Just realised that if nobody comes up with a definitive answer, I'll have to watch all the suggestions. My partner and I are quite excited about watching these old films as the autumn draws in!

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Dimsumbun · 02/10/2022 12:12

Accent of the main actor and a physical description? Can your remember at all?

HairyMcLarie · 02/10/2022 12:14

Definitely try rear window and vertigo as a starter! If not the right ones they are great anyway!

99redballoonsgobyy · 02/10/2022 12:16

was it a black & white film op?. Does he see his own funeral procession pass by through the window as he's lay in a hospital bed?. I have memories of a film like, very hitchcock style but I remember it scared me a bit that's why I remember it. no idea what it was called. I remember getting up in the night and switching the TV on and it was on.

QuietNeighbour · 02/10/2022 12:16

Sounds like Spellbound to me

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Watchkeys · 02/10/2022 12:20

Dimsumbun · 02/10/2022 12:12

Accent of the main actor and a physical description? Can your remember at all?

He was American, very smart, with that sort of clipped, Englishy version of an American accent. Don't remember what he looked like, though, which would really help to narrow it down Confused

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DoingJustFine · 02/10/2022 12:23

It sounds like an episode of the Twilight Zone. (I'm not thinking if a specific episode; the plot just has that kind of feel.)

inheritanceshiteagain · 02/10/2022 12:26

sounds like Cary Grant to me
the actor that is

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Watchkeys · 02/10/2022 12:28

inheritanceshiteagain · 02/10/2022 12:26

sounds like Cary Grant to me
the actor that is

Yeah, I get that feel too, or Jimmy Stewart... that kind of very dignified, well groomed, well spoken feel...

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TamzinTotally · 02/10/2022 12:42

Jimmy Stewart has a broken leg in Hitchcocks rear window - but there is no fantastical dreams coming true element to the movie, it’s not a fantasy in any way, just a real world thriller.

Perhaps you were confused because in the movie Stewart sleeps a lot as he’s just hanging out in his bed/chair with a broken leg spying on his neighbour who had killed his wife out his window. Sometimes he wakes up and his neighbour is doing something suspicious.

Grace Kelly is also in it and she really is the most glamorous woman of all time (but still very likeable and witty). Grace to me is easily better than Marilyn as far as big name 50’s starlets go.

Halsall · 02/10/2022 14:46

This is a good challenge for film fans, @Watchkeys . Can you say roughly when you would have watched it originally, so we can perhaps think of films of nearer that time, as opposed to classic Hollywood (ie ones likely to star Stewart/Grant etc).

Or are you quite confident it was a 40s-50s Hollywood-style film?

As PPS have said, James Stewart does have a broken leg in Rear Window, and there is a scene where he’s asleep and drowsily wakes to see Grace Kelly looming towards him for a kiss, looking drop-dead gorgeous ((Hitchcock possibly enjoyed that shot a bit too much 😉).

He’s also in Vertigo and doesn’t have a broken leg, but does walk with a stick sometimes, and does have a nightmare sequence where he dreams about the woman he’s obsessed with - This one
Ring any bells?

Halsall · 02/10/2022 14:47

Sorry! Just saw that you answered upthread as to when you saw it. 1983. So do you think it could have maybe been a 70s or 60s film?

QuietNeighbour · 02/10/2022 14:54

Still think Spellbound (Gregory Peck)with the famous dream sequence by Dali, but another one with dreamlike premonitions is the vignette film Dead of Night ((Michael Redgrave)

twistylittlegirl · 02/10/2022 15:16

Nightmare 1956. It was a hypnotist who committed the murders.

Incrediblebuttrue · 02/10/2022 15:23

Dream messages points to Spellbound (Gregory Peck is just so beautiful in this, even if it's not your film it's worth watching!) A broken leg could be Rear Window (James Stewart is just so beautiful in this, even if it's not your film it's worth watching!) It's not North by Nortwest but James Mason and Cary Grant......you get the idea.

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Watchkeys · 03/10/2022 12:23

@Incrediblebuttrue

If it's not any of those, I'll let you know what it is, when I find out. I think you might be interested in the lead character!

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