SteinMo What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

mark.waltz Everybody has had a dream where they woke up believing it to either be true, a flashback to the past (forgotten or barely remembered), or a prediction for the future. For musician Kevin McCarthy, he seems to believe that he's a murderer, and evidence points to it being true. So who does he turn to confide his fears? His police investigator brother-in-law Edward G. Robinson, that's who. Clues include a tiny piece of metal, an abandoned house in the country where a murder did occur and several weird people who were either the victims, witnesses to McCarthy being around and a strange neighbor with a cough drop fetish. It's up to Robinson to put all the pieces together so he can either turn McCarthy in or pursue other suspects or theories.As a later made film noir, this wisely uses some standard plot devices including a large closet with an abundance of mirrors, a few spooky dream sequences and every day props that are used for evil and some jazzy songs that seem to be indicating the dark worlds that McCarthy has entered because of his alleged involvements in these murders. Even the supporting characters (Connie Russell as McCarthy's jazz singing girlfriend, Virginia Christine as his sister and Rhys Williams as the cough drop popping neighbor) have neurosis that come into play as the plot moves along.Previously filmed as the even lower budget "Fear in the Night", this is one of those remakes that is equivalent in quality to the original, and in some ways, even better. McCarthy isn't getting any favors from his brother-in-law as Robinson threatens to turn him in as he learns more. I got the impression that Robinson does this to get McCarthy to realize the truth and thus be able to clear him if he can. The ending is thrilling, keeping the audience on the edge of their seat, biting nails as the tension grows. Well worth searching for, this is the stuff that film noir's fans dreams are made of.

writers_reign Let's begin by getting the few squawks out of the way; for no discernible reason the story is set in New Orleans yet not one single person in the cast employs a Southern accent or indeed anything other than an Eastern accent of the kind we'd expect to find in Manhattan. New Orleans of course is celebrated as the cradle of jazz and protagonist Kevin McCarthy is indeed a muso BUT he plays clarinet in a large SWING orchestra - led, in fact, by the great Billy May who also has a speaking role and plays trumpet, as he did in real life. Nothing wrong with that, in fact in my case it's a bonus EXCEPT New Orleans is synonymous with Dixieland and a Swing outfit on Bourbon Street would be like Turnip Greens at the Four Seasons. Those cavils to one side we're left with a taut, nourish entry which holds the attention all the way.

kidboots Pine-Thomas (the 2 Dollar Bills) certainly got their money's worth out of the William Irish (Cornell Woolrich) story "Nightmare". Back in 1947 they made it as "Fear in the Night" with a young Deforest Kelly ("Bones" from the original "Star Trek" series) making an impressive debut and veteran Paul Kelly as his brother in law. It was a case of really there is nothing to separate these two fine films (unusually Maxwell Shane wrote and directed both films) with "Nightmare" being equally impressive and having the edge in production values and being set in an interesting jazz environment "way down yonder in New Orleans". In the earlier film Kelly was his usual edgy, angsty self while Robinson rounded out his characterization by being a very motivated cop (shades of "Double Indemnity").Kevin McCarthy is just fantastic and I couldn't agree less with the reviewer that feels he just walked through his part. He is Stan Grayson, a jazz musician, who awakes from a ghastly nightmare which took place in a room full of mirrors, convinced he has killed a man. Being stressed with work and having, that same day, some of his arrangements rejected for being too "out there" is enough to have him doubting his own mind. He goes straight to his sister (Virginia Christine), and his brother in law, Rene (Robinson) a cynical cop tells Stan his mind is suffering from overwork - even when Stan produces a key and a button that he doesn't know how he got!!!Of course things start to fall into place when, taking shelter from a fierce thunderstorm which wrecks their picnic, Stan somehow directs them to an unoccupied house in the middle of nowhere!! "I've been here before"!!! He knows where the spare key is and then shows Rene the "room of mirrors" at the top of the house. Rene then believes Stan is a cold blooded murderer who has deliberately involved his family only for sympathy but in the usual Robinson way he systematically sets about solving the case and leading to an ingenious conclusion involving Stan's meek and mild neighbour.This movie was made when Robinson's career was at it's lowest ebb, he had had a run in with the H.U.A.A.C and felt after that a lot of the work he was given was mediocre. Viewing the movies now, a lot of them were better than the As (Cecil B. DeMille etc) of the time and Robinson's performances are among his best. Marian Carr who played the blonde vamp Stan encounters when he is trying to retrace his steps had a pretty uneventful career, considering the promise and the big things that were expected from her when she first went to Hollywood. She was voted "Miss Insomnia" as the starlet voted most likely to keep men from their sleep!!! but after "Nightmare" her career was over!!

Larry1230 I saw this movie several years ago, and it scared me plenty. It used to run a lot on late night tv, but I haven't seen it in years. I'm surprised AMC doesn't pick it up with its' film noir series.