This is a pretty good movie which makes about 1 3/4hours pass quickly. However, it seemed to me that the producers began to become concerned about the expense at about the 1 hour 40 minute mark and told the director to wrap it up, which he did. The total time spent on the denouement was no more than 5 minutes.

This movie certainly deserves to be called an action movie, albeit a 1965 action movie.Gregory Peck stars in this hidden gem, other notables such as Kevin McCarthy ("Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), George Kennedy ("Airport", "Cool Hand Luke"), Walter Matthau ("The Taking of Pelham 123", "Hopscotch") and even a small walk-on by Franklin Cover ("The Jeffersons" TV Series). This is one of five movies that George Kennedy and Walter Matthau overlap on. I like both actors, so this movie got instant extra points.The movie has the tone of a Rod Serling Screenplay. Its very reminiscent in style to "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or the "Twilight Zone", addressing nuclear war, world peace, civil liberties and other humanistic themes. Its not a cowboy movie where a guy gets shot and the main characters just step over the dead guy.The story revolves around a physiochemist who invents a way to eliminate nuclear fallout and radiation. He realizes that big business will use it to make nuclear bombs get used more since the risk of fallout is what makes nuclear weapons unwise. His dedication to world peace and ending war makes him decide to make the formula disappear. Gregory Peck's character Stillwell finds himself caught up in a case of mistaken identity, somewhat like Hitchcock's "North by Northwest" and confusion. He seems to remember some things very clearly, and other things he can't remember at all as if he had his mind wiped by hypnosis or some foul play. He continues to try and unravel how the events surrounding the disappearance of this formula and the death of a noted leader for world peace have in common. He goes to the police, who are uninterested in the case since he can't remember key elements about himself like where he is from. He goes to a psychiatrist who tells him that his story and symptoms are unbelievable. He then contacts a private detective named Caselle played by Walter Matthau who tries to help him, after Caselle decides that Stillwell's incredible story may be true. All the while a mysterious woman named Shela, played by Diane Baker who seems to know more about Stillwell than he does keeps dropping in, seemingly to keep Stillwell out of (or in) even more serious trouble.The acting is excellent, the story excellent. The ending is a little questionable, but obviously somebody's allegorical message about war or not submitting to authority. Well worth watching.

David Stillwell (Gregory Peck) makes his way down several flights of stairs in the dark after the lights suddenly go out in his office building. He is accompanied by an attractive woman (Diane Baker). Thanks to his flashlight, he can see her, but she can't see him. Still, she assumes she knows him by his voice and talks to him about someone named The Major, as if he should know who that is. The day becomes stranger when he gets outside the building and discovers that someone has apparently committed suicide by jumping out of a window. And then, when he gets to his apartment building, things get dangerous. Within the next two days, David will encounter a chubby gunman (Jack Weston), a rude maintenance man with horn-rimmed glasses (George Kennedy), an abrasive psychiatrist (Robert H. Harris, giving an off-putting performance) and an inexperienced but shrewd private detective (Walter Matthau). He'll also meet up again and again with the attractive woman. Most important, he'll encounter himself - because who he thinks he is and who he really is are two different things.The opening ten minutes of this mystery-thriller, directed by Edward Dmytryk, promise a great ride. But the story is structured so that things become murkier - rather than more tantalizing - as it progresses, until there are so many bizarre circumstances to explain that we're pretty sure by the end we won't believe the explanation or care. The likable Diane Baker, a girl-next-door type, is all wrong for a character who should be mysterious. Quincy Jones's awful score sounds like TV movie pap, further interfering with our pleasure.

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 ****