| Multiple Mirror Effects in Movies | ||
Fear in the Night (1946) |
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| Spoiler Alert ! Some of these pictures and descriptions may give away plot details that you might not want to know before watching the film. |
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The movie begins begins with Vince, a bank teller, describing a nightmare that we see on screen. We hear his voiceover: "At first, all I could see was this face coming toward me. Then I saw the room, a queer mirrored room, and somehow I was inside it. There was danger there. I knew that. I wanted to turn and run, but I couldn't. It seemed as if my brain was handcuffed, and I had to do what I'd come to do." We see him in a mirrored room with a woman and a man who fights with him until Vince kills him. When he wakes up, he suspects that the dream really happened. Upset because he thinks he murdered someone, and wanting to find clues that will lead him to the truth, Vince tries to find out where the mirrored room is. He puts an ad in the paper saying he wants to buy or lease "...a house with an octagonal mirrored-paneled room or alcove. Location, size secondary... " for sentimental reasons. We see the mirrored room two more times, first after Vince goes on a picnic in the country with his girlfriend, his sister, and her husband Cliff, a police detective. When it starts pouring rain, they go into a mansion to get dry. Vince knew the mansion was there, but didn't remember why he knew it. He and Cliff go upstairs into the mirrored room where they find some dried blood. This leads Cliff to suspect that Vince really did murder a man. We see the room a third time after Cliff brings Vince there to confront the actual murderer, the man who hypnotized Vince. The mirror scenes start at about 1:34, 28:50, and 57: 38. This was remade as "Nighmare" in 1956 by the same director and screenwriter and basically the same plot but with different character names. |
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